BMW e60 advice

[newberry]

I'm thinking of buying an e60 525 or 530, the 525 can be petrol or diesel the 530 will have to be diesel. I'm looking for advise on things to look out for and peoples experience of these cars, things like how much to fill the tank and how many miles to a tank? For example my old lexus is200 was about £75ish to fill and generally got about 380 miles (mostly round town). How much is tax? Etc.
Have around £7000 budget so looking at early cars not in mint condition and with higher mileage really, but assuming that they manage the miles well? Any feedback and views appreciated.

[Fox-]

Why does the 530 have to be diesel?

Personally I dont think your budget is high enough for happy E60 ownership. These are complicated cars and almost nothing on them is simple or easy to fix. If you can only afford more shabby cars then you really would be far better off buying something else. I hate to think what a £7k E60 530d looks like!

[newberry]

The 530 would have to be diesel just for the extra fuel economy and guessing the petrol would be in the £400+ tax band?
Also see what you mean about budget but have seen a couple on ebay around £6500-£7500 like theses.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/04-REG-BMW-530D-SE-AUTO-FULL...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/04-04-BMW-530d-SE-AUTO-LEATH...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2003-BMW-530d-SE-Diesel-Salo...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-530d-3-0-SE-TURBO-DIESEL...

Any thouughts on these cars, good or bad?

Edited by newberry on Sunday 23 January 10:41

[Alfa GTV]

newberry said:

I'm thinking of buying an e60 525 or 530, the 525 can be petrol or diesel the 530 will have to be diesel. I'm looking for advise on things to look out for and peoples experience of these cars, things like how much to fill the tank and how many miles to a tank? For example my old lexus is200 was about £75ish to fill and generally got about 380 miles (mostly round town). How much is tax? Etc.
Have around £7000 budget so looking at early cars not in mint condition and with higher mileage really, but assuming that they manage the miles well? Any feedback and views appreciated.

I own a 530D M Sport, costs about £80 for a tank and returns about 600 miles, mainly motorway.

I have never had any problems with mine but mine is only a few years old, things to look out for are swirl flaps should be removed - easy and cheap fix

Fuel consumption can be low, do a check on hidden menu for engine temps, if low then you can change the main and egr thermostat - easy cheap fix.

RFT are a fairly harsh ride imo, no problem swapping over for normal tyres though.

But after all this your budget of 7k I would probably be looking at a much better condition E39, good luck with whatever you choose though.

A quck search reveals this E60:

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2400116.htm

A quick search reveals this E39 for same money but better condition, lower mileage:

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2409249.htm

A more thorough search and you will find a better E60 and E39, but for your budget I would opt for the best E39 I could find.

[c3craig]

Hi mate had mine since August 09 530d, msport, 55 reg, carbon black, full comfort leather pack, hud, packed with extras absolutly loved it stunning car to drive looks the part (when clean) although the love fades when the dreaded faults appear and keep appearing on the idrive since Ive brought it its had a brand new turbo unit to the tune of £1300 with the labour, sensors seem to fail at will and the particle filter is the devils own work i havent changed it as yet but its a fault on the idrive at the cost of approx 1250 just parts, There is a constant battery drain on it so when your cleaning it I wouldnt dare leave the radio on. I thought it was just a bad egg but after joining forums and researching lots and lots on the net theyre prone to various faults especialls the battery drain which bmw reckon theres no faults with the car when they read them. dont want to sound like a defeatest but with all due respect i wouldnt be looking at these cars at that price they will have been subject to a hard life even with a list of full service receipts and stamps these are a tempramental piece of kit spoke to the local indy garage which has a great reputation and he said theyre getting loads in on a monthly basis with various faults, just thought best not advertise my car on here for sale l8r in the year ill end up giving it away after [people read this post:-).................

[newberry]

Thanks Craig, that's the sort thing I was wanting to hear about, stuff only owner can tell you about.

Anybody else with similar or different problems?

[Fox-]

newberry said:

The 530 would have to be diesel just for the extra fuel economy and guessing the petrol would be in the £400+ tax band?

The 530i is no more thirsty than the 525i which is why I asked the question, as a result the CO2 emissions are virtually identical and any E60 registered before March 06 is capped at the £245 tax band anyway.

I really think is the wrong decision - the high chance of a significant bill on a car like this, especially a 530d, will dwarf any fuel economy savings.

I'm sorry I just don't think that this is enough money for a trouble free E60 experience. A £7k E60 is the sort of car you buy when you've got £9k to spend not £7k, if you see what I mean.

I would imagine it will be more expensive to maintain than my 530i as it's more complex - have a look in my profile to see the ownership costs of my 530i over 4.5 years..

You really don't want to buy cars like this once they've fallen into the bracket where they are found at places with names like 'TRADE CARZ', you want to buy a nice example not high mileage 7 year old car supermarket fodder.

If you must do it the petrol engine is simpler and more reliable than the diesel engine.

Edited by Fox- on Sunday 23 January 14:45

[phelix]

I have a 54 reg E61 535d bought in Nov 07 as an AUC. The complexity of the car is worrying - seems like there is no such thing as a small repair bill. I've had the following done:

replacement DVD drive for the nav system
replacement engine oil heat exchanger due to water leak (twice)
main and EGR thermostats
self levelling suspension pump
pano sunroof cassette
complete steering column

Only car I've ever owned where I've taken the BMW extended warranty - it's peace of mind and insurance against a massive wallet hammering when something major/complex fails.

Cracking car otherwise - great mile muncher.

[newberry]

Fox- said:

newberry said:

The 530 would have to be diesel just for the extra fuel economy and guessing the petrol would be in the £400+ tax band?

The 530i is no more thirsty than the 525i which is why I asked the question, as a result the CO2 emissions are virtually identical and any E60 registered before March 06 is capped at the £245 tax band

Edited by Fox- on Sunday 23 January 14:45

Oh right I just assumed a 3 litre would be very thirsty especially round town and didn't know about the capped tax.
Haven't really had a chance to do any research as my lexus was written off last week so just been looking at possible replacements, maybe have to have a look at e39's but would rather an e60. Thanks for the feedback.

[Fox-]

newberry said:

Fox- said:

newberry said:

The 530 would have to be diesel just for the extra fuel economy and guessing the petrol would be in the £400+ tax band?

The 530i is no more thirsty than the 525i which is why I asked the question, as a result the CO2 emissions are virtually identical and any E60 registered before March 06 is capped at the £245 tax band

Edited by Fox- on Sunday 23 January 14:45

Oh right I just assumed a 3 litre would be very thirsty especially round town

It is - but the 525i is no less thirsty. Even the 530d is going to be high 20's at best around town.

[Sir Bagalot]

Alfa GTV said:

I own a 530D M Sport, costs about £80 for a tank and returns about 600 miles, mainly motorway.

Do you really get 44MPG out of a 530D?

[Fox-]

Sir Bagalot said:

Alfa GTV said:

I own a 530D M Sport, costs about £80 for a tank and returns about 600 miles, mainly motorway.

Do you really get 44MPG out of a 530D?

On the Motorway 95% of the time I see no reason why not - though thats at the upper range of what you'd expect. When I did Motorway trips in the E39 530d it returned about that at sensible speeds.

[thebullettrain]

Fox- said:

Sir Bagalot said:

Alfa GTV said:

I own a 530D M Sport, costs about £80 for a tank and returns about 600 miles, mainly motorway.

Do you really get 44MPG out of a 530D?

On the Motorway 95% of the time I see no reason why not - though thats at the upper range of what you'd expect. When I did Motorway trips in the E39 530d it returned about that at sensible speeds.

I ended up with 389 miles today with local driving before the 52 miles left warning light came on. I've got a projected 525 miles on a long motorway drive and as I did storm it slightly. This is a on 3 litre 525d.

[Alfa GTV]

Sir Bagalot said:

Alfa GTV said:

I own a 530D M Sport, costs about £80 for a tank and returns about 600 miles, mainly motorway.

Do you really get 44MPG out of a 530D?

Yes, after I had changed both thermostats and air filter change, consistently returns 42/43 mpg.

Edited by Alfa GTV on Monday 24th January 08:42

[DeanR32]

I might have to look into the filter and thermostats now. I've seen 38/39 on cruise control at 80 something (Only a 20 odd mile run), but at the moment i've been averaging mid 20's (a mix of town and dual carriageway) in my pre LCI 535d

Havent had any problems with mine, touch wood, but the worry of big bills makes me want to choop it in for an AUC for the warranty and the chance to extend it.

Its silly they dont do warranties on BMW's which see the dealers for servicing etc on time every time.

I think Alfa GTV's advice is spot on. A good E39 would be the way to go rather than an E60 at the very bottom of the price bracket.

P.S. Dont buy from a dealer that cant spell CARS properly!!!

[farbbm]

I've got a 2005 525d Msport which I've owned for some 4 years now and over that time have covered nearly 50,000 miles. In my experience the car has been excellent with no major failures just the usual service items. The car's fuel economy is ok (but no better than an equviliant 530) which on a mixture of roads is around 33 mpg and at the same time giving a firm but for me anyway acceptable ride, although it has to be said the run flats are very sensitive to tyre pressures. What I mean is even a fairly small loss of pressure can have the car tramlining all over the road which is most unpleasant especially with the current state of our roads. Before I bought it I used to run a E39 525d Sport which was also a great car and had also a better interior, I find the dash in the E60 lacks something in the way it looks and feels compared with the older car.

In my opinion I'd also be sceptical about a £7K E60 just like the earlier poster said these are complex cars, maybe I've been lucky but at that price I'd thinking a E39 would be the way to go.

[richterswil]

My pre LCI 535d returns around 32-33 MPG. Around half my miles are at lane 3 motorway speeds with the rest either A or B roads or town driving. Never seen it fall below 30 MPG.

I generally get around 440-480 miles from a tank of fuel. It I drive exclusively on motorways a tank gives me around 530-550 miles.