Day 7: BMW-on-demand: M5
BMW has had this program at the Welt for a while and is now bringing it to the States. I hope it does well here since it lets you really test out these cars for a reasonable fee. After signing our lives away, we went downstairs to the garage where we were introduced to our ride for the next 2 hours. An Alpine White F10 M5 (with 21000 miles on the odometer already) with what I think is the Cohiba Brown Individual Interior and this nasty Dark Red Sycamore Wood trim. Sorry, wood trim is fine on an S Class or 7, but it just does not fit the personality of this car, imo. After getting shown how to turn on the car, how the iDrive works, and that you can program the suspension, gear shifts, etc. (I was about to tell the guy I read bimmerpost and that I knew all this, but I just let him do his job), we got in and hit the Autobahn. My friend keeps asking me what I think of this car, and its hard to describe, so I guess I'll have him read this post. I've driven the F10 550i, and I've driven the E60 M5 and E92 M3. The ride on comfort was fairly comfortable, but that may be more because of the quality of the German Roads then because of the car. The gear shifts were smooth at speed, but if you leave it on sport and are just cruising, it can get a little jarring. The fit and finish of the car was impeccable and save for some very slight vibrations at 155mph, the car drove amazing. The acceleration was unlike anything I'd ever experienced, as were the brakes. I can just imagine how good the Carbon Brakes will feel. The HUD was very useful, since it also shows you the speed limit, or conversely, when you are on a derestricted section of the Autobahn. Since we only had the car for two hours, we decided to go the Munich Airport Spotting Hill, see the view and then head back to the Welt. It worked out well, since the drive to the airport took a good 40 minutes each way, and it took us through some derestricted parts of the Autobahn. The car was sublime, and easily the best car I've driven. I'm sad I had to give her up. The only negatives I can say is that BMW must not take very good care of these cars. The vibrations at high speeds were apparently caused by the front tires, which had 20% tread left; and twice a warning came up saying the engine oil was low. I made sure to tell this to the agents who helped us, although neither caused the drive to be anything less then enjoyable and amazing. If any of you can participate in this amazing program, I say go for it. For about $200 with gas, we got to drive an M5 for two hours, and those two hours were pretty freaking incredible!
