Back in the day, when I were a lad, (etc) I had a Mercedes 560SEC. My brother had the 500SEC. His car was more sporting, more responsive. Perhaps more 'fun' to drive. Mine was Smoke Silver, had 17" Oz alloys and looked nicer. Both were automatics.
We changed direction a little and he bought an 840Ci (with the 4.4 engine). I bought an 850CSi with a 6-speed manual gearbox. Mine was definitely the more sporty of the two. He 'invested' (OK - we spent a lot of time, effort and no small amount of money), had a 6-speed gearbox fitted, and we demonstrated that BMW had missed a trick. His car was by far the better drive. My car felt lazy by comparison. Nice, fun, and thoroughly enjoyable, but lazy.
At the time, and this is well over 10 years ago, my 850CSi cost well under (equivalent) $8k. I was seeing them in the UK for as little as £1500 (NZ$3500 at the time). Big, complex, and expensive to maintain.