I regularly browse m5board.com to read about people's experiences.

I think we all agree here that the E60 M5 is an awesome performance machine.....fast in a straightline and outhandles its competitors too.

On the other hand, there have been more than the occasional owner on m5board.com that finds the M5 to be very hard to live with as a daily driver. The issues I keep reading about always pertain to 1) the jerkiness of SMGIII when driving in traffic (manual or auto mode), 2) horrible fuel consumption (and I've seen really bad numbers), and 3) the lack of "fun" when driving in P400 mode (car seems dead at low rpm's and at low speeds).

The biggest issue I think still is the SMGIII and its jerkiness when travelling at not so excessive speeds in the city and traffic. When the 6 speed manual transmission becomes available in N. America, I think we won't see as many people complain. Everyone knows what to expect from a stickshift, and the driver has no one but himself/herselft to blame for a jerky or missed shift.

The E60 M5 is a relatively big 4 door sedan, so many people probably don't consider it to be only a weekend toy for the track. Rather, I think many people buy an M5 thinking it can be used as a daily driver for the family and perform as a sports car on the weekends on a track. And it definitely can perform like a sports car......it just doesn't seem to do the daily driver thing as well for some people and their families.

This is different than the E46 M3. The small 2 door M3 coupe was meant to be a sports car for the road without many compromises. Harsh ride, loud engine, jerky shifts (SMGII) etc, etc are expected for a car like that. And with the sales success of the M3 over its competitors (C32/C55/S4), that's what many people want in the compact sports sedan/coupe segment.

On Mercedes/AMG forums, almost nobody complains about AMG cars as daily drivers. With automatic transmissions and relatively less jerky ride, most people are satisfied with their cars in traffic, while still being able to play around occasionally with blistering acceleration on the highway and on-ramps (and even on the track). The main complaints come from the C-AMG and SLK-AMG owners about the lack of a manual transmission for the smaller AMG cars. To this day, I still don't understand why AMG won't even offer a manual transmission as an OPTION for those who want it, especially for their smaller models.