The BMW M5 is one of the best cars in the world. There are very few others that can offer the same compelling blend of style, luxury, comfort and all out speed. It is a car that has never failed to captivate us, what with the way it switches from cocooning chamber of serenity to apex crushing sports car with a healthy tip of the throttle. M5 owners have always been proud of the way that they can drive their car to a race track, spend the day lapping and then head for home in contentment. There may be some that go faster and others that grip harder, but few tie it all together the way the M5 has been doing throughout its history.
Despite the jack-of-all-trades vibe the M5 gives off, some might find it a bit too much as a daily driver. Even dialed back into Comfort mode, the M5 always feels like its muscles are constantly coiled, ready to leap forward in the pursuit of relentless acceleration. And as utterly capable as the M5 is, doesn’t it feel a little wasteful to have all that performance potential go more or less to waste when you are doing the kind of routine driving done by a typical motorist?
M car diehards will be plugging their ears and singing loudly, not wanting to hear anymore heresy. But if you have ever driven an M5, you likely see our point.
For those that want their upper echelon 5-series experience in 2% flavor rather than heavy cream, BMW has just the car for you; meet the M550i. We say meet, because the general consensus we gleaned from passersby, friends and neighbours was that of total unfamiliarity- they had no idea what it was, and in their defence you hardly see ‘em around.
We have always liked the shape of the current 5-series, and this particular example was trotted out wearing Frozen Black paint ($4,500) which gave it an understated yet sinister vibe. Wearing a set of attractive multispoke 20” wheels, it turned heads and we noted that more than a few people walked to the back end to see the model designation. We found it looked particularly fetching at night, with its LED lighting fore and aft piecing the darkness.
Inside, it’s the last hurrah for the interior that the M550 (and all other 5-series, for that matter) with respect to the current iDrive version and the hard buttons that pepper the dash and console. The former we look forward to, having experienced its brilliance in the all-electric i4; the latter we’ll miss dearly because buttons are far superior than touch pads and haptic sliders any day of the week. The seats deserve special mention because they are tremendously comfortable, their only flaw being draped in cream colored leather which was already showing blue tinged evidence of many denim clad keisters sliding across their surfaces. If you line our tester’s interior up with an M5, you’ll notice virtually no difference, except that the M5 wears more carbon fibre and features a few other model specific baubles as well, like more aggressively bolstered seats.
Thumb the M550i’s start button and the familiar V8 audio signature punctuates the air. It does not bellow to life like the one we drove a couple of years ago, but it’s enough for the neighbours to hear. Get it onto a straight bit of tarmac and nail the throttle. What happens next is similar to what you get in an M5- the V8 roars and you find yourself pinned to the seatbacks as the speed relentlessly piles on. You might even swear that the M550i had the M5’s engine under the hood, and you’d be right. Well, sort of. While the two cars do share the same fundamentals in the engine room (including both churning out the same 553 pounds feet of torque), the M5 has more exotic bits and different tuning needed to push its output north of 600 horsepower.
It is only when the road starts twisting and turning do you really see the M5 exert its superiority over the M550i. Its ferocious grip and nearly instant turn in are no match for the decidedly more softer chassis of the 550. That does not mean the M550i is a Fleetwood Brougham- far from it. We had a chance to take it to a ribbon of asphalt a few hours north of the city that is reasonably smooth and very lightly traveled. The M550i showed us a friskiness that we were not expecting and really, its capabilities are going be plenty for most. It’s the same story when it comes time to stand on the stoppers- the M5’s massive cross drilled rotors and meatier calipers scrub off speed more effectively than the M550i.
After having a chance to unpack what we’ve just told you, are you any closer to a decision? The debate between what car is better for any one individual will rage on. The M550i carries a price tag that is much easier on the wallet than the M5 and the performance it brings to the table is pretty darn close. Enthusiasts will point out at the M5’s xDrive AWD system can shut down its front driveshaft and become rear-wheel drive only while the M550i cannot. Yet until both cars go electric or resort to a sad trombone four-cylinder hybrid drivetrain (cough, cough, upcoming Mercedes Benz E63) a concrete choice between the two will remain elusive.
Allow us to share our take on the situation. If you spend hours poring over engineering websites and forums and if you treat every single time you get on your local onramp as a chance to place your car just so a the apex and then powering out with a generous amount of throttle and a wiggle from the rear tires, you must have the M5. But if you have never planned, or never plan on seeing the curbing of a racing circuit rush towards you and prefer to devour several kilometres in high speed comfort, the M550i is the better choice. It’s not only significantly more comfortable than the M5 but its also nearly as fast. No matter which camp you find yourself in between these two, they are both great in their own way. Everybody wins!
2022 BMW M550i xDrive – Specifications
- Price as tested: $113,320
- Body Type: 4-door, 5 passenger sedan
- Powertrain Layout: Front engine/all-wheel drive
- Engine: 4.4-litre twin turbo V8, DOHC, 32 valves
- Horsepower: 523 @ 6,000 rpm
- Torque (lb-ft.): 553 @ 1,800 rpm
- Transmission: 8-speed automatic
- Curb weight: 2,032 kg (4,480 lbs)
- Observed Fuel Economy: 13.3/100km (18 mpg)