oregonbob
October 31st, 2003, 15:42
OK, I had fun yesterday.
My wife’s X5 4.6 was in for service at the local BMW dealer. (The car has had a few electrical/software gremlins from day 1. Kudos to the dealer and BMW NA for trying to fix the problems. Unfortunately, to date they have been unsuccessful.) I drove my wife to the BMW dealer in my RS6 to retrieve her X5.
When we went to pick up the X5, the service manager and the BMW NA area service rep came over to speak with my wife and I about the work that was done to the car. We were all standing in the service writing area and my wife and I had our backs to the parking lot. When we were finished chatting about the X5, I invited the service manager and the BMW NA rep to look at the RS6. When I turned around, I discovered about ten of the service technicians had crowded around the RS6, peeking in and under the car.
Well, I used the remote to unlock the car and invited all to have a look. What fun answering their questions. They really were an interested group wanting to learn about any high performance car, even if it was manufactured by the competition. The brakes and carbon fiber engine cover drew the most praise. Someone asked specific questions about the turbos which I could not answer. No one liked the battery in the trunk (myself included) and questioned why run flats were not standard and the spare eliminated. They were generally surprised at the engine output considering its relatively small size (a 545/745 is 4.4 liters; the M5 is 5 liters) and we discussed the merits of forced induction vs. displacement. Eventually, the crowd dispersed and I let the service manager and the BMW NA rep drive the RS6.
The service manager, who drove first, commented on the flat cornering. The BMW rep commented that Audi’s DRC is comparable to BMW’s Active Roll Stabilization. I suppose that’s a reasonable analogy. They liked the steering and felt that car was very stable. The BMW rep mentioned the new BMW Active Steering allowed for small wheel movements to make turns at slow speeds. It sounds like a great idea but I wondered about an artificial feel. He commented on how he liked the RS6 steering. This is interesting because, despite the front wheel drive nature of the RS6, I like its rack and pinion steering feel over the M5’s recirculating ball but BMW is often lauded for their great steering feel while Audi is often criticized for numb steering. Hummm. (I expect the E60 M5 to be rack and pinion.)
I mentioned turbo lag and the service manager commented that he thought the turbo lag was very minimal and the car made loads of low end torque, even compared to an M5. He liked the paddle shifters and seemed to like that marriage of the turbo engine with the auto transmission. We didn’t do any high speed driving, just some neighborhood road stuff. But, I think it is fair to say all were impressed. We even joked that BMW needs to look at the RS6 while it finalizes the E60 M5 design. The BMW rep said he was sure that would be done – if not already complete.
I had previously been provided an internal BMW email that stated the E60 M5 would not be available until September 2005. The BMW NA rep insisted in would be available in 2004. Guess time will tell.
I am quite proud of the RS6. And, I am very impressed with the professionalism of the BMW folks. It made for a fun and pleasant day – even though we later discovered the X5 updates did not solve our gremlin problem.
Oh well, that’s another post.
Bob
My wife’s X5 4.6 was in for service at the local BMW dealer. (The car has had a few electrical/software gremlins from day 1. Kudos to the dealer and BMW NA for trying to fix the problems. Unfortunately, to date they have been unsuccessful.) I drove my wife to the BMW dealer in my RS6 to retrieve her X5.
When we went to pick up the X5, the service manager and the BMW NA area service rep came over to speak with my wife and I about the work that was done to the car. We were all standing in the service writing area and my wife and I had our backs to the parking lot. When we were finished chatting about the X5, I invited the service manager and the BMW NA rep to look at the RS6. When I turned around, I discovered about ten of the service technicians had crowded around the RS6, peeking in and under the car.
Well, I used the remote to unlock the car and invited all to have a look. What fun answering their questions. They really were an interested group wanting to learn about any high performance car, even if it was manufactured by the competition. The brakes and carbon fiber engine cover drew the most praise. Someone asked specific questions about the turbos which I could not answer. No one liked the battery in the trunk (myself included) and questioned why run flats were not standard and the spare eliminated. They were generally surprised at the engine output considering its relatively small size (a 545/745 is 4.4 liters; the M5 is 5 liters) and we discussed the merits of forced induction vs. displacement. Eventually, the crowd dispersed and I let the service manager and the BMW NA rep drive the RS6.
The service manager, who drove first, commented on the flat cornering. The BMW rep commented that Audi’s DRC is comparable to BMW’s Active Roll Stabilization. I suppose that’s a reasonable analogy. They liked the steering and felt that car was very stable. The BMW rep mentioned the new BMW Active Steering allowed for small wheel movements to make turns at slow speeds. It sounds like a great idea but I wondered about an artificial feel. He commented on how he liked the RS6 steering. This is interesting because, despite the front wheel drive nature of the RS6, I like its rack and pinion steering feel over the M5’s recirculating ball but BMW is often lauded for their great steering feel while Audi is often criticized for numb steering. Hummm. (I expect the E60 M5 to be rack and pinion.)
I mentioned turbo lag and the service manager commented that he thought the turbo lag was very minimal and the car made loads of low end torque, even compared to an M5. He liked the paddle shifters and seemed to like that marriage of the turbo engine with the auto transmission. We didn’t do any high speed driving, just some neighborhood road stuff. But, I think it is fair to say all were impressed. We even joked that BMW needs to look at the RS6 while it finalizes the E60 M5 design. The BMW rep said he was sure that would be done – if not already complete.
I had previously been provided an internal BMW email that stated the E60 M5 would not be available until September 2005. The BMW NA rep insisted in would be available in 2004. Guess time will tell.
I am quite proud of the RS6. And, I am very impressed with the professionalism of the BMW folks. It made for a fun and pleasant day – even though we later discovered the X5 updates did not solve our gremlin problem.
Oh well, that’s another post.
Bob