Thank you all for your feedback... I think I may have confused you all.... The reason why i say that the transmission does not matter is not because i am not a "true" enthusiast. I actually pride myself on being a car enthusiast since I actually track most of my cars. Along with my '00 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited V8 for the winters, I also own a 993 Porsche TT, and a '97 Ferrari F355 Spyder ('00 360 Modena coming anytime soon!!). I do not think that the E55 or M5 can really be considered true-bred sports cars. They are sporty sedans, but by no means in the same category as my 355 or TT, which by the way are all manual. Thats why i specified that i did not have a preference for the transmission of these sedans.

I was just looking for some unbiased opinions, but it seems a lot of people felt they needed to criticize me as a non-enthusiast. This is quite an unfriendly board.

Thank you to Kzma for a helpful opinion. It was greatly appreciated.