BMW M5 - journey from E39 to E60!
BMW M5 - journey from E39 to E60!
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sshenton1975

Original Poster:

805 posts

250 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
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Evening all

Bit of an update on the family car situation

Bought an E39 M5 in 2011 to act as my daily driver, having previously had a very late E39 530d M Sport.
The M5 was in LeMans Blue which I absolutely loved. And that engine.....oh yes that engine! The V8 howl was released with a bespoke exhaust system and I enjoyed 15K miles in it without any issue.
I spend some money chasing some rust - typical areas - boot lid, petrol cap etc.


Having its new exhaust fitted


In the end I got fed up with chasing rust and so moved on to 500HP courtesy of a Mercedes CL600 twin turbo



Ive had the Merc for 2 years now and have loved it - made a few mods such as lowering links and bespoke exhaust. The torque on these is addictive and 60mph to 120mph is unbelievable.

So where are we today? Well last weekend I succumbed to M Power once more and traded the Merc for a beautiful E60 M5. I did a lot of research on the problems related to the M5 of this area, in particular clutch, flywheel, SMG etc. I found one at a dealer with very little history but looking very clean - 65K miles on a 55 plate. Did some research and discovered that the car had been owned for 6 years by a city trader for who money was no object. The car therefore has been to BMW dealers only (I have tracked the history) and 500 miles ago received a brand new engine with an invoice for 18k!!!! I am still in the running in period!! At the same time it had its 2nd new flywheel in 5 years and clutch etc

I'll let the pics do the talking



bums/bb145/sshenton1975/036_zpsfb28d3f5.jpg[/IMG][/URL]





It's pretty clean to be honest - so far I have had the wheel refurbed properly (tyres off) and repainted in shadow chrome - I loved this finish on my E39 and it works really well on the E60 too.
Ive replaced the bonnet, boot and wheel badges and for now, that's it. Gradually I shall work around the car with my machine polisher but for now I am more than happy to just enjoy the car - especially when you hit the M button and move from 400 to 500 bhp!

Yes, these cars do have a reputation for fragility but hopefully someone else has already taken th hit on my car and I can now enjoy a few months/years without huge bills!

Hope you like

Simon

CB2152

1,555 posts

162 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
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I like your car history very much based on this post thumbup

It's the sort of thing I'd do...

wongthecorrupter

2,766 posts

200 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
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I love the merc

anomaly

507 posts

202 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
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The E60 M5 looks fantastic in that colour.

cerb4.5lee

44,263 posts

209 months

Saturday 7th June 2014
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Love your car history and love the new motor too, enjoy the 500bhp beast. biggrin

I'm Rick james

250 posts

182 months

Sunday 8th June 2014
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Would love either of those M5s! Old school just pips the new one for some reason, that v8 must have been quite a thing! lovely cars.
Rj

Martin_M

2,071 posts

256 months

Sunday 8th June 2014
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It's a stunning car and I would love one but the running costs kill it for me.

Enjoy your new purchase!

carreauchompeur

18,317 posts

233 months

Sunday 8th June 2014
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I did chuckle when I saw the statement about moving from BMW to an early 2000's Merc to avoid rust hehe

New one looks like a peach, well done for doing the research...

johnfm

13,751 posts

279 months

Sunday 8th June 2014
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Lovely.

What, roughly, was the Merc worth when you chopped it in?

Quite a tempting thing - 500hp V12...

deltashad

6,731 posts

226 months

Sunday 8th June 2014
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Three very hot cars. Out of interest which one was your baby?

skyrover

12,700 posts

233 months

Sunday 8th June 2014
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hang on... only 65k and it needed a new engine?

CrouchingWayne

749 posts

205 months

Sunday 8th June 2014
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Awesome car history. I would love a CL (or SL) of some description but the horror stories put me off. M5 looks great.

C. Grimsley

1,381 posts

224 months

Sunday 8th June 2014
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skyrover said:
hang on... only 65k and it needed a new engine?
Don't take much these days when replacement is always offered rather than a repair. Esp at a main agent.

Carl