Reflecting on the 5

Sam Smith at Jalopnik recently shared some memories of the BMW 5-Series. I found his take on the E12 interesting and can't argue with his reasoning as to why he didn't buy one. Perhaps some M racing stripes and some lovely BBS's would have changed his mind. I know I'm biased, but I do find the E12 the most beautiful of the bunch, followed closely by the E39. I'm not sure what to think of the newest 5-Series but I feel that apart from a couple performance models, most average BMWs in the last five or six years have become pretty bland and bloated - sort of the rich man's Toyota.