Quote:
Originally Posted by Leveraged Sellout
I pointed this out in another thread...in the US, the M5 has been almost universally panned, for ridiculous reasons.
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It just depends on the reviews you read
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Personally like you and others I put a lot more stock into reviewers that are doing their reviews from behind the wheel on video. Carlos Lago, Chris Harris, hell even Brian Cooley - it may be tech-focused but at least he's driving the thing and giving frank and honest opinions - all of them have had great things to say about the F10 M5 and when they do criticize - it's all in the context of them setting such a high bar for the car, which in that context is completely appropriate.
Comparison reviews to old gen M5's are just hollow to me. They're all completely different cars. Where reviewers get themselves spun up in a tizzy is when they come in with the expectation that new gen = better, rather than new gen = different. Start with a clean sheet of paper and critique the car you have
now - not the one you wax nostalgic on.
Here's Lago's 2014 Comp Package review. It's very complimentary and he compares it quite a bit to the non-comp M5, and talks up about how the comp pack improves the car and how it should be standard, which makes you think he wasn't as wild about the non-comp M5...
But then when you watch him test the non-comp M5, he's almost as effusive with his praise. He compares it to the older gen M5's but not to the extent where he lets it affect his opinion of the current car... "excellent... in a different way". It's pretty clear he loves the M5.
Much the same reason I value Harris' opinion so much. He takes every car at face value.