e60 m5...good used buy?

[turboman786]

Looking though the classifieds, it appears that a 50k miles 2005 M5 with BMW warranty can be had for c£23k.....

That seems like pretty good value for money.....

Am I missing something here? I know there are issues with the SMG etc but surely if the car is under a BMW warranty then running costs should be 'reasonable' ie just normal (high) servicing costs, rather than costly repairs...

Are these cars money pits even when under main dealer warranty, or do they represent a sound used buy...Ive owned a number of BMs including an M3 and there is something about the m5 that lures me in.....

Also, just how bad are they on fuel....I could live with 15mpg, but sub 10 would hurt! How many miles is the tank range on urban driving v motorway...

Any ownership experiences would be gratefully read!

[Lefty]

A colleague has one - bought his when 2 years old and he's has it 3 years (I think).

I've driven it a few times and been driven in it dozens of times - it's ace

Anyway, he's had a few things sorted under the bmw extended warranty that would have cost a lot. He absolutely reckopns it's worth extending thge warranty for as long as possible, even though it's pretty expensive (£2k/year rings a bell).

Bear in mind it's a 500bhp, 200mph car : Consumables are expensive - discs and pads especially and because he uses his car on track he gets through a lot of them. Tyres, too...

I would have one, I really would.

[Nasir 123]

Lovely cars, but you have to budget the running costs of a 60K plus car, not a 23K car. I love them and they make one of the best exhaust notes .

I say you buy it!

[130R]

I've got an M6 but anyway:

If under warranty then, yes, you just need to run it. I get 17.5 mpg driving a mix of A and B roads, no city driving in traffic. It has a small fuel tank so if you do a lot of miles you will be in a petrol station continuously. I do 150 miles a week for work and fill up about once a week. To extend the warranty is £951 a year for the top cover. Tyres (£300+ per tyre on the rear for PS2's), brakes (something like £850 for front disks and pads from BMW) and servicing are expensive as you would imagine. To be honest I don't really find the running costs much of an issue, but I don't do that many miles. I'm considering a GTR next, if you want to see really scary running costs take a look at one of them!

[jontysafe]

I`d say they represent one of the best second hand buys out there, so long as you keep it a while.

For some reason the second hand car market puts little value in them, less even than is normal for a large high performance saloon. In my opinion it`s based on hearsay and nonsense from a few early horror stories about weak SMGs.

I`ve got one and absolutely love it, albeit in an M6.

I know of one on 110,000m with absolutely no problems or faults at all, just on the button servicing, between service oil changes and a very heavy right foot!

I get 16mpg, I know I could get more but refuse to drive in P400. If you`re going to do that you may as well get a 650i!

[Mermaid]

jontysafe said:

I get 16mpg, I know I could get more but refuse to drive in P400. If you`re going to do that you may as well get a 650i!

At least you have option to downgrade to 400ps, power that was considered epic for the E39 M5.

I like the M5/M6 but would NEVER consider one without a warranty.

[scz4]

Does putting it in 400ps mode actually give you a noticable increase in miles per gallon?

[ParanoidAndroid]

Thinking about one of these too. I'd probably be looking for the Touring version though which seem a bit more pricey/rarer. Out of interest does the need for a warranty limit me to a maindealer purchase?

Cheers,
Graham

[andyvdg]

turboman786 said:

Also, just how bad are they on fuel....I could live with 15mpg, but sub 10 would hurt! How many miles is the tank range on urban driving v motorway...

Only had mine for a few weeks, so far a mixture of urban and motorway seems to average at just under 20mpg. I think on a motorway you would be starting to look for a petrol station at about 270 miles and driving around the city around 200 miles. As far as I can tell from how much petrol I put in on a refill, the range calculator on the computer seems fairly accurate - so pay attention to it (I don't think there's a 10 litre reserve hidden somewhere).

[foz01]

scz4 said:

Does putting it in 400ps mode actually give you a noticable increase in miles per gallon?

Made no difference whatsoever in mine, that includes a knockhill run on cruise...

[turboman786]

Thanks for the replies so far....

How big is the fuel tank...70l?

[foz01]

Might be 65, urban I was getting 150 miles, best ever was 300..

[djohnson]

scz4 said:

Does putting it in 400ps mode actually give you a noticable increase in miles per gallon?

Nope.

[jontysafe]

Mermaid said:

jontysafe said:

I get 16mpg, I know I could get more but refuse to drive in P400. If you`re going to do that you may as well get a 650i!

At least you have option to downgrade to 400ps, power that was considered epic for the E39 M5.

I like the M5/M6 but would NEVER consider one without a warranty.

I keep telling my fiance the only reason I HAD to buy it was because BMW were doing a years extension on AUC cars. There was some logic in there somewhere.

[CSLchappie]

As others have said, zilch, but to be honest 95% of the time I run mine in P400 mode, it makes using the M button that bit more special and to be honest, I've never really been troubled by anything else on the road that required anything more than P400...

scz4 said:

Does putting it in 400ps mode actually give you a noticable increase in miles per gallon?

[Mermaid]

jontysafe said:

Mermaid said:

jontysafe said:

I get 16mpg, I know I could get more but refuse to drive in P400. If you`re going to do that you may as well get a 650i!

At least you have option to downgrade to 400ps, power that was considered epic for the E39 M5.

I like the M5/M6 but would NEVER consider one without a warranty.

I keep telling my fiance the only reason I HAD to buy it was because BMW were doing a years extension on AUC cars. There was some logic in there somewhere.

You have a sensible woman there, marry her.

[skeeterm5]

I ran an m5 for 2 years and 30k miles. It was a brilliant car, a few things sorted out under warranty and I would never, repeat, NEVER buy one without a full BMW warranty. They are the most complex car I have ever come across, indeed, somethings are just complicated for the sheer hell of it.

I posted my thoughts on it a few weeks ago;

After 2 years of V10 tomfoolery the time has come to move on, so today I struck a deal to sell the M5 and in 2 weeks time it will disappear from my driveway.

Mixed feelings about it going really, to sum up the last 24 months;

- amazing performance in full M mode
- ride on 'sport setting' far too hard for UK roads so never really used
- active seats were great and I never stopped smiling when using them in 2 years
- a couple of minor problems which the dealers were inept at fixing
- fuel economy surprisingly good (!) over 24 months and 31k miles the obc shows an average of 17.1 mpg
- tyre wear pretty reasonable too
- SMG terrible in traffic and at slow speeds, almost impossible to drive slowly smoothly
- full auto mode on SMG is nothing short of a joke
- SMG fantastic when out of town and really suits the car, the novelty of full throttle S6 upshifts never wears off
- head up display possibly the best thing on the car, someday all cars will have it
- fuel range poor, 200 miles between fill ups means a lot of stops at the garage which is a real pain and seriously limits long range cruising

Am I buying another bmw? No, the key reason, the quality of the aftercare service. I dont expect to pay in excess of 40k for a car and have idiots working on it. The local dealers are a joke, to be fair mine is the only m5 they see, but even so.....

So to sum up, as an every day drive the m5 delivers great thrills and if your normal driving is mostly out of town there isnt much to come close to it.

7.5/10 over 2 years for me.

So, a good second hand buy? Yes but only if you can afford to run a 60k car. So eyes open before you buy, and at that price it is looking like one of the performance car bargains of the year.

S

[jontysafe]

Mermaid said:

jontysafe said:

Mermaid said:

jontysafe said:

I get 16mpg, I know I could get more but refuse to drive in P400. If you`re going to do that you may as well get a 650i!

At least you have option to downgrade to 400ps, power that was considered epic for the E39 M5.

I like the M5/M6 but would NEVER consider one without a warranty.

I keep telling my fiance the only reason I HAD to buy it was because BMW were doing a years extension on AUC cars. There was some logic in there somewhere.

You have a sensible woman there, marry her.

Date set for Sep 2011!! Now the convincing on the 612 Scaglietti starts......40th B-Day pressie!!

[turboman786]

Many thanks for the replies....now the determining question is...will my wife be able to drive it?.....she used to drive my 525d and my 530i, but the m5 is a bit more complicated.........

[sdc77]

skeetrm5 sums it up very nicely.. just get that warranty whatever you do