The £30K M5: You Know You Want To

How much more appealing is the turbocharged M5 with an M135i price tag?

Yes, alright, the first rule of new car buying has been broken in that standfirst: thou shall not compare a new car to a used alternative. There are inevitably too many issues around conditions, warranties, running costs and so on.

All that being said (famous last words), certain cars become a lot more alluring when they drop below a certain price point. It will probably happen when GT86s get below £10K, for example. And with current generation (F10) BMW M5s now less than £30K, perhaps they're due a reappraisal.

Yep, prices for a 560hp M car can begin with a '2' now. And not just cars with mega miles either, but that's a point we'll return to. It would appear that the M5 has followed a regular depreciation curve for a big, fast saloon, it's just that there's been so much else going on in the sector to distract us from that.

Think about it: the current Audi RS6 is very good, the RS7 is there as a four-door alternative, the AMG E-Class is better than it's ever been and even Jaguar has gone a bit lairy with the XFR-S. All this time the M5 has been losing value without too much attention being paid to it.

Moreover, there's been enough coming out of M Division to divert focus away too. Since 2011 we've had new M SUVs, a turbocharged M3, a four-door M6, the M2 and a 600hp M5 - no wonder the standard car has gone a little unnoticed!

Now general consensus is that this isn't the finest M5 ever. But not only are those flaws easier to overlook at considerably less than half the price, for some people going very, very fast in a discreet package is enough. So what if it's not the most engaging drive? Now it's out of warranty, it could be remapped to even more power... Point is that it's a lot of performance and luxury for £30K, meaning that what the M5 doesn't do so well is less significant.

This looks like a really good one too. BMW service history, 65,000 miles, a mature colour combo... it doesn't appear to have any noticeable drawbacks. Of course you couldn't commit to a purchase of something so complicated - and once so expensive - without a more detailed inspection, but it does look extremely good value.

Trouble is for the M5, lots of other supersaloons lose value pretty rapidly too. This equally subtle Jaguar XFR has less than half the miles of the BMW for the same money. And although the later turbocharged E63 AMGs are currently just out of budget, that does mean those cars with the glorious 6.2 V8 are readily available; this 2009 car looks great.

It will be interesting to see how much further this M5 and its contemporaries will depreciate, and whether they'll still look such good value when they have to be fuelled, insured, taxed and so on. However, should you be in the position for an M5, or indeed any of these V8 saloons, you currently seem to be spoilt for choice.

BMW M5
Price: £29,995
Why you would: Looks like a 520d, goes like a GT3
Why you wouldn't: Still has some money to lose, lots of tempting rivals too

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