Is The E39 M5 Too Quiet?

Usually I’m all for making cars louder; half the fun of driving is hearing the sound of the engine. But in the case of the E39 M5, I kind of like the fact that it’s not really loud. 

It definitely has that V8 bass when you rev it, but it’s more of a low end thing than the screaming Italian V8s and V10s. My co-worker thinks the E39 is way too quiet, and that it needs an exhaust, badly. 

Adding a loud exhaust would decisively take the M5 from sleek undercover euro-muscle to look-at-me euro hot-rod pretty quickly. And maybe that’s your thing, but to me the essence of the E39 is how “under the radar” it is. 

It just kind of whooshes you along on this burbling wave of torque. Even in 6th gear at ___ mph it pulls hard, masking speed in the calmest most relaxing kind of way.