I finally got mine. It is beautiful. I do have a couple of concerns.
First, I am getting like 10 mpg right now. It is about half city and half highway, so I am a little surprised. This is the number the car is giving me, so it could be wrong. I rarely press the M button and am generally in P400. I am also a little disappointed with performance. But I can't and won't complain until I push the damn M button and leave it pushed.
Does the mileage improve? Does this seem low? I think I need to stop worrying and keep the M button pressed.
Second, I did drive the SMG and liked it okay before I leased the car. I didn't love it but thought I would grow to like it more. But I am not warming further to it. Even in S5, it does not make terribly quick shifts (it is clearly faster shifting than I am).
But do you get better with the SMG? Does it grow on you?
Finally, the dealer told me that break in periods really don't matter anymore. I should just take it a little easy but not worry about it. I take it that this is just wrong.
How careful should I be about pushing it and for how long?
I finally got mine. It is beautiful. I do have a couple of concerns.
First, I am getting like 10 mpg right now. It is about half city and half highway, so I am a little surprised. This is the number the car is giving me, so it could be wrong. I rarely press the M button and am generally in P400. I am also a little disappointed with performance. But I can't and won't complain until I push the damn M button and leave it pushed.
Does the mileage improve? Does this seem low? I think I need to stop worrying and keep the M button pressed.
Second, I did drive the SMG and liked it okay before I leased the car. I didn't love it but thought I would grow to like it more. But I am not warming further to it. Even in S5, it does not make terribly quick shifts (it is clearly faster shifting than I am).
But do you get better with the SMG? Does it grow on you?
Finally, the dealer told me that break in periods really don't matter anymore. I should just take it a little easy but not worry about it. I take it that this is just wrong.
How careful should I be about pushing it and for how long?
Thanks!!
Sir, what is happening here is simple, you are not pushing the beast enough. If S6 is not fast enough for you at pedal to the metal acceleration then you either had a Ferrari before (even then you should feel ur neck separating from your body) or there is something wrong with your car.
SMG is the greatest thing after pr0n. If you dont like it give it sometime and it WILL grow in you, guaranteed.
Break-in periods are important, in my experience really important, remember that seals need to be seated properly and making them over work does not help at all.
10 miles a gallon are not the norm but it should get better, if it does not try to move closer to a gas station even at 12MPG you still need to fill up every 3 days.
Setup the M as 500 sport, S6, DSC Off and then report back, I bet you are going to change your opinion about the beast.
Sir, what is happening here is simple, you are not pushing the beast enough. If S6 is not fast enough for you at pedal to the metal acceleration then you either had a Ferrari before (even then you should feel ur neck separating from your body) or there is something wrong with your car.
SMG is the greatest thing after pr0n. If you dont like it give it sometime and it WILL grow in you, guaranteed.
Break-in periods are important, in my experience really important, remember that seals need to be seated properly and making them over work does not help at all.
10 miles a gallon are not the norm but it should get better, if it does not try to move closer to a gas station even at 12MPG you still need to fill up every 3 days.
Setup the M as 500 sport, S6, DSC Off and then report back, I bet you are going to change your opinion about the beast.
The only Ferrari´s that are faster then the SMG III is 430 Scuderia and now Ferrari 458.
The end in your coment is epic
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-congratukations. You need ot share some pictures.
You should definetly abide to the break in rules and it is surprising your dealer tells you such a wrong thing. Abide to the rules and I beleive they even are on a sticker on your windscreen as well as in your manual. Abide to them and you will get a very healthy BMW M5.
Some people claim they get higher mileage than that, but my car averages about 10mpg as well.
My sales guy (who I trust as a long time "bmw guy" and instructor for BMWCCA) told me to drive it like I stole it from the beginning. So needless to say I've been on "M" mode since day 1 and didn't have any issues in the year and 12K miles that I had it.
You will need to keep an eye on your oil level and you should have negotiated a case of 10w-60 as part of your sale but if you didn't, you should definately pick a case up for the house because you can burn through a liter of oil every 700 to 1000 miles...maybe because I didn't break the car in properly.
Also, doing all the things that people have done to make the car breath easier makes a big difference in performance. Have fun!
One thing that will help the SMG be smoother is a good ECU tune on the beast.
Although the difference between the stock ECU and SMG in my '06 M5 and '08 M6 was night and day (the stock '08 was much smoother), a good ECU tune will make it even better in my opinion.
Lots of options on vendors for a ECU tune and a lot of threads about them. For the record, I have mine from ESS from the group buy last year sometime and I could not be happier with it.
__________________ Current:
2008 M6 Convertible
Sapphire Black, Portland Brown Interior
Options: all of them! ESS Software, Dinan Exhaust
I'm getting 10MPG no matter how I drive (around town anyway) in my '06 with P400 or P500. I'm about to say "screw it" and just leave it at 500 Sport Power and drive it without worrying about the fuel lack of economy. I'm shocked at how poor the MPG is but it' my hobby car so oh well.
I just set up my M-Button to 500 Sport Power, S6, DSC off. I'll try it today. I may go to 500 Power, S5, DSC M-Dynamic. It depends on if I scare the poop out of myself with the DSC off or not.
You WILL get used to SMG. I hated it at first. Once you mess around with the shif times and the car "learns" your driving style it gets better. It took me about 3 weeks to get the hang of it. You will too.
I think there was a text conducted with the M button on and off, it doesn't change how much fuel you consume. Its not like you're running on 8 cylinders in P400 mode and 10 cylinders in P500. Itjust changed throttle response. I get about 11-11.5mpg city and highway, averaged.
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2006 E60 M5 Sapphire Black
Neez QD7's Hyper Black
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ASR Cold Air Intake
Dinan 3.91 Diff
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Eisenmann Race Exhaust
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