E39 M5 Facelift question
Discussion
minimatan said:
Do you know of any drivers/owners commenting on the level of support that comfort/active seats offer? They seem quite flat from the images, however the active (inflation) aspect may have been selected in order to compensate for this.
I have the comfort seats in my 540i Touring and the heavily bolstered ones in the M5. Whilst the comfort seats are very, er, comfortable the bolstered ones are no less so and much more in keeping with the ethos of an M5.Were the photos you posted of the seats in the car you mentioned was low mileage? They look like they have got a fair amount of wear on the sides but it could just be the way the camera/light has caught it.
Oh get it bought!
I did 532 miles in mine yesterday nearly all motorways, and still turned the traction off and came sympathetically sideways up the country lane to my house on the way home. Bloody cracking cars and with petrol now almost free, I find myself stretching her legs even more.
Buy the best you can but buy soon. Good luck OP.
I did 532 miles in mine yesterday nearly all motorways, and still turned the traction off and came sympathetically sideways up the country lane to my house on the way home. Bloody cracking cars and with petrol now almost free, I find myself stretching her legs even more.
Buy the best you can but buy soon. Good luck OP.
Minimatan,
You have mail! I am unfortunately putting my car up for sale at the weekend so if you are interested in a Y reg facelift E39 M5 in Carbon Black with FSH, backed up with all the paperwork for work carried out during the life of the car please get in touch.
Thanks in advance
Dan
You have mail! I am unfortunately putting my car up for sale at the weekend so if you are interested in a Y reg facelift E39 M5 in Carbon Black with FSH, backed up with all the paperwork for work carried out during the life of the car please get in touch.
Thanks in advance
Dan
Hi all, time for the big reveal!
http://www.gumtree.com/p/bmw/bmw-m5-2000x-61000-mi...
I went to see this car, at considerable inconvenience to myself, which was communicated to me as being a good honest vehicle that was totally original. It transpires that it had aftermarket straight pipes, pipercross air filters and a sticky gearbox, probably attributable to lots of burnouts and aggressive gearchanges. There was no glass sunroof (I asked specifically) and the rear heater element did not work (small fry).
All in all I wasted my time going to see this vehicle, key elements of which were not communicated to me despite numerous and detailed email exchanges over a number of days. It was clear that this was being sold as an original spec low mileage vehicle and that I was after a largely unadulterated model.
It is a shame as the bodywork was nice and the interior was good too. The comfort seats are very nice and yet still supportive. The stereo sound was excellent.
The issue is that the previous owner was a 25 year old guy who lightly modded it and thrashed it. Shame for the car and shame on the seller for trying to sell a mechanically inferior vehicle as being something tip top, which it is not.
I wish any interested parties all the best, but be prepared for some expenses in getting this vehicle back to spec, which should be considered in the negotiated price.
http://www.gumtree.com/p/bmw/bmw-m5-2000x-61000-mi...
I went to see this car, at considerable inconvenience to myself, which was communicated to me as being a good honest vehicle that was totally original. It transpires that it had aftermarket straight pipes, pipercross air filters and a sticky gearbox, probably attributable to lots of burnouts and aggressive gearchanges. There was no glass sunroof (I asked specifically) and the rear heater element did not work (small fry).
All in all I wasted my time going to see this vehicle, key elements of which were not communicated to me despite numerous and detailed email exchanges over a number of days. It was clear that this was being sold as an original spec low mileage vehicle and that I was after a largely unadulterated model.
It is a shame as the bodywork was nice and the interior was good too. The comfort seats are very nice and yet still supportive. The stereo sound was excellent.
The issue is that the previous owner was a 25 year old guy who lightly modded it and thrashed it. Shame for the car and shame on the seller for trying to sell a mechanically inferior vehicle as being something tip top, which it is not.
I wish any interested parties all the best, but be prepared for some expenses in getting this vehicle back to spec, which should be considered in the negotiated price.
It's a shame it was not as advertised. With these cars if at all possible try and get someone local to give it a quick look over if at all possible.
Just looking at the photos does not give much of an indications as to the condition of the car, but a keen eye will spot things that don't look quite right. For example, it's quite clear that the car has at least after market back boxes, so if it was described as stock that should set the alarm bells ringing. The driver seat in particular is quite worn for 60,000 miles, as is the drivers door seal, they probably indicate many short journeys rather than fewer long ones. The floor mats are not original equipment. As mentioned the rear view mirror is the standard rectangular type not oval. There are no pictures of the engine bay and only one of the interior (although it looks like you've been sent other pictures of the seats). The 4th picture shows that the sun roof is probably the metal type and not glass. None of those things are particularly bad in themselves, they are just possible indicators.
Looking at the spec of the car from those pictures and the build date, I'd guess it's VIN BJ11191.
Just looking at the photos does not give much of an indications as to the condition of the car, but a keen eye will spot things that don't look quite right. For example, it's quite clear that the car has at least after market back boxes, so if it was described as stock that should set the alarm bells ringing. The driver seat in particular is quite worn for 60,000 miles, as is the drivers door seal, they probably indicate many short journeys rather than fewer long ones. The floor mats are not original equipment. As mentioned the rear view mirror is the standard rectangular type not oval. There are no pictures of the engine bay and only one of the interior (although it looks like you've been sent other pictures of the seats). The 4th picture shows that the sun roof is probably the metal type and not glass. None of those things are particularly bad in themselves, they are just possible indicators.
Looking at the spec of the car from those pictures and the build date, I'd guess it's VIN BJ11191.
minimatan said:
Interesting insights, though the rear view was oval.
Sorry, I thought you'd said it was rectangular, my mistake the shape was just discussed regarding the pre facelift/facelift determination.minimatan said:
The vin is indeed BJ11191, may I ask how that was determined?
I know the E39 M5 quite well! There are not many UK cars with Active Seats (89). Metal sun roof narrows it down further. Nav a little more, Carbon Black/Black a little more and Fine Wood trim takes it down to 3 cars, the GSM phone makes it unique. That's without knowing (because you can't tell from the pictures) that it also has Double glazing (although I did wonder due to the side window reflections and black line around the rear quarter light), Climate Comfort screen, DSP, Alcantara headlining, through loading and Ski bag.
RichardM5 said:
I know the E39 M5 quite well!
There are not many UK cars with Active Seats (89). Metal sun roof narrows it down further. Nav a little more, Carbon Black/Black a little more and Fine Wood trim takes it down to 3 cars, the GSM phone makes it unique. That's without knowing (because you can't tell from the pictures) that it also has Double glazing (although I did wonder due to the side window reflections and black line around the rear quarter light), Climate Comfort screen, DSP, Alcantara headlining, through loading and Ski bag.
There are not many UK cars with Active Seats (89). Metal sun roof narrows it down further. Nav a little more, Carbon Black/Black a little more and Fine Wood trim takes it down to 3 cars, the GSM phone makes it unique. That's without knowing (because you can't tell from the pictures) that it also has Double glazing (although I did wonder due to the side window reflections and black line around the rear quarter light), Climate Comfort screen, DSP, Alcantara headlining, through loading and Ski bag.
Oh, one more thing I forgot, the interior is M1SW, that's full leather (you can see the seam on the lower dash in the last picture, below the wood trim), that alone narrows it down to 1 of 63 RHD cars (EDIT: and only 1 of 10 UK cars!).
It really is quite a rare car, such a shame it's been treated badly, at a lower price it would probably make a good restoration project if it's rust free.
It really is quite a rare car, such a shame it's been treated badly, at a lower price it would probably make a good restoration project if it's rust free.
Edited by RichardM5 on Friday 9th January 09:51
Yes, I hope that Olly22n can forgive me for keeping my cards close to my chest. I couldn't exclude the possibility that this was a dealer who just wanted to hang on to a lovely car for himself. He claimed that the exhaust was mentioned in the original advert, but upon re reading, all that I can see is a single word in the description, 'tuning'! That's a cynical concealing of the facts imho.
The spec is excellent and I agree that it would make a great restoration project at the right price. The engine pulls well and suspension feels okay, but gearboxes aren't cheap, let alone the additional damage caused during a brief but unhappy chapter of its life. It certainly did not feel as tight as the 03 plate 68k example that I test drove, that was immediately apparent.
I still am curious, what resources did you employ in order to determine the vin?
The spec is excellent and I agree that it would make a great restoration project at the right price. The engine pulls well and suspension feels okay, but gearboxes aren't cheap, let alone the additional damage caused during a brief but unhappy chapter of its life. It certainly did not feel as tight as the 03 plate 68k example that I test drove, that was immediately apparent.
I still am curious, what resources did you employ in order to determine the vin?
minimatan said:
I still am curious, what resources did you employ in order to determine the vin?
It's from a database I have put together of all the RHD E39 M5s that were made, still working on the LHD cars! You can get the data for an individual car from places like http://www.bmwarchive.org/vin/bmw-vin-decoder.html if you know the VIN although sometimes the data is incomplete or merged with another vehicles options. It's taken a while to put it all together. A site with a summary of the similar information is http://www.m5portal.com/forum/e39m5_main_index.asp... I think they basically did the same thing, but you can't run a generic query on the data as I can, just view the numbers for each option.
Gassing Station | M Power | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff