I had an '03 E53 3.0, then an '11 E70 35d. I got rid of the E53 because of the increasing cost of repairs.

I loved the interior of my E70 over the E53, and there are aspects of the handling of the E70 that I liked over the E53 (adaptive drive and all), but like deutsch100, I missed my E53 daily. I thought that the E70 drove just too darned 'big'.

A couple of weeks ago I traded my E70 for a '12 E71 3.5+sport. Awesome! Cockpit feels exactly the same as my E70, but it drives oh so different in a sprightly way (well, as sprightly as a 5k lb car can). Looks pretty sweet too.

Why didn't I get an E71 to begin with in '11? That "only seats 4" dilemma that was solved in the '12 model; that allowed the jump to my fave.