Originally Posted by Mr. Mercedes

Lucky guys...I dream of the day I get to drive the top line BMW's, Mercedes and Audis.

Originally Posted by Porsche Guy

I've spent over a month driving the new M5 in a wide variety of situations so I would like to add my thoughts on the car.

The M5 makes everything you do feel special. Just as Matt said, there is an unique atmosphere about the car. I could spend all day just looking at it. Silverstone II is really a wonderful color; it's basically a really light blue with some silver which just gives the car something extra. It stands out just enough in this sea of silver cars we live in. I want all my cars to be Silverstone II! Whenever I get inside, I get excited. It's like I'm 5 again and in a toy store. Everything in the car is covered in (white and I love it!) leather and the driving position is quite good with seats that have more controls than I could ever need. Heads up display is a nice touch and I've found i-drive very intuitive, sooo much better than MB's command. Everything is just like you would expect. Driving around is fun and in P400 it feels just like any other car, although SMG in auto is painfully stupid and slow (such a disappointment). When you hit the M mode everything changes the car really wakes up, of course this all depends upon how you set up M mode. Flooring it with everything set to the max is certainly fun, but you can't drive like that all the time. In normal driving, M mode is more of a hassle than anything else as the throttle is too sensitive for slow driving. Yes, I could change from P500 Sport to just P500, which gives me all 500hp but lessens the throttle (same as P400/default), but let's put our egos aside for a minute and just admit that we don't need 500hp for most situations. I would proclaim the M5 to be king as far as daily drivers go. Nothing can touch it in terms of versatility.

This wonderful versatility comes at a price. While the M5 is very accomplished people need to understand that this car is a tank. Great suspension, a powerful engine and everything else can only do so much to overcome physics/inertia and the fact that the car weighs 4,000+ lbs. This car will kill you if you're not careful. 500hp gets things moving quickly. Sure, flooring it on the freeway and weaving around traffic is one thing, but pushing it through backcountry roads (with an e36 M3 on your bumper) is quite a different story. (Let me just say that the e36 M3 is damn fast on the windy stuff as it's over a 1,000 lbs lighter than the M5) The M5 does a great job concealing its weight and can certainly pull hard on the straights but you know you're boarding on the laws of physics when you try and push it just as hard through a turn. I've had a couple of experiences where DSC has come in quite handy. Moral of the story, I like the M5 more on the highway than on the backcountry stuff, which is expected. However I get the feeling that a lot of people would consider this car neck and neck with an F430 or something of that nature in any environment, which just isn't the case. The M5 is amazing sedan, but it's still just a sedan no matter what you do to it.

Originally Posted by Porsche Guy

All US M5's are 2006 models which means they have the starter button, but you still have to put the key in the ignition for it to work. Matt has keyless ignition so (as I understand it) he doesn't have to put the key in the ignition for the starter button to work.