[IROC]

The wife and I basically went through this same process a few weeks ago. We were looking for a 5 series coming off of lease and drove a number of them. We ended up with a 2007 530i. To be honest, I like the normally aspirated engine in the 530 better than the turbo in the 535. The 535 felt laggy - especially at parking lot speeds. Once the 535 gets moving, it flies, though. The 530 is plenty quick, IMHO.

One thing that I would highly recommend is the sport package. Huge difference over the stock suspension.

I'm old school when it comes to electronics in a car and to me the iDrive is fine. What you need is right at your fingertips and the things you have to dig for, you shouldn't be looking at while you're driving anyway...

BTW, we averaged 30 mpg on a recent trip that was about 80% interstate, 20% city. The interstate portion was averaging 32.6 mpg...