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Originally Posted by MEDISIN
Congratulations! Hard to go wrong with a M5. I did European delivery with a friend when he ordered his M3. A little pretentious for me but to each his own. He still drives around with his EU plate on the front. 
Cadillac has the V-Series Academy btw. Fly to Las Vegas, pick up your Caddy and do the performance driving course.
I'm glad the purchase process has gone so well. I suppose when you're spending north of $100k on a car you should expect it. I sincerely hope your maintenance and warranty experience is trouble-free. Those oil pump failures left a lot of new M5's parked on dealer lots for weeks waiting for parts. A family friend of ours got so frustrated waiting to drive his two-month old M5, he traded it for a Panamera Turbo!
European press and awards always go to European vehicles as they represent 90%+ of the market there. We have much more in terms of offerings and selection here which makes competition fierce and reviews more critical. It's a big, powerful performance sedan, no question. It just felt too much like a big luxury sedan with more HP and not the driver-engaged, sharp handling car of previous generations. It's straight-line speed is staggering, yet it's still over a second slower around VIR than the V sedan and coupe from 5 years ago.
http://www.caranddriver.com/features...o-2013-page-10
As for styling it's entirely subjective. I tend to find most German interiors an austere place to be. Nothing particularly interesting about them. Then Jaguar releases the new XJ and that interior is a revelation in my mind! We like what we like. I happen to think the new CTS is much more sophisticated looking design that appeals to me more than the last generation did. Yet it still follows in the "Art and Science" design language. Curious to see how "aggressive" the next V comes to look. I suppose the ATS-V will give us a clue.
Don't get me wrong, we've owned several German cars over the years and two British as well. We liked them very much. But the poor reliability, the costly repairs, the nickle-and-diming by the service departments, we just got tired of things NOT working when we needed them to work.
The second car on our list was the E63 AMG which at the time was a bit slower than the V but the interior was the nicest place to be IMHO. It just wasn't $30,000 nicer and no maintenance, no factory backed warranty for track use. It just didn't pull on us the way the V did. Didn't help that my wife had bad experiences with MB in the past.
Everyone I've talked to that has done the delivery in SC for the performance school has had a great time. Post some pics of the car and the burnt rubber on your rear quarter panels!! |
Your not to far from me, maybe we can get together and trade some some seat time once the M5 comes in. I ordered with the competition pkg, and I may have the Mperformance exhaust added at port. Maybe a track day with the German Beast will woo you back to the FatherLand :big grin:
We are leasing, so if there are any long term problems, the next owner can enjoy them. For interiors, the CTS just has so little variety. The cue system (not going to knock it, because I don't have much time with it) looks out of place with the wood and leather. There are only a couple of veneer choices, and to me, the ATS pulls off the interior better
Like you, I was never a big fan of european interiors. One of the biggest strikes for the E63 was to me, its long in the tooth interior. If the E63 had the new S class interior game over. The LCI interior in the 2014 M5 is perfect, and I love the seat message for long trips. The B&O sound system is world class, and there is nothing on the market better than Idrive (even Liberman had to agree). Add to that no maintenance (not even brake pads) and it just ran away with the contest.
Take a look at this video (I know its in German) but the points at the end on reliability make a lot of sense. Then spend some time on the Caddy forum, and very few like the new Caddy products. There are also lots of guys that have major issues with the new turbo engines
p.s sorry about the grammar, rushing this morning
