The World's Best Sport Sedan?Having chosen the previous M5 as one of my all-time favourite cars,
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| The new M5 has all the ingredients to make the perfect sports sedan. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
not necessarily for its styling but definitely due to its combination of mind-blowing performance and family functionality, I had high hopes for BMW's all-new, all-powerful replacement. And, for the most part, the sport sedan company didn't let me down, but it's a very different animal from any previous M5.
Instead of a hands-on super-sedan, that reacts intuitively to both subtle and climactic input from a skilled driver via a nicely weighted conventional rack and pinion steering system, powerful four-wheel disc brakes, a velvety smooth six-speed
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| M5 badge is even more revered than BMW's roundel. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
manual transmission and a well-modulated clutch pedal, plus sporty bucket seats with seat hugging side-bolsters, and an ideally balanced fully-independent suspension setup that made the old midsize super-sedan feel like a pocket-sized sports car, the all-new 2007 model delivers superior steering, even more powerful four-wheel discs complemented by a number of three-letter acronym-dubbed electronic aids, a state-of-the-art 7-speed SMG sequential-manual gearbox, sporty buckets with active side-bolsters, and an active suspension system that makes it hard to put a wheel out of place. Truly, it's better than the old M5 in every way, and depending on the eye of the beholder, is a lot more visually stimulating and therefore more supercar-like to look at.
Yes, to put it bluntly, I'm blown away with the new M5. It's stunning
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| Flaming surfaces... you be the judge. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
to the eyes, and like its regular 5-Series donor car breaks almost every conventional styling rule on its way to obliterating the previous, rather boring but still "girl next door" attractive design from the memory banks. I know that not everyone agrees with me on this subject, so I'll leave you with your own thoughts regarding BMW's not-so-new-anymore flaming surface design language. The regular 5 has been as sharply criticized on the inside, but once again I found the M5's interior wonderfully accommodating and updated carbon fibre trim perfectly suited to what is once again one the world's most powerful sedans.
When I sat inside, I did what I normally do with modern luxury cars
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| Xenon headlamps are standard on the M5. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
and played around with the many buttons. First of all, I'm not really a gadget freak. Truly, while I own a new Bluetooth-equipped Blackberry and one of the smallest "real" laptops in existence, complete with a 2.0 GHz M-chip and a gig of ram, etc, etc, I'm hardly an early adaptor and could care less if my cellphone doesn't take photos or play mp3s. The only reason I fiddle around with the many buttons on a sport or luxury car is to figure out what they all do, so that I can report on their general functionality to you, the prospective buyer. What I'd rather do is ignore the techno-gadgetry altogether, and just drive. The problem with, and I suppose benefit to the M5 is that making a few adjustments to its electronics system can make a big difference to how it performs.
