Now that BMW is launching the new F10 model 5 Series I thought it would be a good time to look at the outgoing 5 series as I recently had the opportunity to have a go in one a few days back.

The 5 series in question was a 2006 E60 M Sport body kitted 530i with a 268bhp straight six engine (2006 models had new magnesium/aluminum crankcase but without Electronic throttle like the 2007 models), 18 inch 245/40/18 tires and was just purchased by this pal of mine through a grey importer. It had 40,000km (supposedly) on its clock and was in a dark midnight blue colour. It has to be said that I do not like the over designed style of this current 5 series. At least it is not like the previous generation 7 series which had too many lines going everywhere and made that car look very incoherent in design.

But enough about how the car looks. I drove the 530i through a mix of downtown lunch-hour traffic jam as well as elevated highways and normal three lane expressways for a few hours and we ended up at a tire shop to get a fresh set for tires for the car. This was due to the fact that the car was sitting at some Japanese port as well as a Malaysian port for long periods of time and the tires had flat-spotted. The change to fresh tires as well as getting rid of those standard run flat rubbish made the car a whole lot better. But more on that later.

Hopping into a BMW is like getting into any of the big three German car manufacturers. The usage of leather, wood and plastic is more or less the same but it is in my opinion that among Audi, Mercedes and BMW, the former two make better interiors than the latter. There