my new 550i M-Sport.

I've had a 540i for about a year and a half now, and have just recently purchased this beautiful 2010 550i M Sport with 40,000 miles on it and is warranted until 100,000 including maintenance such as brakes, oil changes, etc. cost me right around 47k after tax.

Check it out for yourself (not the best pictures but a quick look):

Here's my E39 540i with OEM M5 kit and below the 550

Congratulations on the purchase! Interested in hearing your perspective driving characteristic differences between the two models.

Both very nice looking BMWs .I would Blk out the kidney grills on both to take some of the bling out. You can now buy them Black. Maybe go LED Halo s . Cars like these give one incentive to travel by car.

I thought M sport has the paddle shifter on the steering?

Originally Posted by v8power

I thought M sport has the paddle shifter on the steering?

M-Sport package but no sport transmission? If that's the case, that has to be pretty rare.

Beautiful machine! Is that Monaco Blue? I had a MBlue 07 550. It's a great color either way. You first and perhaps only matter of business is calling Trinity Auto Sports and getting matte black kidney grills. When I had my 07 550 I put these on and it was beautiful. Do it, you wont regret it.

I'm always torn as to whether or not to get a tint. These cars are so perfect, you want to be seen in them, but the privacy and anonimity of a tint is pretty nice to have too. You'll be fine either way.

And finally, this is the truth:

Originally Posted by luckydog

Cars like these give one incentive to travel by car.

Good evening everyone, thanks for the kind works about this new car.

The color of this vehicle is not black. It is called Carbon Black and it's really not black at all, it has a dark navy/blue color to it, really beautiful at night and during the day. I LOVE the 19 inch wheels on this! Just Beautiful!

Going from 280 HP to 370HP is a big jump of course, but that is not why I bought this car, if this did not have the M-sport package, i definitely would NOT have purchased it. This car is really well made. If you think the E39 is a great guy, think again. This is by far the best BMW i have ever driven. (i've driven M5's Z4's Z8's, 3 series, new 3 series) This is one sweet machine.

The handling absolutely superb, you really don't even feel like you're driving. The navigation and rear heated seats make this car complete. Acceleration is truly phenomenal.

I know some of you are not very big fans of E60's and I was the same, i never thought once I would buy an E60, if you read my old posts, you'll find me talking about how ugly i thought he E60 was, but i guess it grew on me.

Steering is much firmer than the E39, which I think makes a BMW a BMW. Without the steering, I don't think anyone would be here on this board.

To conclude this post. If you are looking for a car this IS IT. an Overall beauty, power, sporty, luxury, classy, Just perfect! I take my hat off for BMW.

a picture at night:

Beautiful I love it !

I also have a carbon black 550 XI Msport, and I love it!

I also went from an e39(2003 530i) to an e60 550i with the sport package. I bought both cars with manual transmissions. The 530i is a great car, but the e60 550i with the 6 speed manual makes all the difference in the world. The extra 135 horsepower is intoxicating. Congratulations on your 550i. I am sure that you will enjoy your car for years to come. By the way, don't let BMW convince you that you can go 15,000 miles without an oil change. Change it every 5000-7500 miles.

Great looking ride - love the interior. Congratulations!

Too bad no sport trans, it really made that car come alive. Make sure you keep a watch on those rear tires. Keep them properly inflated and if your tires are directional without having a dedicated outside/inside you will want to dismount the rubber and switch rims and sides sides( inside to outside on opposite rim). Believe me, I know this all to well, I have had 545/550 for the last 8 years and would kill the inside tread in like 10k-12k miles. You will also want to look at getting a winter setup for that car. If that has summers, you will not want to drive that in the snow at all. It is not safe or fun.

Originally Posted by v8power

I thought M sport has the paddle shifter on the steering?

I think the SAT with paddle shifters was a $500 option starting in 2008..

Originally Posted by gcvt

Great looking ride - love the interior. Congratulations!

Do you have any more pics of your car anywhere?

SAT was a 500 option but I thought the 10MY SAT was std with the M-Sport option(which technically M-sport did not officially exist til 2009. Prior to 2009 it was just sport). I wonder if there was the SAT delete option?

Originally Posted by MRV99

SAT was a 500 option but I thought the 10MY SAT was std with the M-Sport option(which technically M-sport did not officially exist til 2009. Prior to 2009 it was just sport). I wonder if there was the SAT delete option?

Nah, it doesn't seem like it was ever standard with the Sport/MSport pkgs...always stand-alone....
http://www.edmunds.com/bmw/5-series/...tyle=101166702
http://consumerguideauto.howstuffwor...5-series-8.htm

Great score, congrats.

Now for the mods if you are so inclined.

LED Angel Eyes
M5 trunk lip spoiler
LED side markers
Speaker upgrade, especially if you have L7
Eibach springs

Pretty minor and no big rush while you enjoy the upgrade.
I had the same 540i Sport with M5 bumper before I went to the dark side with my tuned 535 (which looks like a 550i Sport.)

Originally Posted by Vandalay

Do you have any more pics of your car anywhere?

PM sent

Originally Posted by Oceans10

Great score, congrats.

Now for the mods if you are so inclined.

LED Angel Eyes
M5 trunk lip spoiler
LED side markers
Speaker upgrade, especially if you have L7
Eibach springs

Pretty minor and no big rush while you enjoy the upgrade.
I had the same 540i Sport with M5 bumper before I went to the dark side with my tuned 535 (which looks like a 550i Sport.)

Interesting. Can you tell me more about the L7? Speakers? I love great sound and don't know where to start.

Originally Posted by MRV99

SAT was a 500 option but I thought the 10MY SAT was std with the M-Sport option(which technically M-sport did not officially exist til 2009. Prior to 2009 it was just sport). I wonder if there was the SAT delete option?

Nope, it was always stand alone, but soo worth it (see pic)

@SolidWolf34

Heres the easy way to know if you have L7... Do you have speakers in your rear doors? If it's there it should be behind the door grab thing.

Nice car, also think about Dinan Mass Air Intake, Dinan Throttle Body and Dinan Stage III performance software upgrade...

Not everyone is a Dinan fan but I like it a lot on mine and wouldn't change the reliability, warranty or performance for anything... really wakes the lion up and takes you from 360/360 to just over 390hp and about 385tq. SUPER FAST. These are the best mods I've done!

As others have said, check out some matte black kidneys, I too have the carbonschwarz metallic and its a sick upgrade for around $100.

LED sidemarkers also update the look a bit as well as led angel eyes to match your road following bi-xenons.

Finally, I can't stress enough getting a second set of winter rims/tires if you live anywhere cold.

Have fun!

Congrats on the new 550i!!!

Congrats on the new car! Great upgrade from the E39 I have driven in a few of these and they are amazing! Are you considering any mods yet? Matte Black Kidney Grilles would clean up the front and if you really get serious..a nice set of Miro 111s would set it off! Congrats again on the 550i!

Originally Posted by Dking078

Nope, it was always stand alone, but soo worth it (see pic)

@SolidWolf34

Heres the easy way to know if you have L7... Do you have speakers in your rear doors? If it's there it should be behind the door grab thing.

The car does have L7. I went into the settings of the car and turned on L7 surround. Is L7 a good thing?

Originally Posted by SolidWolf34

Interesting. Can you tell me more about the L7? Speakers? I love great sound and don't know where to start.

L7 is a surround sound feature. It processes the sound digitally just like a home theater system. Instead of L+R stereo you feel like you sit in the middle of the sound stage, and you can choose different effects. Mine has Concert and Theater mode.
L7 processing is built into the amplifier, and in my opinion it's a very decent system. The oem speakers, however, are not the best quality. So I upgraded them with a Jehnert Flatline kit, which is plug and play/direct swap. The difference in sound is night and day. The sound is much clearer, voices sound natural, frequencies are much higher and lower. Best way to describe the improvement is that music sounds realistic, and you hear each instrument distinctly, even discover some that were drowned out earlier.
I changed the front tweeter, mid and woofers and also the mid in the center of the dash. No need to do rears as they don't add anything up front. The kit itself is around $1,000, but well worth it.
My original plan was to do a complete system overhaul including amps, processor, pre amp etc. but I found the speakers alone made such a dramatic difference that I left it at that. Both our cars have these speakers.

very nice