E39 540i Touring

[ATM]

This caught my eye on auto trader. I am looking for another car. Looks good and I prefer a manual box and it has a sunroof. What do people think?

2002 540i touring
63,000 miles
£6,695

[SJobson]

Interesting spec - no nav (a bonus, in my book, since 6yr old sat nav is nowhere near as good as a TomTom), no phone, wood in a Sport, comfort seats (which I love, personally, but plenty wouldn't want a Sport without sports seats). Not a fan of the beige interior, but I do like the alloys.

Manuals are rare; they're no more valuable than autos though because it seems most people who want 540i Tourings are old men like me who want the self-shifter Wonder how little my 2000/X pre-facelift non-Sport is worth, with 141k miles on it...

[Crombers]

If you want a 540 Touring with a manual box then I'd imagine you will be hard pushed to find a number of them to choose from. The colour combination inside and out is spot on in my opinion (although I would say that as my B10 Touring is the same!).

Provided it's mint both body and mechanically then I would snap it up if I were you!

[derin100]

I've got one too...and that looks very good to me. I also wouldn't really want a manual but if you don't mind I'd say all other things considered: "Definitely...Go for it!"

[ATM]

The comfort seats with lumbar are a plus for me as I dont get on with the sports. I mentioned the car to a few friends who have now all started going on at me about fuel since i do need to travel up and down the country almost every 2nd or 3rd weekend. Should I ask you guys about mpg or just not think about it?

[Hereward]

That looks lovely. 25mpg+ should be attainable wafting along the motorways.

[Crombers]

At under £1 a litre shouldn't we all be driving V8s now?

But yes, 25mpg is achievable on the motorway, dropping to the high teens about town. More smiles per gallon than miles per gallon I like to think.

[Egbert Nobacon]

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C62088

Nice one here.

[derin100]

ATM said:

The comfort seats with lumbar are a plus for me as I dont get on with the sports. I mentioned the car to a few friends who have now all started going on at me about fuel since i do need to travel up and down the country almost every 2nd or 3rd weekend. Should I ask you guys about mpg or just not think about it?

If you are sensible it's not bad at all! I get about 26 mpg on my daily drive to and from work which consists of about 11 miles each way on open country A-road.

Over two trips to Le Mans this summer it averaged about 30-ish mpg...more the first time (about 32) less the second (about 27...but that was VERY HEAVILY laden with 5 people and a large roof-box!!!). On the first trip, my wife followed me in her identical E39 528i Touring and her fuel consumption was actually higher!

Edited by derin100 on Saturday 18th October 22:09

[eliot]

Blimey no-one come on here yet bleating on about how you should get a 530 instead - must be a record.
Nice car, unusual also because it has the big sports bumpers - most of the tourings dont have them.

[dcb]

derin100 said:

Over two trips to Le Mans this summer it averaged about 30-ish mpg...more the first time (about 32) less the second (about 27...but that was VERY HEAVILY laden with 5 people and a large roof-box!!!). On the first trip, my wife followed me in her identical E39 528i Touring and her fuel consumption was actually higher!

You'd have to drive *exceptionally* gently to get 30 mpg average from any V8.
Slipstreaming lorries down the motorway springs to mind.
Possibly not quite the right way to drive a V8 ?

More realistically, as other posters have indicated, 25 mpg is likely,
dropping to high teens around town.

530 / 528 about 5 mph slower, about 5-7 mpg better, an insurance group
or two lower and cheaper servicing costs.

[bob1179]

I would definitely buy that car. It looks nice and is a colour combo that I think looks very smart.

The V8 is the engine to go for, smooth, powerful and it makes a lovely noise.

Buy it and buy it quickly (I quite like the look of it...)

[jonnyh0711]

Have a query and hoping you can help me

I have a 02 plate 525dse touring with about 125K on the clock.

have had turbo and injectors done and new exhaust system at about 100k and just put in a new steering rack.

missus reckons I should move it on a and get something else (like an astra estate) I reckon that given the work done on it so far it should be good for another 50-60k miles without major issue - and in 2-3 years an astra estate will depreciate by about 3-4k anyway so i am just chucking money down pan

any advice - is the bmw likely to go wrong and have a larger bill i next few years?

thanks!

[Mustard]

eliot said:

Blimey no-one come on here yet bleating on about how you should get a 530 instead - must be a record.
Nice car, unusual also because it has the big sports bumpers - most of the tourings dont have them.

that car to me looks like its had the normal bumpers replaced with the 'sport' ones after its been built, as the rubbing strips on the side are body coloured, they are black as per the bumpers on sport models (or M-styling)

Nice car for the money as long as the bumpers dont hide a story

[bob1179]

jonnyh0711 said:

Have a query and hoping you can help me

I have a 02 plate 525dse touring with about 125K on the clock.

have had turbo and injectors done and new exhaust system at about 100k and just put in a new steering rack.

missus reckons I should move it on a and get something else (like an astra estate) I reckon that given the work done on it so far it should be good for another 50-60k miles without major issue - and in 2-3 years an astra estate will depreciate by about 3-4k anyway so i am just chucking money down pan

any advice - is the bmw likely to go wrong and have a larger bill i next few years?

thanks!

Welcome to PH

It depends on how much you've spent on it I suppose. The E39 5ser is a good motor and will do an intergalactic mileage if looked after. An Astra is dull and won't be nearly as rewarding (IMO) as the old beemer. If you keep the maintenance up the car will see 250K easily, but it really is a personal issue.

Personally, I'd stick with your current car...

[jonnyh0711]

they were my thoughts!

I guess my only concern is that the next big thing will be the suspension (electrics seem ok so far)

I suppose I will make the choice and face the music if it all goes wrong!

- erm slightly off topic - interior has been lovingly used by 2 kids and seats are a little stained any ideas where the best place to start looking for replacements are?

and sorry for going off topic - I think the 540I looks nice! but i would worry about the mpg (well I would not but missus would!)

[bob1179]

jonnyh0711 said:

they were my thoughts!

I guess my only concern is that the next big thing will be the suspension (electrics seem ok so far)

I suppose I will make the choice and face the music if it all goes wrong!

- erm slightly off topic - interior has been lovingly used by 2 kids and seats are a little stained any ideas where the best place to start looking for replacements are?

and sorry for going off topic - I think the 540I looks nice! but i would worry about the mpg (well I would not but missus would!)

Suspension shouldn't cause too many issues, other than the usual bush and damper wear, but then you'd get that with any car (good one to tell the missus...).

As for the interior, I've found Vanish Spray to be quite good at removing stains from the seats and carpets. If you want to replace the seats there are plenty of good BMW breakers around that will be able to supply you with an interior.

These guys seem to have a decent stock:

http://www.fabdirect.com/default.asp?id=1&name...

[Crombers]

bob1179 said:

Suspension shouldn't cause too many issues, other than the usual bush and damper wear, but then you'd get that with any car (good one to tell the missus...).

Not sure that's entirely accurate. The touring suspension is a more complex set up than the E39 saloon and is prone to expensive faults.

Past 70k you should be looking at replacing the rear subframe bushes as ride quality deteriorates, often to the extent where the subframe bangs off the boot floor. You'll get a little change out of £500 for this request, but not much.

More over, the air springs also tend to fail as the years creep up so expect to spend another couple of hundred quid on replacing the pair. This is over and above the usual shock absorber outlay. And keep your fingers crossed the rest of the air suspension accoutrements don't fail as there are a few expensive items in there, albeit they are less known to fail.

As with any large V8 car, ensure the maintenance budget is adequate!

[derin100]

dcb said:

derin100 said:

Over two trips to Le Mans this summer it averaged about 30-ish mpg...more the first time (about 32) less the second (about 27...but that was VERY HEAVILY laden with 5 people and a large roof-box!!!). On the first trip, my wife followed me in her identical E39 528i Touring and her fuel consumption was actually higher!

You'd have to drive *exceptionally* gently to get 30 mpg average from any V8.
Slipstreaming lorries down the motorway springs to mind.
Possibly not quite the right way to drive a V8 ?

More realistically, as other posters have indicated, 25 mpg is likely,
dropping to high teens around town.

530 / 528 about 5 mph slower, about 5-7 mpg better, an insurance group
or two lower and cheaper servicing costs.

Oh, here we go again...the old "530i Best Car in the World Theory" again... How many more times!?


Well, this is now the sixth BMW I've had running with the 4.4L V8. At normal motorway speeds over long distances I've been able to get 30 mpg (or close) in all of them...even 840's! When I bought me current 840Ci Sport I drive it all the way home from London (about 200 miles) and actually managed just a few tenths over.

The furthest motorway trip in a 740i with the same engine was back from Portsmouth again managed just over 30 mpg...and this is not crawling along.

Official Extra Urban figures for all of these cars are actually 31 mpg.

The Le Mans trips were done with the English legs (i.e the potentially busiest) being done at night-time on empty motorways mostly on cruise control with nearly all of the French leg done on cruise set at the French Motorway speed limit. A total distance of approx 600 miles each way. So a fairly good run at it.

Now it maybe driver sensitive of course but my wife's identical 528i Touring consitently returns poorer mpg (albeit only slightly) within the context of our driving which is for the most part on open, unhindered road A-road.

Having done the trip the preceeding time in two cars if the 540i were really the poorer of the two (espeically by the amount being suggested) why would we have chosen to do an otherwise fairly mundane drive to Le Mans the second time in the 540i?

The bottom line is....as someone once sensibly said here...all BMW petrol engines driven fairly sensibly always return around 25-30 mpg. That having been said I wouldn't worry about the difference either way!

I wouldn't worry about people saying: "Ooooh! But think of the petrol!" They're probably of the same misguided crowd who buy themselves a 'frugal' but brand new Fiat Panda and think they are saving themselves money by having to fill up less often...whilst being blind to the huge haemorrhage of money in depreciation which is far outstripping their notional fuel savings.

If you like the car go for it! If I didn't already have mine you wouldn't be looking at that one anymore because I would have bought it by now! It looks a cracking car...don't miss it. Best of luck!

btw...I don't know what this means? "530 / 528 about 5 mph slower"? What I do know is:

231bhp/300Nm vs 286bhp/440Nm 0-60: 7.5 secs vs 6.3 secs

[Egbert Nobacon]

derin100 said:

dcb said:

derin100 said:

Over two trips to Le Mans this summer it averaged about 30-ish mpg...more the first time (about 32) less the second (about 27...but that was VERY HEAVILY laden with 5 people and a large roof-box!!!). On the first trip, my wife followed me in her identical E39 528i Touring and her fuel consumption was actually higher!

You'd have to drive *exceptionally* gently to get 30 mpg average from any V8.
Slipstreaming lorries down the motorway springs to mind.
Possibly not quite the right way to drive a V8 ?

More realistically, as other posters have indicated, 25 mpg is likely,
dropping to high teens around town.

530 / 528 about 5 mph slower, about 5-7 mpg better, an insurance group
or two lower and cheaper servicing costs.

Oh, here we go again...the old "530i Best Car in the World Theory" again... How many more times!?


Well, this is now the sixth BMW I've had running with the 4.4L V8. At normal motorway speeds over long distances I've been able to get 30 mpg (or close) in all of them...even 840's! When I bought me current 840Ci Sport I drive it all the way home from London (about 200 miles) and actually managed just a few tenths over.

The furthest motorway trip in a 740i with the same engine was back from Portsmouth again managed just over 30 mpg...and this is not crawling along.

Official Extra Urban figures for all of these cars are actually 31 mpg.

The Le Mans trips were done with the English legs (i.e the potentially busiest) being done at night-time on empty motorways mostly on cruise control with nearly all of the French leg done on cruise set at the French Motorway speed limit. A total distance of approx 600 miles each way. So a fairly good run at it.

Now it maybe driver sensitive of course but my wife's identical 528i Touring consitently returns poorer mpg (albeit only slightly) within the context of our driving which is for the most part on open, unhindered road A-road.

Having done the trip the preceeding time in two cars if the 540i were really the poorer of the two (espeically by the amount being suggested) why would we have chosen to do an otherwise fairly mundane drive to Le Mans the second time in the 540i?

The bottom line is....as someone once sensibly said here...all BMW petrol engines driven fairly sensibly always return around 25-30 mpg. That having been said I wouldn't worry about the difference either way!

I wouldn't worry about people saying: "Ooooh! But think of the petrol!" They're probably of the same misguided crowd who buy themselves a 'frugal' but brand new Fiat Panda and think they are saving themselves money by having to fill up less often...whilst being blind to the huge haemorrhage of money in depreciation which is far outstripping their notional fuel savings.

If you like the car go for it! If I didn't already have mine you wouldn't be looking at that one anymore because I would have bought it by now! It looks a cracking car...don't miss it. Best of luck!

btw...I don't know what this means? "530 / 528 about 5 mph slower"? What I do know is:

231bhp/300Nm vs 286bhp/440Nm 0-60: 7.5 secs vs 6.3 secs

Derin's right - my current E38 740 (4.4) is marginally more economical than my previous 530iA Sport and 528i SE.

As for consumption - it averaged 31/32 mpg on a recent run to Marbella and back and I wasn't slipstreaming and didn't cruise below 80/85 mph.

Even the ex BMW tech who looks after my cars has always commented on how relatively thirsty the 3.0 straight six engine's are compared to the V8's and the fact that in his experience the V8 is the more reliable of the two.