Tithe to the ///M Gods

Tithe to the ///M Gods

Author
Discussion

mumbojumbo1

Original Poster:

168 posts

140 months

Thursday 14th February 2019
quotequote all
I've just collected the replacement for the E39; a mighty E60 M5.

Some backround: My 'daily' (i commute to work by train in reality) has been a superb E39 540 sport for the last 6 years and 40k miles. It's taken 5 of us to Munich and back twice on impromptu jolly ups to the beer festival, across to Belgium and France countless times and provided reliable transport around London and Surrey. It's excellently specced and as it started to get a bit crusty i've really struggled to find a replacement ticking all the boxes of 5 doors, speed, comfort and driving pleasure. Best £4k i've ever spent.



In the meantime i got distracted, spent 18months working to restore an E34 sport before making my life a lot easier just buying an E34 M5, which i've enjoyed a great deal for the past year. I've always dreamed of owning one and the reality is every bit as good as the dream.



In parallel to all that a few mates and I clubbed together to buy a crap old MX5 and do a couple of track days with it.



Here's a pic when we bought it, and after an oil change, a colour change, checking the tyre pressures and attaching a roll bar, we went and did some track days, where needless to say it's been faultless, if a little 'slow'.



Aaaaaanyway after all that distraction that brings me back to the M5. I was initially looking at M6 GC's as tbh i really don't like the E60 design, but i've had to rightsize my budget incase of a house move, that put me into E60 territory, either an LCI 550i Sport or an M5.

After seeing lot's of dogs and reading Angrydog's thread on Pistonheads about his E60 M5 ownership experience (worth a read!), i found a decent M5 for sale in Bedford. Excellently specced, All important rod bearings done at Reddish Motorsport recently and lot's of other history. The previous owner is a guy called Darren Rose, incase he's on this forum, i know he's now in a white F10 M5...

I picked it up yesterday evening and i'm pretty much blown away, it's a fantastic car an a huge step up from the E39 in terms of comfort and options (active seats, upgraded audio etc). Looks wise i'm not mad on the design but i can live with it, because this car's best card is the engine and the engine note which is fantastic. I need to sit down and RTFM as everything is electric and needs to be set up / personalised etc, but first impressions are superb value for money and a lovely car to drive.

Only thing i want to do on it is upgrade the Nav map to 2019 for the time being but who knows what will crop up.

Don't plan to sell the E39 just yet as it has the all valuable tow bar and tbh i just can't let it go yet. Together with the E34 M5, the MX5 and my dad's old Peugeot 406 that i can't bring myself to sell (or scrap) i'm now using up every square inch of driveway that i have access to.

This is the only pic i have, off to Belgium in March so will update then.



Thanks for tuning in, lets hope my experience with this car doesn't go south like Angrydog's did...

Honestherbert

579 posts

146 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
Also considering one of these but they rarely come up in the spec and mikeage I want so will watch this thread with interest! Good luck OP!

Krikkit

26,500 posts

180 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
I thought that was my old MX5 then! I had a Dakar which I sold last year.

The M5's all look great. The engine in the E60 is a fantastic piece of engineering, some more details in a few pdfs that have sneaked out from BMW's internal briefings: http://www.midia.nl/diversen/bmw/E60_M5_Complete_V...

p1stonhead

25,489 posts

166 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
Hope this one goes better than the last guy who bought one...

Good luck OP!

mumbojumbo1

Original Poster:

168 posts

140 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
Krikkit said:
I thought that was my old MX5 then! I had a Dakar which I sold last year.

The M5's all look great. The engine in the E60 is a fantastic piece of engineering, some more details in a few pdfs that have sneaked out from BMW's internal briefings: http://www.midia.nl/diversen/bmw/E60_M5_Complete_V...
Cheers for the pdf link. Re the mx5 we've had it a couple of years now, owes us about £600 all in so far...

rayyan171

1,294 posts

92 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
I get major PTSD from TheAngryDog's M5, well done to you for buying one! I remember, when we bought our A6, seeing an E60 M5 on the dealership showroom floor (and not the general forecourt). It wasn't that expensive, but had 9 owners, so shows the life some of these can live. Good that you bought it from someone who knows their cars.

The navigation updates are probably the cheapest thing you can buy for the car, they were around £80 for the Europe professional maps in 2017. I think the M5 has the CCC DVD based iDrive system, which is the same in the early E70 X5 and other cars etc up to 2009.

wolfracesonic

6,940 posts

126 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
I've just taken delivery this morning of a copy of Autocar with their full road test in it, the saloon version, not the touring I run. If you want any stats, shout up. Did you want a car with 167s or did the car just happen to have them?

mumbojumbo1

Original Poster:

168 posts

140 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
New Nav disk already bought and in the post!

Re mileage and condition, there are plenty of these around at around 60k within budget but have only had standard services done. I was quite particular in looking for one with at least the actuators, rod bearings and a recent clutch done, which means the only main concern is the SMG pump. In the end this one, currently sitting at 93k had the right history, was LCI and very well specced, all mine for £15.4k.

Weather forecast for Sunday looks top notch so will get it out for a spin and get to know it better.

I'll check out Autocar this weekend, cheers

mumbojumbo1

Original Poster:

168 posts

140 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
wolfracesonic said:
I've just taken delivery this morning of a copy of Autocar with their full road test in it, the saloon version, not the touring I run. If you want any stats, shout up. Did you want a car with 167s or did the car just happen to have them?
Re the 167's, i quite liked how they differ from the bulk of M5's but wasn't a deciding factor.

wolfracesonic

6,940 posts

126 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
The Autocar I received I got off Ebay, it's from November 2004.

mumbojumbo1

Original Poster:

168 posts

140 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
wolfracesonic said:
The Autocar I received I got off Ebay, it's from November 2004.
oh lol, yeah will pm you my mobile, any pics of the article would be great! EDIt. your profile doesn't allow emails...

wolfracesonic

6,940 posts

126 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
thumbup


mumbojumbo1

Original Poster:

168 posts

140 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
Cheers!

Dr Imran T

2,301 posts

198 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
Still an amazing car even after all these years. Not a fan of those wheel though OP!

Every now and again I get tempted by these but I'm just not man enough to take the plunge. Would probably get an Audi S8 V10 as it's perhaps a 'slightly' safer bet.

However, the V10 in the M5 is truly a masterpiece in engineering and it truly sounds exotic smile and I'm sure is the better car of the two!


TheAngryDog

12,394 posts

208 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
Welcome to money pit, I mean E60 M5 ownership hehe

The rod bearings on your car will have been done properly, so no worries there. I now have an idea why my engine failed but I won't take up your thread about it, but happy to speak off line.

It looks a good car, especially for the money with the work done, especially considering I am in the process of spending £11k on mine to get it back up and running (full engine rebuild from scratch, new clutch and flywheel, slave cylinder etc). Mine has 78k on it and I wouldn't take what you paid for yours, but that is only because I need to claw some money back. I'll be putting mine up for sale once the new engine is run in.

Any pics of the interior? Did you consider the Avin unit? It's android and replaces the screen but still works with idrive etc.

I hope your ownership experience is better than mine!

p1stonhead

25,489 posts

166 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
Dr Imran T said:
Not a fan of those wheel though OP!
IIRC they are genuine for the M5 (options) but we’re standard on the M6.

I actually prefer them to the ‘normal’ M5 wheels.

cosworth330

1,299 posts

236 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
These are great cars, sound epic and just keep on revving. I owned one for about 4 years and it was a great experience but always kept the BMW warranty running. I always preferred 167M wheels over the standard ones. Yours must have been refurbed at some point as they had grey inserts from factory with diamond cut face which do look better tbh. Nice car though,enjoy it.


mumbojumbo1

Original Poster:

168 posts

140 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
TheAngryDog said:
Welcome to money pit, I mean E60 M5 ownership hehe

The rod bearings on your car will have been done properly, so no worries there. I now have an idea why my engine failed but I won't take up your thread about it, but happy to speak off line.

It looks a good car, especially for the money with the work done, especially considering I am in the process of spending £11k on mine to get it back up and running (full engine rebuild from scratch, new clutch and flywheel, slave cylinder etc). Mine has 78k on it and I wouldn't take what you paid for yours, but that is only because I need to claw some money back. I'll be putting mine up for sale once the new engine is run in.

Any pics of the interior? Did you consider the Avin unit? It's android and replaces the screen but still works with idrive etc.

I hope your ownership experience is better than mine!
Hi mate yes would be good to talk offline, ill pm you my mobile. Glad to hear your getting it back on the road, perhaps a few weeks of running in the new engine will convince you to keep it?

Will get some interior pics up, maybe it just because im approaching this from an e39 standpoint but it's pretty well sorted.

Audio wise i *think* its got logic7 as i have a bunch of equalizer settings in the idrive and a sub behind the back seat or under the seats or somewhere, i need to check later. Either way it's miles better than the crap e39 audio, but then again no audio is better than an e39 sound system.

mumbojumbo1

Original Poster:

168 posts

140 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
cosworth330 said:
These are great cars, sound epic and just keep on revving. I owned one for about 4 years and it was a great experience but always kept the BMW warranty running. I always preferred 167M wheels over the standard ones. Yours must have been refurbed at some point as they had grey inserts from factory with diamond cut face which do look better tbh. Nice car though,enjoy it.
Ill take a closer look, tbh i prefer the oem look so will probably bin the black grills and carbon effect number plates 🙄. Wheels wise i'll see how i feel but can easily remedy that if the 167's dont feel or look right to me.

cosworth330

1,299 posts

236 months

Friday 15th February 2019
quotequote all
E60 M5 is one of those cars that needs to stay looking OEM. I would deffo change the bits back to OEM, good call.