E60 / E61 M5 Buyers Guide

[ecain63]

cosmokmike said:

Thanks for pulling together this detailed guide Eddie, has been invaluable over the last few weeks while searching for a Touring.

Did you find one?

[ecain63]

Ref the 1st car: The dealership will change the tyres for OEM fit ones if you are unhappy with the standard rubber (which i would be). It does show some lack of care by the previous owner though and by the dealership too. Have a good look at whole car in great detail, but by what you have said so far it looks like its seen better days and hard times. The run-in service isnt always stamped in the book but there should be an invoice to that effect. My book doesnt have a stamp as such, just a written note from the dealership in the delivery inspection box giving details of date, mileage and dealership. There is also an invoice as proof.

Car 2: The mileage is high for the age so resale will be difficult once youve clocked up a bit more. See if you can get them to drop the price to a sensible level. I reckon at that mileage you should be looking for nearer to £30k than £40k especially seeing as it has few media options ticked.

Eddie

[ecain63]

JHeynes said:

Hi,

Just starting to look into getting an M5 touring. Looking to find a '07 or newer. Could someone tell me please if the gearbox in one of these cars is the same as in an '05 M6?

I have driven an '06 M5 (awful gear change) and an '05 M6 (brilliant gear change). I must confess that I didn't check which setting they were both on.

I would be grateful for any info on this.....

Gearboxes are all the same. The tourers benefited from having updated software and the latest generation of SMG pumps but effectively the M5s and M6s all use the same system.

Cars often do feel different to drive. The cars are intelligent and a do adapt to the driving style but normally any difference felt is down to the generation of software or condition of the clutch, oh and the setting you have the car in. Stick to S5 for your change speed, this is widely known as the best setting.

[ecain63]

Plainview23 said:

I'm going to test drive an M6 this weekend -- the owner has already told me that he never takes it out of Auto; good thing or bad thing?! Any implications for clutch wear in that? I think it's reasonable to suspect that he doesn't rag it too much - or track it!

Best way to check the clutch is to get the box nice and warm. Take the car to a town environment with lots of stop-start situations, such as traffic lights and roundabouts. It wont take long to get the clutch warmed up and any excessive clutch wear will show itself if its there. Look for signs of slippage and juddering. If it does either, walk away or negotiate the price accordingly.

Oh, stick the car in S5, flappy mode from start to finish.

[ecain63]

smokey145 said:

my M6 is now going back to the main dealer i brought it from mid may for them to look at (and hopefully sort) the clutch judder.

fingers crossed.

Keep us posted!

[ecain63]

JJ5 said:

Guys,

I can understand the view of 'don't buy an M if you can't afford the fuel', but as a point of discussion what does everyone think of an LPG conversion for the E61 M5?

Any problems?

To recoup the costs of the conversion you'd need to be doing the mileage to justify it. There are decent systems out there but I'll stick by my opinion that there's no point! It's an M5, a car meant for petrol heads, not economisers. But that's just my opinion and no doubt there will be critics.

[ecain63]

mondie said:

Thanks to Eddie and all the other contributors to this valuable thread. I found it in a Google search when reading up on the e60 facelift. Last week we bought a late 07 e60 M5 with 2 years BMW warranty and couldn't be happier. Being an Aussie and having never owned or really ever driven a quality German car we are blown away by the inherent quality in these cars, let alone the M5 specialness. UK car prices are insanely cheap compared to what l am used to so it was a tough choice deciding what to buy for family duties, but l think we made the right choice in the end.

Cheers
Simon

Glad you found it helpful mate. Welcome to the club.

[ecain63]

JLBMatic said:

Guys, just a quick update after a few weeks' ownership (may help or be of interest to others)....

Good points:
the ability to have the choice between a comfortable ride (non M-mode) or stiff ride at the touch of a button. Ride on soft setting over Surrey's st roads is actually good (better than expected anyway)
400bhp does not seem the same as 507bhp :-)
Head Up display is actually very useful. Better for gear selected & speed rather than tacho(tacho seems to 'lag' (or maybe my eyes are on the rapidly approaching road instead!)). Non M-mode HUD gives speed, plus user-selectable sat-nav directions and warning messages (low fuel mainly!).
Accereration and gear changes can be described as brutal, but I am trying to be 'sympathetic' and can't see myself ever using launch control or hard acceleration until I'm in 2nd gear...)
Seat side bolsters puff up when engine is started to previously set position (non-'active' seats)
Exhaust note at 4000rpm+ is fantastic ...the sound is nothing like a V8


Bad points:
Fuel consumption a miserable 11-12 mpg average (mixture of calm runs with occasional full-throttle accelerations, perhaps 'normal' general driving for most....?
Lifting the throttle at every gear change will take some getting used to.... then smooth changes are no probs . Relatively low torque means working the SMGIII box more than I would choose to.
Rear screen heater use renders the FM/DAB radio useless
SatNav will not go to 'full screen' (and probably never will)
Need to find a petrol station that sells Castrol Edge 10W60 fast!

Edited by JLBMatic on Monday 2nd July 23:08

Just buy some Edge from Opie and keep a litre bottle in the boot.

[ecain63]

Contigo said:

24 hours to properly reset the TCU system according to Eddie who had his done. The dealer left it overnight but only charged him an hours rate apparently.

The iPod cable is the BMW one that is located in the glove box and interacts with the iDrive. I can see all song names in iDrive and playlists etc.. it's excellent. It was fitted to the car by previous owner and I only found it after rooting in the glovebox. Mine does not have a USB connection in the centre console hence the need for this iPod cable.

Overnight job for a full ecu/tcu/other software reboot. This will clear any software niggles and will more than likely give you a couple of minor upgrades on the idrive.

[ecain63]

mondie said:

It's amazing it takes that long, is the car left hooked up to some supercomputer all night while a whole series of software and firmware upgrades are downloaded to the various ECU's?

You gotta remember its only a simple processor, not a space ship. Done properly i think it takes over 8 hours.

[ecain63]

C11EWM said:

Got 180 for my back boxes on eBay this week. Better than nothing.

Ive got my boxes spare too so i might follow your path.

[ecain63]

Contigo said:

It seems that the used E61 M5 prices have gone the other way now, ie appreciated ever so slightly in the last couple of months as the numbers of them for sale seems to have dropped and demand has increased. Anyone else noticed this?

Yup! I think we'll always have good strength in value over the saloon so long as the cars are well kept.

[ecain63]

Contigo said:

ecain63 said:

Yup! I think we'll always have good strength in value over the saloon so long as the cars are well kept.

Indeed, keeping the miles off mine for sure and also keeping it in tip top condition. I wonder if we have ourselves a future classic?

For sure. But i think waaaaaaay in the future. The S85 V10 in itself is going to be remembered as BMW's finest piece of mechanical mastery, adding that to the rarity of the E61 shape and i reckon we could indeed have a future capital safety net. For now i reckon it'll be a roller coaster of gains and losses until the values fall to a plateau. As for final value: thinking in terms of the cars actual scrap and parts value i dont think they'll go as low as the E39's did or C6 RS6's. Engines will hold good residual value out of pure admiration. I may be talking BS but i think they wont ever get below £10k, even for a rougue, and for the E61 especially it'll be a long long time before any decent examples show at £15k.

[ecain63]

cosmokmike said:

I must be doing it wrong because I can't seem to search for an M5 touring on the BMW website anymore, doesn't let me select Touring as a bodystyle after I select M Cars.

Is there a tyre-thread for M5s on here, I've not been able to find one but thouught it would be the sort of thing where there was a lot of feedback and advice.

Are you searching used cars? Might he that there are none available if there's no option on the site. Just choose M5 estate on autotrader, thatll show any dealer cars.

Ref tyres, just search the forum, its easier.

Have I emailed you about what spec you're after?

[ecain63]

Edited to add a pdf at the bottom of the original post for those with time to read it. Very interesting stuff!

[ecain63]

smokey145 said:

Eddie, i am looking at potentially getting back into the V10 M5 fold after a year or so away. the reality will be looking at a car which is over the key 60k mile point (possibly 70/80k) so the mondial warranty is out of the question. to be frank, does anyone have any warranty direct M specialist warranty experience, is it worth it or should i just be armed with a "slush fund" for the potential inevitable?

and the last point is, if i dont go for a high mile E60 M5 it will almost certainly be a C5 RS6 avant, which i know you have experience with and to be fair ive been reading alot about recently. how do you find the cars compare?

I'd say the slush fund might be a good option unless you are happy paying £2500 for the Mondial warranty (id personally go for the Mondial option dependant on what it covered).


As for C5 RS6 vs M5 ownership: I wrote this last year. http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/xforums/topic.asp?h=0...

[ecain63]

Nothing is missing there. Its a hole for a reason. High speed stability aid.

[ecain63]

Yeah, it confused me at first but after seeing some pics from the //M wind tunnel the reason for the gap became strikingly obvious. I cannot remember what weight of downforce at 155mph the diffuser provided but it was more than enough to keep that back end locked to the road.

[ecain63]

alcrisp said:

Hi,

Can anyone tell me if the TV in the E61 are Digital. I have a E39 540i and my TV doesn't work now they've switched off the analogue signal. Don't want to pay for something that doesn't function.

This forum is so useful for a novice prospective buyer of an M5. Thanks...

Also, has anyone solved the issue of the 7 digit postcode not working with the sat nav?

Yes, i believe the TV function is digital. Not sure how the retune last year has affected the system in these cars though.

As for the postcode, you just need to know the name of the street for when the postcode gives its options. SatNav is actually pretty good.

[ecain63]

cosmokmike said:

Am struggling with the search function, so apols if the answer is somewhere obvious...

How much oil do I need to supply with the car when going in for a service?

Give them 10 litres and expect around 1 litre of change if they don't have to do too much flushing.

Edited by ecain63 on Thursday 25th April 21:27