My 38,000 mile 2003 BMW E39 530i Sport

[Mcr325i]

Lovely e39. More photos/details on the e46 too please...

[Hagus]

Two absolutely gorgeous proper BMW’s mate, I’m a little biased as I have a mint e46 cab and e30 325i, I’ve had later ones but for me it was all downhill from the 46/39 era, my 3 year old Volvo daily is a reflection of this.... ha ha

[MisanoPayments]

I've never owned a BMW and am a bit of an Audi nut, but those are two lovely cars!

[Kettmark]

Great low miler. I too have a low owner & low miler bm. Mines an e36 with 25k on from new. Feels like sitting in and driving a brand new car despite being registered in 1993.

[B'stard Child]

wow that is seriously low mileage and in lovely condition

[Alfahorn]

Like both by love the E46. The last good looking 3 series IMHO.

On the E39 I think I'd not want to drive it with such low miles.

[geordiepingu]

That E39 is the pinnacle of sensible daily smoker. Love it!

[Fatball]

Owned one of these a few years ago and loved it. Had it for months before I realised it had bluetooth. Previous owner didn’t know and didn’t have the code which was found eventually on one of the electrical units in the rear left of the boot!

Enjoy it, it’s a beauty.

[Alex10391]

Love it, grew up with my head in car magazines where these won every plaudit possible. The design still looks bang on all these years later.

Enjoy and keep the pics coming!

[mcg_]

Great car, can't be many left in that condition now.

A friends Dad stopped when passing our house the other day, he had the dark blue E39 M5 with equally low mileage and has owned for a while. What a car!

[Jazzer77]

Lovely car in great condition.

[ChocolateFrog]

Peak BMW right there.

They were really on roll from the late 90's to mid 00's.

[zek]

That's lovely, I have a 330ci in similar time warp condition that I bought last March - also with 38k!

[200Plus Club]

I had a remapped 2002 530D Sport in Imola Red with virtually every factory option including the motorised rear blinds! Loved that car it drove so well and had the E39 looks and appeal even though it was a diesel it handled so well. Wish I'd never sold it tbh

[d_a_n1979]

Yeah.... It looks ok I s'pose...

I mean, you could do better...



























It's a stunning car Mani; a credit to you and clearly very well looked after

[Bemmer]

This is the car Rix Motor Company had advertised for ages.?

[Mani59]

Hi all,

Thanks so much to ALL of you for your comments, really nice to hear so many of you guys like it too, thanks! I will indeed keep this updated with progress.

One thing I forgot to mention was that I also applied a liberal amount of Gummi Pflege to all of the seals to make them all supple again.

I will try to answer some of the questions below.

si_xsi said:

Very very smart, what a find. I'm currently looking for a 530i spoft too so following with interest. A timeless design. Which dealer was selling the car and where did you find it?

Thanks. I was looking for sometime and the one I purchased was on sale for about 9 months or so but due to Covid-19, it was taken off sale for a few months in the summer I understand. I purchased it from Rix Motors in Warrington (who obtained it from Sytner BMW).
I have a contact at Sytner BMW who was able to verify a few things for me including a printout of all the warranty history on the car so that gave me the added confidence to go with this one since it was still known in the BMW network.

I was looking daily on Auto Trader, Munich Legends, Car and Classic and Pistonheads Classifieds.

njw1 said:

I'm biased having owned four e39's but that is lovely. My current one had an all beige interior when I bought it so I got hold of some black interior parts and sort of did my own version of a champagne interior;

Thanks. That looks lovely! The black really helps break it up. You really do have yourself an "individual".

Mattiebmw said:

Can you recommend a product to clean your leathers with mate? I have the same or very similar in my 3 series and I really want t make them immaculate.
Thanks in advance

Thanks. I use Auto Finesse Leather Hide Conditioner followed by Auto Finesse Leather Conditioner which works well in my opinion. I then keep it cleaned with their Interior Quick Detailer.

Polarbert said:

Such a lovely motor. Apologies if you already said, is your plan to keep the mileage down or drive it and enjoy it? I bought my M Roadster at 42k miles and I always had thoughts to not drive it as much, but now its on 103k I definitely have enjoyed it every time I've driven it.

Thanks. Wow, an M Roadster! Truly stunning and back from an era when BMW M cars were at their greatest in my opinion.
It is being used as my daily car so I am enjoying it. My E46 330i Individual (which is currently in hibernation) is my spring/summer Fridays/weekend only car.

Hagus said:

Two absolutely gorgeous proper BMW’s mate, I’m a little biased as I have a mint e46 cab and e30 325i, I’ve had later ones but for me it was all downhill from the 46/39 era, my 3 year old Volvo daily is a reflection of this.... ha ha

Thanks. I remember going from my E39 525d to a E90 330i and whilst the N52 was a wonderful engine, I just found the quality of materials used in the interior were really poor in my opinion so got rid pretty quickly. I suppose it helped that my E39 525d had an Alcantara interior which I absolutely loved.

Kettmark said:

Great low miler. I too have a low owner & low miler bm. Mines an e36 with 25k on from new. Feels like sitting in and driving a brand new car despite being registered in 1993.

Thanks. Wow, 25k miles! Pretty much factory fresh then!! Enjoy!

Alfahorn said:

Like both by love the E46. The last good looking 3 series IMHO.

On the E39 I think I'd not want to drive it with such low miles.

Thank you. I purchased the E46 a couple of years ago and spent quite a bit of money on it so far. It drives perfectly but I just need to get round to doing the front brakes/discs and also some cosmetic things as I would like to get the wheels refurbished. Earlier this year, I had it in the bodyshop to remove some paint bubbling and rust spots which are all too common on the E46. I also had under body protection applied at the same time too (Waxoyl).

mcg_ said:

Great car, can't be many left in that condition now.

A friends Dad stopped when passing our house the other day, he had the dark blue E39 M5 with equally low mileage and has owned for a while. What a car!

Thanks. The E39 M5 is absolutely awesome and still looks fresh in my eyes!

zek said:

That's lovely, I have a 330ci in similar time warp condition that I bought last March - also with 38k!

Thanks. That sounds awesome. Do you use your's as a daily too?

200Plus Club said:

I had a remapped 2002 530D Sport in Imola Red with virtually every factory option including the motorised rear blinds! Loved that car it drove so well and had the E39 looks and appeal even though it was a diesel it handled so well. Wish I'd never sold it tbh

An Imola Red E39 is gorgeous! This is exactly how I felt when I sold my very first E39 around 2010. Maybe it was the build quality and the looks but for me, all of the other BMWs I have owned always had something missing from them and I would always compare them back to the E39.

Bemmer said:

This is the car Rix Motor Company had advertised for ages.?

Correct. They had it for about 9 months but they took it off sale during the summer due to Covid-19 and put it into storage I believe. So when I was looking, it was back on sale again.

[d_a_n1979]

One thing I haven't asked on here or the 5 forums Mani is do you know if the box has been serviced at all?

If not that's worth looking into and putting on the priority list etc

Not sure where in the world you are; but the 2 main places recommended are Automatic Transmissions in Preston & Martin Hind at Dartford Transmissions

[B'stard Child]

d_a_n1979 said:

One thing I haven't asked on here or the 5 forums Mani is do you know if the box has been serviced at all?

If not that's worth looking into and putting on the priority list etc

Not sure where in the world you are; but the 2 main places recommended are Automatic Transmissions in Preston & Martin Hind at Dartford Transmissions

Last time I did mine DIY (2007) on the E38 - the gasket and filter plus O'ring was less than £30 from BMW but the Oil was £9 per litre - I think we eventually found the correct transmission fluid from ESSO at £85 for 20 Litres



Makes a huge diffence to the change quality but can take several cold start checks with addition of more fluid until the level is correct

Edited by B'stard Child on Sunday 3rd January 14:49

[Fatball]

Depending on how close to Rix you are, Graham Martin near St Helens did my auto service along with any other work.