M5

The full fat £455, unfortunately. I'll console myself that the Qashqai is zero. 

I think you just have to forget who is selling it and remember that it still has 2 years warranty.
I find that the AC owned BMW dealership in Glasgow is a nicer place to get my car serviced than the more convenient Douglas Park. Nicer in terms of telling you what they are doing and why and also not taking the car for an unauthorised blast.

Darn it. I didn't know you could get a Qashqai that was zero tax. Our Fiat 500, being a 2013 Twinair, is zero tax too. But I do enjoy that the BMW is only £195.

Fair enough.

Current shape 5 series estates in M Sport trim are getting down towards £25k.  They are significantly nicer inside and more refined/comfortable, plus have self levelling rear suspension and are better equipped as standard.

Very nice, John. Unsurprisingly, I love the colour.

John, your M5 looks tremendous. In the flesh it looks so much better than a standard 5, unlike before like with the F10. Marina Bay Blue is equally tremendous, I regularly see one and I never get bored of seeing it. Good job on the sports exhaust, it definitely sounds more special with it, and surely its the kind of car that warrants a special noise.

The Shadow Edition F30/F31's come fairly well equipped; 19 inch wheels, HK, M Sport Brakes, Comfort Pack, Sun Protection glass included. With F31 production ending soon now must be a good time to get a good discount. That 520d looks a bit meh, as all standard 5's do (imo).

The Basic Nav is a lot better than it used to be, compared to business nav when the F30 first came out. That definitely reminded you it was the boggo version.

I think I got a fantastic deal. The dealer who bought my old car reckons I could sell it for more than I paid for it - that's not happening though. The wonderful V8 sound is getting under my skin.

And the colour changes with the light and the sun from very dark to almost purple.

The roof is carbon

Yes, that's a gorgeous colour.

Stunning colour!

I took the car out last night for a run on a local A road which in parts should really be a B road. The suspension is really well set up, maintaining excellent body control with dampers which prevent any unnecessary rebound and at the same time don't destroy the ride on the bump setting. It is very composed and covers the ground more quickly that you think you are going. I had two overtakes (remembering that I have to keep it below 4500) and they were blisteringly quick even though I only used about 75% throttle. I used to overtake in the same place in my old car and the M5 made the pass in about 50yds less with so little effort and nowhere near full throttle or revs: it is going to be very fast!. There seems to be a step up when the engine hits about 4,000 because I had to back off quickly to prevent it flying for the red line.

On parts the of road I was on, I was aware of the size of the car which meant that I had to be a bit more cautious in case I met something large coming the other way but when the road widened a bit I felt much more at ease. I think it is fair to say that the car is too big to be a B road blaster but with a bit more space it is imperious.

The ride can be a bit fidgety at town speeds when the surface is poor (a Pirelli problem I think) but as soon as the speed increases everything smooths out even in the more extreme suspension settings. I have the M1 button set to sport for the engine/throttle and comfort for everything else and M2 set to Sport+ for everything apart from steering which is set at Sport. I tried both and almost felt the M2 setting rode better at times.

On the way home I attracted the wrong kind of attention from a green Scirocco who latched on to my tail just when the road got narrower with lots of blind crests, twists and turns. I had no inclination to get into any kind of race and just cruised along at a decent speed without pushing anything. He eventually showed me his headlights when he overtook in a 40mph section and disappeared at nearly twice that speed. I thought he wasn't going to make the corner at the end of the short straight but he managed by using the other side of the road too! That kind of attention, I am not going to enjoy.

I really like the layout of the dash and the wonderful voice control which as Martin has said, makes finding parts of the cars menu much easier to control. It's only a small issue but the buttons for the heated seats etc are all touch control on a symbol - it's very easy put the heated seat on before you set off but I found when I was driving and wanted to turn it down that I had to take my eyes off the road to get my finger in the right place. Call me old school but there is something very intuitive about using a car's controls by braille whilst keeping your eyes on the road and with no discernible button to press I don't believe touch screens add to road safety although I agree they look cool. The BMW's set up looks like buttons but they aren't. However you can at least glance and get an idea of where they are. Some modern cars require a whole lot of delving into the main touch screen menus which I think is a massive retrograde step.

The car is showing an average of 25.9mpg which is pretty good, the start up sound brings a smile to my face every time and the poise, control and performance are going to bring miles of enjoyment in the years to come. I think it's fair to say that given the performance I experienced last night on limited throttle and limited revs, it is unlikely I will get to use the car to the limit of its capabilities for more than a couple of seconds at a time but like all things precious, I will savour each one of them and look forward to the next.

On A roads and motorways you would never know you were driving an M car, such is the ride quality. At slow speeds you feel it more but as I sad previously, the Michelin PS4 shod cars I drove didn't exhibit any of the slow speed harshness mine can exhibit on the wrong surface. On all counts the car rides better than all variants of the E63 regardless of tyre choice.