E39 M5: Buy without warranty?

In a one word answer to your thread title...

No.

The parts alone are £1200 if the VANOS is FUBAR. If the car is a one owner FBMWSH car there MAY be an element of goodwill... IE BMW pay for the parts you swallow the labour....

You can't just wander in and buy a warranty either i'm afraid...

no. no end of probs with my 1999 M5. Never touch BMW again.

I was about to post the exact same question.

I spent a couple of hours over at Munich Legends yesterday chatting to them about buying an M5. Having researched a lot on here my view was no but... the issues to my mind (and to which I don't have definitive answers) are:

1. Having to use main dealers rather than specialists such as ML if you have the BM warranty. From current experience I would much rather deal with a specialist

2. Ongoing cost of the warranty and the increased service costs of using main dealers.

My question is are there any circumstances people would consider buying without warranty such as when purchasing from a specialist, cars newer than a certain age - can't remember if the VANOS issue covers all M5s or only certain years - etc etc

very interested in the answers!

TIA
Beau

chim_girl said:

stuh said: ..i have taken out an RAC warranty which DOES cover VANOS if it were to be a problem. Not bad for 200 notes.... Are you sure the RAC warranty covers the Vanos? I asked when I bought the M3, they said it was excluded.

Yep. I specifically asked if there were any exclusions relating to engine and they said no. This is confirmed in the detailed terms and conditions.

Hoping i'll never have to use it though.....

Sorry to bring this back to the top but as a prospective M5 owner I'm very interested in this!

I know the advice is only buy with a warranty but I'm interested to know if there are any circumstances that people would consider a good car with (say) an inspection from an independent M series specialist.

Also whether the info (which I think I read on here or BMW owners club site) regarding the fact that from Jan 05 BMW will be putting the cost of the warranty up some £400 per year. Does anyone know anything about this? My thoughts are if the warranty is £1k per year to renew it further reduces the viability of purchasing an M5 with a warranty - even a long one into 06 as you then either take a hit when selling without renewing it or the hit of 1k to renew.

Thoughts and advice much appreciated if folk aren't completely sick of the subject

Beau

Beau said:

I know the advice is only buy with a warranty but I'm interested to know if there are any circumstances that people would consider a good car with (say) an inspection from an independent M series specialist.

Normally it all depends on your budget and what percentage of that budget will be used to buy the car. If you have a budget of £30K and you buy a car for £25K you could quite reasonably assume that you've got a £5K buffer which will last you a long time and it would be 'ok' to buy the car without a warranty, or perhaps a cheaper warranty.

However, I think there are enough 'known' problems with the M5 to make it highly likely that you will experience problems which don't cost £500 to repair, or even £1500.

When my cylinder block was replaced last year, the parts cost alone came to £7500. Add to that a hefty labour bill and you'd be well into 5 figures!

Beau said:

My thoughts are if the warranty is £1k per year to renew it further reduces the viability of purchasing an M5 with a warranty - even a long one into 06 as you then either take a hit when selling without renewing it or the hit of 1k to renew.

Yes, increases in warranty costs are certainly something to think about (it'll make me think when I have to renew next year) but I think that should make you question whether you can afford the car, not whether to let the warranty lapse or not!

And don't forget, the BMW warranty is really very good - and in my experience there is a -lot- of BMW 'good will' gestures given out. I'm not sure whether this is a dealer thing, or down to the warranty. But i've never had a struggle to get things replaced - quite the opposite.

However, I would recommend trying out more than one dealer for servicing - the M5 is a specialist car and it seems to me that some dealers just don't seem to have the nous to handle them when they go wrong.

you can have a lemon of a car from any make.

Shame my Lemon was a 1999 M5, with BMW warrenty which fell apart and was dangerous to drive and caused me to shake after driving it (and not through pleasure)

chim_girl said:

I could be wrong, one of the exclusions is for known manufacturing defects isn't it? The RAC person I spoke to said that the Vanos issue was a known defect and that it would be excluded.

Its a known defect on the M3, its not a know defect on the M5.. even though they can go wrong..

if that makes any sense at all!

I dont have a gripe to grind but when someones askes about a E39 M5, they are not all the utimate driving machine, and certainly would not touch one without a comprihensive warrenty.

As said earlier, mine was a lemon, can happen to any car of any make. Shame mine wasnt fixed for so long and multiple safty critical items failed.

Thanks for all the replies - sorry to hear about your bad experience superlightr and I think you are right that you can get a lemon from any manufacturer.

Futie - I think you're spot on when you say:
[quote]that should make you question whether you can afford the car, not whether to let the warranty lapse or not![/quote]

Having found another thread on running costs which you contributed to futie the main difference from my scooby would seem to be tyres, servicing and the warranty costs...(and oil probably)!

- Petrol (up to 22mpg) - same as Scoob
- Insurance (£1k pa) - roughly same as scoob
- Two bent alloys (£400 ea) -
- Set of tyres (£700) (ouch )

Plus warranty (up to £1k pa if rumoured increases are correct)
Servicing (approx £250) - scoob standard around £180

Hmm - need to sit down and work out carefully the answer to your question Futie!

Thanks again all.

Beau