Europe is always ahead a year.

Yeah, it's 2008 in the US.

Gotcha, thanks for all of the info... I need to pay more attention to the 5 series....

2008 model is coming in March. Will be shown at Chicago auto show.
More details and pics and press release here.

Gracias....

dude.. it's not out yet. Not til summer 2007.

A 550i has some giddiyup considering it's moving 2 tons of mass. It's pretty damn fast for a mainstream sedan. It's definitely not underpowered. The inline sixes are better suited to the E90 platform, but they work well in the 5 series, so long as power is not the main criteria for buying one.

Well, that's my point, the 5 series' are big sedans and until the next models BMW had chosen to equip them with rather meagher engines. Comparing them to other sedans, they are underpowered.

everything's underpowered compared to the Z06's! ;)

Yah, underpowered for Americans. They have a 630i coupe and a 730d in Europe, along with an 318i and even a X3 2.0i (which is admittedly, underpowered for even European standards). Seriously the 525i is only underpowered because the competition has more power for the buck. As long as you buy a manual 215hp is a non-issue unless you have some.........need to rack up speeding tickets.