E60 530d suspension and ipod questions

[dopamine]

Hi Folks,

I wonder if you might be able to help me out as I research a couple of things...

I have just bought an e60 530d, which after 16mpg in my M5 (sadly gone to the big motorway in the sky after being mushed by its careless owner) I am appreciating it greatly for it's (superchipped to 285hp) 30mpg urge. However after the M5 it is a little wallowy round the twistys and feels a bit lardy. I would like to upgrade the suspension to firm things up a little and offer a bit of stiffness while pushing on through bends. I need to achieve this pretty cheaply as I am still in financial shock from buying the thing in the first place. Therefore I was thinking springs first, shocks second, upgraded swaybars last. Is this about right? From what I have read coilovers are mega money and while adjustable they require a wheel alignment after any changes...
Does anyone out there have any experience of doing this? What did it all cost?

On another note, I spoke with Lind Chelmsofrd today about retrofitting the Ipod preparation which they didn't seem too fussed about even saying it can take as little as 45 minutes (A job from a main agent that takes less than an hour? eh?) Does anyone have the Ipod prep? Does it let you see the track names ect, and navigate through all your music using the idrive or do you have to control the play from the ipod itself?

Any help on either of the above will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

TC

[fixedwheelnut]

The I-Pod itself only takes about 45 minutes to fit but the car has to be recoded to accept it and this can take anything from an hour to 7 hours, I would be surprised if they let you wait for it

[dannylt]

Hmmm, we were told the dash has to come out, at some huge labour charge. Which iPod prep is this, from which dealer?