Let me be the first to say that the M535i is a great car, and so is the standard US spec 535iS. Where the difference for me is made is the history of the M cars and the e28 specifically.

Remember that "M" stands for motorsport (though now in recent years it could stand for "marketing" at BMW). The "M" division was set up in the 70's to build race cars.

The M535i (E28 not E12) is a great car but from a historical standpoint it is not an M car as it was not built at the M factory, nor does it's engine share any parts with the historic 6 cyclinder "M" engine that powered the famous M1 street cars and the M1 Pro-cars that made nearly 650 horsepower.

Until recently, all six cylinder "M" cars were descendants of the famous M1 in terms of their engines. To me the appealing part of the E28 M5 is the race heritage connection with the motorsport division. Does this make the M5 a better car than a M535i or a 535iS, maybe not to everyone else but to me it does.

I grew up watching the M division race cars like the 3.5 CSL Batmobile, the 320 Turbos and the famous 2002 Turbo's. I get a great kick out of driving a car that can trace it's roots back to the people who built those famous race cars.

This may not be important to others and therefore the M5 is nothing more than a tuned e28 535 to some of you.

Certainly there may be other e28's that are not M cars but are as fast or faster than the M5 (Harge and Apina built e28's in Europe that were just as fast or faster). But to me they have little appeal since they were not built by the M division and have no race history.

FYI: the e28 M5 actually raced for one year in 1985 in the French Touring Car Championship so it even has some race history itself.

Bottom line is that all e28's are great cars and hark back to an era where BMW really defined the term sports sedan.

Some of you with non-M5 e28's feeling you get no respect may be right. There are always going to be people who think their particular model is faster or better. I get absolutely no interest from E39 M5 owners (unless they previously owned a e28 M5 or e24 M6). Some E34 owners show some interest in my car, but overall I get more interest from non-M5 e28 owners.

Funny story that some of you may have heard from me before. I was filling up my M5 at a gas station last year and some young internet guy was filling up his brand new e39 M5. He came over and stated "I didn't know you could actually order an M5 badge from a dealer." He seemed distraught that some one could denigrate his $70,000 sedan by putting a M5 badge on their 15 year old 10K BMW junker.

I told him that this was the first original M5 hand built by the race factory and that there are probably less than 1000 of them in the US (I am sure a few of the original 1400 are in junk yards now).

He showed no interest whatsoever in my car, didn't even say nice car. Just mumbled something about not knowing there was a previous M5.

So even we M5 huys get shunned by other BMW snobs.

Regards,

Jon P. Kofod
88 M5
95 F355C