[cairns]

The A6 has a spare tire.
The A6 has a nicer interior.
Your local Audi dealer might be better than your local BMW dealer.

The current Roundel had a face off between the 7 and A8. Pretty much equal in every respect yet the tester felt he would choose the A8- it had nicer steering and a spare.

A previous Roundel had a face off between a 5 and the comparable Nissan (Infinity I think- don't recall). The Infinity was judged the nicer car- better handling, more tossable, and it, of course, had a spare tire. And a dipstick. I recall seeing another test v. the E class with similar conclusions.

While I love the new 5 and left Audi (after owning a 4000, 5000 and long ago A6) because of the numerous problems and the terrible service at my local dealer I could be lured back.

But it would be hard. The advantages the 5 has, IMO, are a manual transmission, rear wheel drive, and in my case, far superior local service. And I've never, ever had the kind of problems with the BMW that I had with the Audi. Our last 5 (e39) went over a hundred thousand with regular maintenance and new water and power steering pumps. Our last Audi ate power window motors at an alarming rate and had a transmission that went kaput at just over 50K- and Audi refused to cover it. That's hard to forget.