Quote:
Originally Posted by N1rve
I've always seen the M5 as someone who has too much money and wanted a comfortable M car, wanted the M badge, and wanted a really fast sedan.
I almost never hear people go "OMG It's an M5!" or "I really want an M5". I mostly hear this about M3 from where I come from.  |
By too much money, do you mean more than you have? The same thing could be said of the M3/4 or any BMW for that matter.
The M5 has been a different design ethos since its inception. From the beginning there has been no exterior difference from a standard 5 series. This is to allow it to fly under the radar so that an executive or sales professional can drive an incredibly capable car without drawing a lot of attention.
The M3 started as a homologation special without any regard for daily driving and had fender flares and improved aerodynamics specifically because they could not change any bodywork for the race series. It also used a 4 cylinder motor based on their F1 block because it was stiffer than the 6 cylinder and could handle a 10K rpm redline in race trim. Again they did this because they had to use the stock engine block in the race cars. The requirement was that they had to sell 5,000 road cars to qualify, which BTW was incredibly difficult and they sat for 12 to 18 months on dealer lots.
All that being said, there are a lot of people that aspire to own an M5, they are just not the age that jump up and down about it. Also the current M5 is much closer to the original intention compared to the M3 which has gone from a race car on the street to a fast comfortable street car.