Post by johnc on Sept 19, 2019 8:11:57 GMT
The M5 is a very comfortable car to cover distances in and it will happily cruise on the motorway with about 35mpg showing on the flat but hills do dent that a bit, averaging out about 30mpg. On an A road an average of 35mpg is easily achieved (40mpg possible) unless I pass everything I come up behind. The performance is huge and to some extent it is disguised by the car's comfort and prodigious grip. On a few occasions I have wondered if it was much faster than the 435D but I think the M5 is able to disguise its huge ability and you find yourself going much faster for much less effort than the 435D could ever have achieved. I have carried out a few experiments to help me understand just how capable the car really is:
There is a 70mph dual carriageway I use regularly which has a roundabout followed by a long uphill straight and about 150yds after the roundabout there is a layby on the left. If I stayed in my lane on the roundabout in the 435D but went as fast as I safely could (in a being sensible on the road kind of way), I was doing 70mph by the time I reached the layby. Now the scary bit: the M5 was doing 70mph before I had fully straightened the wheel leaving the roundabout. The grip the car has is amazing but it doesn't feel as though you are going as quickly as it obviously is. I had this confirmed when a hard charging Ford Focus came up behind me on a roundabout, which I took quickly but still in my lane and with no tyre squeal and he ended up understeering, having a bit of a moment and falling back whilst I felt there was no effort at all.
In acceleration, half throttle and changes up at about 4,000rpm get me the same kind of acceleration the 435D used to achieve (again I have a few markers of where I used to back off and then cruise on certain roads in the 435D and the M5 just does the same but with such ease). Last night an Audi A4 Avant 45TDi tried to accelerate past me up the inside as we joined a dual carriageway and I just floored it. Despite the fact that he was flat out and half way past me, I passed him rapidly in just a few car's lengths before I was at the speed limit when I pulled into the left and let him overtake in the normal manner and disappear at the Audi approved limit of about 90.
I try to use and enjoy the acceleration whenever I can and just sit in awe at the car's ability to corner and at the same time absorb and deal with the undulations and odd cambers you often get on the UK's A and B roads. The M engineers really do breath some magic into the suspension. The braking ability is also phenomenal and I have to watch in my mirror to modulate my braking so that the guy behind doesn't run into me. At 30mph it feels as though the car would stop almost in its own length.
I am enjoying the comfort and the effortless performance whilst trying to re-calibrate in my own head, what a road car is capable of: its capabilities are way beyond those of any "ordinary" car I have driven.
There is a 70mph dual carriageway I use regularly which has a roundabout followed by a long uphill straight and about 150yds after the roundabout there is a layby on the left. If I stayed in my lane on the roundabout in the 435D but went as fast as I safely could (in a being sensible on the road kind of way), I was doing 70mph by the time I reached the layby. Now the scary bit: the M5 was doing 70mph before I had fully straightened the wheel leaving the roundabout. The grip the car has is amazing but it doesn't feel as though you are going as quickly as it obviously is. I had this confirmed when a hard charging Ford Focus came up behind me on a roundabout, which I took quickly but still in my lane and with no tyre squeal and he ended up understeering, having a bit of a moment and falling back whilst I felt there was no effort at all.
In acceleration, half throttle and changes up at about 4,000rpm get me the same kind of acceleration the 435D used to achieve (again I have a few markers of where I used to back off and then cruise on certain roads in the 435D and the M5 just does the same but with such ease). Last night an Audi A4 Avant 45TDi tried to accelerate past me up the inside as we joined a dual carriageway and I just floored it. Despite the fact that he was flat out and half way past me, I passed him rapidly in just a few car's lengths before I was at the speed limit when I pulled into the left and let him overtake in the normal manner and disappear at the Audi approved limit of about 90.
I try to use and enjoy the acceleration whenever I can and just sit in awe at the car's ability to corner and at the same time absorb and deal with the undulations and odd cambers you often get on the UK's A and B roads. The M engineers really do breath some magic into the suspension. The braking ability is also phenomenal and I have to watch in my mirror to modulate my braking so that the guy behind doesn't run into me. At 30mph it feels as though the car would stop almost in its own length.
I am enjoying the comfort and the effortless performance whilst trying to re-calibrate in my own head, what a road car is capable of: its capabilities are way beyond those of any "ordinary" car I have driven.
