Show us your E61 M5

[longfellow]

As I'm considering getting my hands on one of the above in the near future, I thought I would start a thread to see how many owners are on here and more importantly, to show us all photos of their V10 Bavarian barges.

Would love to see some individual examples as these seem to be extremely rare over here in touring guise.

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ss1977 said:

The special paint finishes or individual colours are indeed very rare, only 4 ever produced for the U.K. market. I've never seen anything other than the standard colours on the road or for sale. Here's a breakdown of the E61 M5 colours, sent to me by BMW U.K.

3 Alpine White
62 Black Sapphire
4 Special Request Paint Finishes
11 Indianapolis Red
40 Interlagos Blue
25 Monaco Blue
3 Sepang Bronze
40 Silverstone II
21 Space Grey

And here's a picture of my Interlagos Blue one having a rest

That looks lovely. I've always had a soft spot for Interlagos with 167's.

The website; www.m5portal.com is very heplful indeed, showing pretty much all the information there is to know about all the M5s.

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p1tse said:

Nice

I wander how a 535d fairs against these

I had a pre-lci E61 535d M Sport which had been mapped and to be honest, the gearbox drove me mad and it rolled far too much for my liking. I did however really like the interior.

If I was to have another one, it would have to be an LCI car as the gearboxes are far better (apparently), the interior is another step up and I would have the dynamic drive, just to stop the rolling.

The sensible part of my brain keeps thinking I should just buy another one instead of the M5 but as I can claim a large amount of my fuel back, I don't need to worry about MPG to a certain extent. It's just the initial outlay that I need to stump up for.

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Very nice indeed.

Are any owners running these without warranties now the miles are higher? I've read Eddie's very informative buyers guide but from what I can remember, it's mainly the clutch/clutch release bearings that cause the issues.

So other than that, you could possibly come across a few other electrical gremlins that are apparent through the entire E60/E61 range and not just the M5.

I'm currently running a C5 RS6 Plus and within the short time I've owned it (4 or 5 months), I've shelled out a couple of grand already so I'm not expecting the M5 to be run on a shoestring.

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Stedman said:

They all look the nuts, but the white ones are

Didn't Munich Legends have a white one recently?

There's a chap with a white one over on BMWLand but I don't remember seeing one at ML recently. Could obviously be mistaken though.

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tobybmw535i said:

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My Dad's old one Probably the best car he has ever had!

Is that Silverstone (the colour, not the place)?

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I'm not a huge fan of Silver cars but even that looks pretty awesome with 167 boots on.

Surely there are more E61 owners on here?

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So how come you sold it?

Was it just costing too much to run?

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ecain63 said:

My old girl. Had her until 2 years ago and was the basis for the Buyers Guide at the top of the forum.

Excellent travelling car!


And a great lugger:

Any videos with the wheels spinning up as I'm assuming that's the Le Mans burnout strip?

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So if there was a slightly higher mileage (circa 80k) car for sale at a decent price without a warranty, would you steer clear?

Obviously if the clutch/flywheel hadn't been replaced that would need to be factored in to be replaced at some point.

I don't have any issues with forking out a bit of money keeping the car in top condition and to me, it seems like the clutch is the main weakness, is there anything else that commonly fails?

I've read through the buyers guide which is very informative.

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MuZiZZle said:

How old is it?

I mean they're all getting on a bit now, I just sort of bought mine on a whim, an 07 plate, then forked out for the big 60k service, a bit of wiring in the tailgate and bits and bobs. If you can afford to replace the engine or the gearbox if it shats itself, or are willing to sell the car on if it does so without repairing it and take the financial kicking, go for it.

Neither of these things may happen, but who knows?

I bought mine just sub 60k and got the Mondial warranty, personally I'd not run one without a warranty.

I do a tank of fuel a week at £90 ish, the average 1000 miles would be more like £450

It'll probably use a fair bit of oil, Opie does a BMW friendly 20L container for £150, an oil change will use 9.3 of that, it may need 1L every 1000 miles, maybe more, maybe less, they're all different and driving style and the age of the existing oil all play a part.

Road tax is £42 a month if you break it down.

That's your baseline really £4-500 a month to just run it, excluding insurance

I factor in my warranty at £90, and £100 a month away incase something falls off / I need to pay warranty excess / tyres / MOT

Basically, buy one!

Thanks for the info, very helpful.

To be honest I was just using the 80k marker as a guide really, not found a car yet as I'm just seeing what's around and I'm not in any hurry to jump into one just yet.

Luckily for me I can claim the majority of my fuel back and if I was to be running one of these without a warranty, I would be putting some money aside to cover any work that needs doing.

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[quote=metsta]


Mine, owned it 2 yrs ago and didn't get it so I sold it and bought a fantastic spec 58reg 535d estate.
Hated that so bought my old m5 back.
Been to Germany in it, France and holland a few times

On the way through Germany home storming along at stupid speeds the car is truly amazing there not much else that can shift 3 kids and 2 adults with such solid unrelentless power. Did the same trip last year Calais, Nurburgring, Stuttgart, home in my 996 turbo and would say the M5 is the better all rounder for the family man.
This trip just gone I was easily getting 280 miles out of a tank and reckon I could have done better, mpg computer was around 25mpg from memory so it's on par withy old Discovery 4 TDV6.

I bought a smart car for the commute as I had that same dead feeling every time I drove the 535.

I've never had a warranty on it so be aware, mine has 86k on the clock and in the past year
Or so, Discs and pads all round, Clutch and bearing, iDrive unit, sunroof repaired, new tyres and powder coated wheels, oil cooler, major service inc plugs and smg service, throttle actuators and probably a bit more,at this mileage but one and budget for c£3-£4k

I will probably hang on to mine a year or so more and have a company local to me that will custom fit me a tow bar for my bike rack as it's the only thing I miss on family wagon.

In summary a great all round supercar for the family man as long as you have a relatively relaxed wallet and have owned other fairly expensive cars to run.
That said can't wait to do the euro road trip next year in the Ferrari if it's still with me and not been swapped back to a 911


Enjoy

Brilliant, thanks.

What happened to the iDrive, did you get the BMW logo that just doesn't go away?