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[Spike]

Desisuperman: Neither of us are "large car people" - we've both driven smaller sports-oriented cars in the past and a 5 is already larger than we'd normally go for - if not for the kids, we'd probably be looking at a 3. The secondary issue concerns reliability issues - a number of my friends have 7s and each one loves their car but bitches about the cost and frequency of maintenance. I did initially look into them, though.

europrince: I was looking at a 5 mostly because of space in the back. If yearly upkeep is $2k, I might be able to live with that, considering you're likely to spend close to that on a p.o.s. Yeah, you may have a lower initial purchase cost, but you'll also have a lower resale (or no resale?) over 60-70k km... What do you consider a "lot of driving"?

[dmako]

Horsepower is definitely second to handling. (Space and reliability, as mentioned before, is important, but as far as the drive goes, handling comes first, then HP.)

Get a 528i sport 5-speed.

[kurupt_k]

Originally Posted by europrince

If one is really tight and must stick to a $10k budget with little room to spare, by look at a 5 series to begin with? Yearly upkeep can easily be $2k or so. I'm at $3-4k, but I do a lot of driving.

That being said, if you can spare a few bucks a year on repairs and maintenance, the e39 540 is one hell of a ride!

i totally agree, and dont forget there is only so much you can do with out speciality tools.