**A Closer Look at the New BMW M5 Competition**

As a motoring journalist, I had the opportunity to get behind the wheel of the new BMW M5 Competition, and I must say, it's an incredible car. But is it worth the extra 30 grand over its lesser-powered sibling, the M550i? Let's take a closer look at what this car has to offer.

**Handling and Performance**

One of the first things that struck me about the M5 Competition was its acceleration. I floored it on the starting line, and before I knew it, I was hitting 60 miles per hour in just 2.9 seconds. That's incredibly quick, but is it worth the extra cost? As a journalist who values performance above all else, I have to say that yes, this car delivers. The engine dominates the road, and the M5 Competition feels like a beast on the twisty bits of British countryside.

But handling is also where the M5 Competition truly shines. Despite its size and weight – it's almost two tons on the scales – this car grips and goes around corners with ease. The four-wheel drive system provides ample traction, catapulting me through bends with confidence. And while I do feel the bumps a bit more in this car than I would in the M550i, the suspension is still quite comfortable, even in comfort mode.

**Sports Mode and Stability Control**

One of my favorite features of the M5 Competition is its sports mode. With just the press of a button, I can switch from normal driving to high-performance mode, where the car's performance is amplified to maximum effect. The stability control system also plays a key role in this setup, allowing me to drive the M5 Competition with confidence. In fact, I was able to keep it on the edge of understeer, yet still feel plenty of grip and traction through tight corners.

**Rear-Wheel Drive Mode**

For added fun, I discovered that pressing the button twice allows me to switch from all-wheel drive mode to rear-wheel drive mode. Suddenly, the M5 Competition transforms into a high-performance drifting machine, capable of creating big circles and small ones with equal ease. It's so much fun to play around with this feature, but let's be real – you're never going to use it on the road.

**The Verdict**

So, is the BMW M5 Competition worth the extra 30 grand over the M550i? As a journalist who values performance above all else, I'd say yes. But for most people, I think the M550i is still an excellent choice. It's not as quick as the M5 Competition, but it's quieter and more comfortable on the road – and that's what matters for long journeys.

But if you're a serious driving enthusiast who wants the absolute best performance from your car, then the M5 Competition is worth considering. Just be prepared to spend an extra 30 grand to get there.

**A Comparison with Other Cars**

As I mentioned earlier, I also compared the M5 Competition against its rivals – the Mercedes-Benz E63 and Porsche Panamera 11 Turbo S. The verdict? The M5 Competition handles better than the E63 and feels more agile through corners than the Panamera 11 Turbo S. But, as always, there's a catch.

For British roads, particularly country roads, I found that the M5 Competition was just too quick – it understeered and pushed wide if I got carried away. That's not to say that this is necessarily a bad thing, but rather that it makes the car less practical for everyday driving.

**Conclusion**

The BMW M5 Competition is an incredible car that delivers on performance, handling, and acceleration. But while it may be worth considering for serious driving enthusiasts, I think the M550i offers more value for most people. Still, if you're in the market for a high-performance car that will push you to the limits of your abilities – then the M5 Competition is definitely worth a closer look.

**Additional Information**

For those who want to see how the M5 Competition stacks up against its rivals, I've included a link to a video review comparing it with other performance cars. Be sure to check out this video as well as some additional links below for more information on car prices and savings.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enis the new bmw m5 competition any good well in this video we're going to find out because i'm going to launch and see how quick it can get to 60 miles an hour i'll talk you through all the upgrades that bmw has made on this car in terms of the design infotainment system and the tweaks they've done to the chassis i'm at watson and you're watching car wow buying a new car then head to car wow and my team will help you find your next car at a fair price car wow your one-stop car buying comparison site let's start this video by talking about the price you can only get the m5 as the competition version in the uk and it starts from 102 000 which is quite a lot of money so you're probably going to want to get a deal on it now if you want to see how much money you can save on a bmw 5 series you want to get a car where i look at this right you can save an average of seven and a half thousand pounds off one across the five series range what i've done is put a little link up there it should be popping out in the top right corner of the screen or there's a link below the video where you can go directly to car wow and check out the savings on this or any car for that matter now if you're under that a later date you can just simply google help me car wow and me and my team will help you choose the right car for you and get it for a fair price from one of our trusted dealers now you might be thinking matt the beginning of the video you said this is the new m5 but it doesn't actually look that much different than the old m5 that's because it's actually a mid-life facelift but bmw has tweaked the designs they've redesigned the grille slightly the front bumper and the lights and being an m5 competition you get a blacked out grille the m5 competition badges as well and huge air intakes to feed cool air into the intercoolers this car also has the upgraded laser lights which look really cool here at the side the only change over the old m5 the wheel designs they're all 20 inches but they're slightly different than before and that car looks the same so you get the usual m5 gills you also get the m5 fistable door mirrors you get side skirts it sits low to the ground to make it look more sporty and the key thing with m5 carbon fiber roof oh yeah and obviously being the competition this has like the black pack they call it where everything's like blacked out oh yeah just looks meaner doesn't it here at the back changes over the old m5 include a new rear bumper a new diffuser oh and they've even redesigned the tail pipes look apparently they've made them narrower but let's see i've got the car wow log of truth will this still fit in there oh yeah look at that still fits and they're still real no fakery what's also new the tail lights they look really cool and then other than that it's just like a old bmw m5 competition so you get the m5 competition badges and the little bootlip spoiler as well here in the front bmw has upgraded the m5 infotainment system so you get the new latest system which does of the air updates it's got apple carplay and android auto both of which are wireless very very good system to use really do like it also what's new the setup buttons are here in m mode like you get on the m8 the seats apparently they're new although they do look similar to the ones in the old m5 now that really cool thing where they illuminate the m5 button really nice they have electrically adjustable bolsters and stuff like that very very comfy other than that though just like the previous m5 so you get all the upgrades like the m steering wheel the little m2 and m1 buttons probably should have said that the other way around would be more logical wouldn't it but these give you instant access to certain modes that you configured the car to really really good so you can just tap it while you're driving and change driving mode you also get your special red starter button there are the m floor mats down here as well you've also got the m gear selector with the different modes for the gear shift changes so you can choose between three different settings of ferocity you also get m badging from the car seals as well here in the back it's just like a normal five series so plenty of knee room and headroom very very comfortable though being the m5 you do get merino soft leather as standard so even the rear passengers can enjoy that they can also enjoy the fact there's some m branding back here as well on the seat belts look with the m colors drip bits just like with the normal 5 series you've got a very big practical boot it's 530 liters to be precise which is easily enough to accommodate a man or more usefully eight small luggage cases there is one thing that's annoying about it though look well you can open it using the key like i just did to get out you can't shut it using the key so you have to press a button such a hardship anyway that brings me to five annoying things about the new bmw m5 this car may cost 100 000 pounds but you don't get the adaptive cruise control with steering assist as standard it's a 5 000 pound option which is just theft rubbery downright evil of bmw you get that kind of tech as standard on a toyota yaris for christ's sake now you do get a performance exhaust as standard on this car which is good and it sounds alright i've listened to this we've started off it's okay however due to noise regulations it's not quite as noisy as on the pre-face lifted version of the m5 in fact in america they don't have all the same noise regulations so it's louder than this let's hear we've got a revit not terrible but not amazing either for some reason bmw doesn't do an estate version of the m5 and i really wish they would because i love fast estate cars and that's why i actually prefer you know the rs6 in fact if you want to see my fall in depth video review that car probably i'll link to it up there should be popping out just now in the top right corner of the screen or there is a link below the video you can't get the m5 with rear wheel steering like you can the m550i that's a bit annoying if you do lots of town driving and need that added maneuverability the economy of this car is claimed to be 25.4 miles per gallon which isn't terrible but the reality is you're gonna do worse than that in fact i've only managed 5.5 miles per gallon and that's in 31 miles they have been driving quite enthusiastically but that's horrible isn't it it's not all negative though here's five good things about this car if you pay 8 000 pounds you can get carbon ceramic brakes which will give you better braking performance you get some gold calipers and it'll save you 23 kilos and that's unsprung mass which will help improve the handling now as part of that eight grand you also get an increased top speed from 155 miles an hour to 189 miles an hour you get specially tuned m-division sports suspension and they come with adaptive dampers as standard with three different modes comfort sport and sport plus the car has stiffer engine mounts over a normal 5 series so that when you put your foot down it doesn't flex as much in the chassis and when you're cornering it keeps it nice and stable which improves the handling in fact improve the handling further on this car bmw has added lots of different bits of chassis bracing to make it nice and rigid the m5 gets a clever four-wheel drive system so you can have a normal four-wheel drive you can have it rear drive biased you can actually make it completely rear-wheel drive and you've even got an m support differential over the rear axle which can distribute the torque between the two rear wheels bmw has upgraded the m5 cooling system over the preface lifted version specifically so that people can take it on track and it's less likely to overheat now let's talk about the engine because that's what this car is all about it's a 4.4 liter twin turbo v8 with 625 horsepower and 750 newton meters of torque drives all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic gearbox this one's got the upgraded carbon fiber engine cover you'll be able to find this on ebay tonight with no reserve right now it's time to drive the new m5 and let's start off by launching it because this is galway and that's what we do so bmw says this car do not 60 in 3.3 seconds which quite frankly is insane but i want to see for myself so i've got my specialist timing gear up here i'm going to launch it see what happens to launch this car you have to be in stability control off mode which is annoying today because the track's a little bit slippery because it's gold and a bit damp that could hamper things somewhat but let's give it a go anyway oh there we go we've got our time no 6.28 seconds that's not right let's try again there's a problem with my specialist timing gear and there lies the problem with the bmw launching it is an you can launch it once or twice and then you have to drive around for a bit so the car calms down and then you can launch again now you don't have that problem at all with a porsche panamera turbo that car will just launch over and over and over and over again until you're bored of it you know what if you want to see my in-depth video review of the porsche panamera turbo i've poured a little link there it should be popping down the top rank on the screen if you can't see it there's also a link below this video watch the video of that see how quick that did in order 60. all right so another go at this is active did it read properly did not do 60 in 3.45 seconds i still think we can go quicker than that that was a good one and it was worth the wait no to 60. 2.9 seconds i forgive it for faffing around it's all right now i've got rid of all my specialist timing gear because i want to show you something else by pressing this button twice i can quickly go into two wheel drive mode so the power is all being sent to the rear wheels which means i can do this it's just so easy to do and you can just control it so easy you know big circles little circles so much fun you're never really gonna do that in real life but when you're a motoring journalist and you don't have to worry about tires you can just send it back to the manufacturer oops not much tread left on these let's get out of rear wheel drive mode let's get the stability control on and let's drive it a bit more normally i'm going to keep in sports mode though and i'm going to have the stability control in a halfway house in fact i'm even going to go and change gears myself there we go so what's this car like then obviously the engine dominates it 60. i'm at 60 i've floored it i'm now at 100. it's so effing quick this thing thankfully it handles well it's big you know it's almost two tons in weight but it does grip and go around corners really well and that four wheel drive system just giving you lots of traction to catapult our bends very impressive stays nice and flat through the turns gives you loads and loads of confidence if you get really carried away there's no hiding the fact that it's a heavy car it'll start to understeer and push wide but it does seem to have the edge in terms of handling compared to a mercedes e63 and definitely over an audi rs6 but it's still no sports car it really isn't and this creates a bit of a problem with it you see for the road it's way too quick actually let me correct myself for british roads especially country roads it's too quick and too big and actually the cheaper m550i is a better balance because it's got easily enough performance still yet it's slightly comfier than this a little bit less hard edged i mean this is not terrible but you do feel the bumps a bit more in this even with the suspension slackened off into comfort mode than you do in that m550i and of course the m550i is quite a whole lot cheaper now if you want to see what i really think of that car why it's so good and how quick it is so you can decide whether you really need to be doing naught to 60 in 2.9 seconds or whether the acceleration in that m550i is good enough i've done a little link to it up there if you click on the pop-up button it should be popping out now you can watch that video review alternatively if you can't see that i'll put a link below the video i mean it's not taking anything away from this it's still very very impressive and for long motorway journeys it's not bad at all it really isn't but that m550i is a little less noisy and it's also a little more comfortable and relaxing to travel in there said it he never thought that i'd rather have the cheaper car than the m5 but i guess it would still this is a great thing really really impressive car and the changes they've made to it make it even better than before so then what's my final verdict on the new bmw m5 competition should you avoid it should you consider it should you shortlist it or should you just go right ahead and buy it now it's a really good car and normally i'd say shortlist it the only problem is is that i just can't justify you spending an extra 30 grand over an m550i and that's why ultimately i'd say avoid the m5 we get the 550i instead i hope you all enjoyed the video if you did please give it a like let me know what you think of this car in the comments below and if you want to watch some drag races involving a normal m5 against its key competitors click on that window there or a thousand horsepower m5 against the porsche 11 turbo s click on that box there and if you click on that box there you can go to car wow to see how much money you can save on a new car go check it outis the new bmw m5 competition any good well in this video we're going to find out because i'm going to launch and see how quick it can get to 60 miles an hour i'll talk you through all the upgrades that bmw has made on this car in terms of the design infotainment system and the tweaks they've done to the chassis i'm at watson and you're watching car wow buying a new car then head to car wow and my team will help you find your next car at a fair price car wow your one-stop car buying comparison site let's start this video by talking about the price you can only get the m5 as the competition version in the uk and it starts from 102 000 which is quite a lot of money so you're probably going to want to get a deal on it now if you want to see how much money you can save on a bmw 5 series you want to get a car where i look at this right you can save an average of seven and a half thousand pounds off one across the five series range what i've done is put a little link up there it should be popping out in the top right corner of the screen or there's a link below the video where you can go directly to car wow and check out the savings on this or any car for that matter now if you're under that a later date you can just simply google help me car wow and me and my team will help you choose the right car for you and get it for a fair price from one of our trusted dealers now you might be thinking matt the beginning of the video you said this is the new m5 but it doesn't actually look that much different than the old m5 that's because it's actually a mid-life facelift but bmw has tweaked the designs they've redesigned the grille slightly the front bumper and the lights and being an m5 competition you get a blacked out grille the m5 competition badges as well and huge air intakes to feed cool air into the intercoolers this car also has the upgraded laser lights which look really cool here at the side the only change over the old m5 the wheel designs they're all 20 inches but they're slightly different than before and that car looks the same so you get the usual m5 gills you also get the m5 fistable door mirrors you get side skirts it sits low to the ground to make it look more sporty and the key thing with m5 carbon fiber roof oh yeah and obviously being the competition this has like the black pack they call it where everything's like blacked out oh yeah just looks meaner doesn't it here at the back changes over the old m5 include a new rear bumper a new diffuser oh and they've even redesigned the tail pipes look apparently they've made them narrower but let's see i've got the car wow log of truth will this still fit in there oh yeah look at that still fits and they're still real no fakery what's also new the tail lights they look really cool and then other than that it's just like a old bmw m5 competition so you get the m5 competition badges and the little bootlip spoiler as well here in the front bmw has upgraded the m5 infotainment system so you get the new latest system which does of the air updates it's got apple carplay and android auto both of which are wireless very very good system to use really do like it also what's new the setup buttons are here in m mode like you get on the m8 the seats apparently they're new although they do look similar to the ones in the old m5 now that really cool thing where they illuminate the m5 button really nice they have electrically adjustable bolsters and stuff like that very very comfy other than that though just like the previous m5 so you get all the upgrades like the m steering wheel the little m2 and m1 buttons probably should have said that the other way around would be more logical wouldn't it but these give you instant access to certain modes that you configured the car to really really good so you can just tap it while you're driving and change driving mode you also get your special red starter button there are the m floor mats down here as well you've also got the m gear selector with the different modes for the gear shift changes so you can choose between three different settings of ferocity you also get m badging from the car seals as well here in the back it's just like a normal five series so plenty of knee room and headroom very very comfortable though being the m5 you do get merino soft leather as standard so even the rear passengers can enjoy that they can also enjoy the fact there's some m branding back here as well on the seat belts look with the m colors drip bits just like with the normal 5 series you've got a very big practical boot it's 530 liters to be precise which is easily enough to accommodate a man or more usefully eight small luggage cases there is one thing that's annoying about it though look well you can open it using the key like i just did to get out you can't shut it using the key so you have to press a button such a hardship anyway that brings me to five annoying things about the new bmw m5 this car may cost 100 000 pounds but you don't get the adaptive cruise control with steering assist as standard it's a 5 000 pound option which is just theft rubbery downright evil of bmw you get that kind of tech as standard on a toyota yaris for christ's sake now you do get a performance exhaust as standard on this car which is good and it sounds alright i've listened to this we've started off it's okay however due to noise regulations it's not quite as noisy as on the pre-face lifted version of the m5 in fact in america they don't have all the same noise regulations so it's louder than this let's hear we've got a revit not terrible but not amazing either for some reason bmw doesn't do an estate version of the m5 and i really wish they would because i love fast estate cars and that's why i actually prefer you know the rs6 in fact if you want to see my fall in depth video review that car probably i'll link to it up there should be popping out just now in the top right corner of the screen or there is a link below the video you can't get the m5 with rear wheel steering like you can the m550i that's a bit annoying if you do lots of town driving and need that added maneuverability the economy of this car is claimed to be 25.4 miles per gallon which isn't terrible but the reality is you're gonna do worse than that in fact i've only managed 5.5 miles per gallon and that's in 31 miles they have been driving quite enthusiastically but that's horrible isn't it it's not all negative though here's five good things about this car if you pay 8 000 pounds you can get carbon ceramic brakes which will give you better braking performance you get some gold calipers and it'll save you 23 kilos and that's unsprung mass which will help improve the handling now as part of that eight grand you also get an increased top speed from 155 miles an hour to 189 miles an hour you get specially tuned m-division sports suspension and they come with adaptive dampers as standard with three different modes comfort sport and sport plus the car has stiffer engine mounts over a normal 5 series so that when you put your foot down it doesn't flex as much in the chassis and when you're cornering it keeps it nice and stable which improves the handling in fact improve the handling further on this car bmw has added lots of different bits of chassis bracing to make it nice and rigid the m5 gets a clever four-wheel drive system so you can have a normal four-wheel drive you can have it rear drive biased you can actually make it completely rear-wheel drive and you've even got an m support differential over the rear axle which can distribute the torque between the two rear wheels bmw has upgraded the m5 cooling system over the preface lifted version specifically so that people can take it on track and it's less likely to overheat now let's talk about the engine because that's what this car is all about it's a 4.4 liter twin turbo v8 with 625 horsepower and 750 newton meters of torque drives all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic gearbox this one's got the upgraded carbon fiber engine cover you'll be able to find this on ebay tonight with no reserve right now it's time to drive the new m5 and let's start off by launching it because this is galway and that's what we do so bmw says this car do not 60 in 3.3 seconds which quite frankly is insane but i want to see for myself so i've got my specialist timing gear up here i'm going to launch it see what happens to launch this car you have to be in stability control off mode which is annoying today because the track's a little bit slippery because it's gold and a bit damp that could hamper things somewhat but let's give it a go anyway oh there we go we've got our time no 6.28 seconds that's not right let's try again there's a problem with my specialist timing gear and there lies the problem with the bmw launching it is an you can launch it once or twice and then you have to drive around for a bit so the car calms down and then you can launch again now you don't have that problem at all with a porsche panamera turbo that car will just launch over and over and over and over again until you're bored of it you know what if you want to see my in-depth video review of the porsche panamera turbo i've poured a little link there it should be popping down the top rank on the screen if you can't see it there's also a link below this video watch the video of that see how quick that did in order 60. all right so another go at this is active did it read properly did not do 60 in 3.45 seconds i still think we can go quicker than that that was a good one and it was worth the wait no to 60. 2.9 seconds i forgive it for faffing around it's all right now i've got rid of all my specialist timing gear because i want to show you something else by pressing this button twice i can quickly go into two wheel drive mode so the power is all being sent to the rear wheels which means i can do this it's just so easy to do and you can just control it so easy you know big circles little circles so much fun you're never really gonna do that in real life but when you're a motoring journalist and you don't have to worry about tires you can just send it back to the manufacturer oops not much tread left on these let's get out of rear wheel drive mode let's get the stability control on and let's drive it a bit more normally i'm going to keep in sports mode though and i'm going to have the stability control in a halfway house in fact i'm even going to go and change gears myself there we go so what's this car like then obviously the engine dominates it 60. i'm at 60 i've floored it i'm now at 100. it's so effing quick this thing thankfully it handles well it's big you know it's almost two tons in weight but it does grip and go around corners really well and that four wheel drive system just giving you lots of traction to catapult our bends very impressive stays nice and flat through the turns gives you loads and loads of confidence if you get really carried away there's no hiding the fact that it's a heavy car it'll start to understeer and push wide but it does seem to have the edge in terms of handling compared to a mercedes e63 and definitely over an audi rs6 but it's still no sports car it really isn't and this creates a bit of a problem with it you see for the road it's way too quick actually let me correct myself for british roads especially country roads it's too quick and too big and actually the cheaper m550i is a better balance because it's got easily enough performance still yet it's slightly comfier than this a little bit less hard edged i mean this is not terrible but you do feel the bumps a bit more in this even with the suspension slackened off into comfort mode than you do in that m550i and of course the m550i is quite a whole lot cheaper now if you want to see what i really think of that car why it's so good and how quick it is so you can decide whether you really need to be doing naught to 60 in 2.9 seconds or whether the acceleration in that m550i is good enough i've done a little link to it up there if you click on the pop-up button it should be popping out now you can watch that video review alternatively if you can't see that i'll put a link below the video i mean it's not taking anything away from this it's still very very impressive and for long motorway journeys it's not bad at all it really isn't but that m550i is a little less noisy and it's also a little more comfortable and relaxing to travel in there said it he never thought that i'd rather have the cheaper car than the m5 but i guess it would still this is a great thing really really impressive car and the changes they've made to it make it even better than before so then what's my final verdict on the new bmw m5 competition should you avoid it should you consider it should you shortlist it or should you just go right ahead and buy it now it's a really good car and normally i'd say shortlist it the only problem is is that i just can't justify you spending an extra 30 grand over an m550i and that's why ultimately i'd say avoid the m5 we get the 550i instead i hope you all enjoyed the video if you did please give it a like let me know what you think of this car in the comments below and if you want to watch some drag races involving a normal m5 against its key competitors click on that window there or a thousand horsepower m5 against the porsche 11 turbo s click on that box there and if you click on that box there you can go to car wow to see how much money you can save on a new car go check it out\n"