Hi Joss,
You went large with the 550!
The Audi is a really nice car, but its main advantages are being younger, less miles, less tatty and better maintained than the E61 - which I couldn't justify spending money on towards the end.
Although the BMW had more BHP (when it was new) than the Audi, the supercharger + quattro means the acceleration is certainly quicker with the 3.0. In my reality, that's better than the silky smooth 100mph+ cruising that the V8 was clearly capable of, because I live nowhere near an Autobahn.
It's hard to beat the E61 for space, comfort, handling and looks that really aged well (do you remember how controversial the Chris Bangle styling was when they first came out?).
Comparisons on fuel economy are striking, but boring.
Even the standard MMI amps/speakers in the Audi are a big improvement of the BMW (standard) audio - and the Audi has Bluetooth/Aux. I was using a cigarette-lighter FM transmitter in the BMW!
I decided to wait until my insurance came up for renewal to see what the bump would be for declaring the chip tuning as a modification.
Although I must say that, after over a thousand very pleasurable miles, I've been chasing an overheating issue in the Audi for the last few days (thermostat and/or poor seal from cheap after-market expansion tank cap I think). So I'm giving more consideration to reliability and being gentle to the car alongside the previous thought of "seems a bit silly not to unlock an extra 100 bhp for a few hundred quid! " as you eloquently put it!
Thanks for the conversation and I'll check out Phantom Tuning.
Cheers
