E39 is great! Drove a friend's 2001 M5, awesome! Also drove a E30 M3 in the late 80's. Almost bought it, but it was just over a year old and over 50k miles! Obviously someone loved driving it! I bought a new E30 325i instead. In California, I babysat an E24 M6, manual... did they make automatic versions? Superb to drive. It was in the late 90's, another friend was the original owner. All beautiful vehicles that I'd choose over the 540i. F10 and current M5 look great to me. Then, going back to my childhood all those 2002 tii's zipping around the neighborhood. The E9 3.0 CSi. That's art!

4.6iS is more unique and interesting to me than an E39 540i, even with a manual. I respect your point of view. I think there are lots of great choices