E60 M5 Touring - the good and the bad

[v12v8]

I'm seriously considering a 2007/8 car. I've had a few BMW's but not an M car. A mate has an E39 M5 which I have enjoyed driving :-)

Anycase, some pointers on what to look out for would be greatly appreciated as I don't have the appetite to get stung for wear and tear items just after getting a car.

The cars I am looking at have around 40k miles and full BMW service history.

Thanks in advance.

[sumo69]

There's a sticky at the top of the M Sport thread with loads of advice.

David

[dazren]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

At a guess I'd be looking at the obvious clutch/flywheel, brakes and tyres. My brother's saloon needed a new clutch at 25k miles due to lots of stop/start commuting. At some stage BMW came up with a better rear diff oil, which he also changed. Also check the first oil change service was done on time (between 1200 and 1800 miles from memory), BMW use a adifferent type of engine oil for the initial running in period.

[ecain63]

Emailed you mate.

[metsta]

good luck with the search, i bought one just last week an 07 E61 (E60 is the saloon) love it!
infact just booked to take the wife and 3 kids and top box and bikes to a euro chalet thing in Amsterdam... vroom vroom road trip :-)

i went with warranty direct in the end, got a cracking price out of them, and having spoken to PMW they gave me lots of confidence around succesful claims, given that my car is 70k miles the Mondial warranty was crazt expensive, £1600 with £250xs or £2450 with £0 xs. good luck and hapy hunting

[scoobyc]

What was the warranty cost from warranty direct if you don't mind?

[metsta]

I got a great deal, My car is an 07 with 72k, policy is 12k per annum mileage and is the extra care, with the contribution to parts benefit removed,optional extras added were airbag and emissions.Also the policy is the franchaised dealer at £200 per hour. The xs is £50, it covers wear and tear after 90 days, however for an extra £75 i am having the car inspected by thier engineers to remove this clause so i will have wear and tear as soon as this is done. I paid £725 all up and its 0% to spread over 4 payments.

[StuH]

Don't want to sounds negative, but having had warranty direct cover on a previous car - it wasn't worth the paper it was written on - between "wear and tear", "pre-existing condition" and "known design fault" it's pretty hard to claim for anything ;( - Add in the delays in seeking approval for work to be carried out and then waiting for their own people to eval the diagnosis in many cases it's just a right PITA.

Learnt that lesson and now always go with BMW cover for peace of mind. Anything else is a false economy in my book.

Hopefully my experience was the exception and you won't need to find out anyway.

[zip929]

metsta said:

good luck with the search, i bought one just last week an 07 E61 (E60 is the saloon) love it!
infact just booked to take the wife and 3 kids and top box and bikes to a euro chalet thing in Amsterdam... vroom vroom road trip :-)

i went with warranty direct in the end, got a cracking price out of them, and having spoken to PMW they gave me lots of confidence around succesful claims, given that my car is 70k miles the Mondial warranty was crazt expensive, £1600 with £250xs or £2450 with £0 xs. good luck and hapy hunting

I had an E61 M5 with the BMW warranty.
Needed it twice in 6 months and the cost of the bills for the work done was in excess of £3K.
All paid with no cash input from me.
1st class warranty.

I have recently purchased a 730D and the cost from BMW for Comprehensive warranty for a year with £0 xs is £2979.96. A £100 xs comes in at £2370.96 and a £250 xs comes in at £1871.16.
People buy good cars for less than that!
As much as I value the BMW warranty these costs are just extortionate. It will be a slush fund for me, it could prove costly but my mileage is low so I am prepared to take the chance.
My experience with other waranty companies is not positive in that they are like jellied eeels when you try to make a claim, as slippery as fk!

[ecain63]

I had a fully comp, 'extra care' warranty from Warranty Direct on my C5 RS6. The sales guy was nice as pie and very informative when buying but its actually utter dogst and I wouldn't trust them to cover a shopping trolley, let alone my M5. They only pay out for the broken part, so if your clutch fails due to the release bearing you might only get £15 + labour for the bearing and have to pay the rest yourself. My BMW warranty has saved me £9k or there abouts in under 2 years so its a no brainer, regardless of its cost.

Edited by ecain63 on Wednesday 15th August 06:53

[metsta]

God damn pistonheaders with your Common sense! I cancelled the WD policy got a full refund and bought the comp mondial warranty for the year with euro breakdown booooooo lots of money yeeeeeaaaaahhhh proper BMW warranty hahaha cheers guys
Will drive with confidence now :-) holland road trip for the bank hols. Today was the last day for the mondial warranty before they classed it as a lapsed policy and it went up by another significant margin

Edited by metsta on Wednesday 15th August 20:46

[ecain63]

metsta said:

God damn pistonheaders with your Common sense! I cancelled the WD policy got a full refund and bought the comp mondial warranty for the year with euro breakdown booooooo lots of money yeeeeeaaaaahhhh proper BMW warranty hahaha cheers guys
Will drive with confidence now :-) holland road trip for the bank hols. Today was the last day for the mondial warranty before they classed it as a lapsed policy and it went up by another significant margin

Edited by metsta on Wednesday 15th August 20:46

You made the right choice mate. At least now you can sleep easy in your bed. Enjoy your road trip!

[mondie]

You definitely did the right thing, now you can get on with enjoying the car without having to worry about things breaking.

[Eastern boy]

I'd have to say a wise choice too!! I'm guessing it also goes to show why BMW AUC cars are a little more expensive than private sales etc when we provide that full cover as part of the deal!!! The warranty is however Bullet proof, and I have seen so many people being so thankful they have it when some repair costs can be quite expensive!!!!

[abbaszb]

To add my 2 pence... I have owned an e60 m5 for 18 months purchased with 48k miles on the clock and a BMW Mondial warranty, to date it has had £9.5k worth of warranty work carried with no quibble or question! Incidentally to those on monthly cover, I currently have 66k miles and am paying £80 pm with £0 excess. (down from circa £100 after the 1st year). Point being, just because it is a monthly premium, you can still negotiate a loyalty discount.

[scoobyc]

I'd be interested to hear if anyone else had a discount on the warranty. I just came off the phone to them and he stated there is no movement at all as BMW fix the price, I said I'll just order online then and he had said no problem please do, which I think he wouldn't have done if there was any commission or discount available to him?
ps m power warranties have risen slightly in price since the 1st of August too

[abbaszb]

How long have you had the warranty? As it happened, I originally called to remove the BMW assist since there are far better breakdown options out there for less. I was then quoted £80pm (was expecting £100 down from £113) and told cost has been reduced as I have had the policy for over a year (13 months at the time).

[scoobyc]

What cover is that policy with what excess? As of the 1st of August an m5/m6 with greater than 60k on it with a zero excess warranty and fully comp is £2415.45 or £221.54 a month, £100 excess is £1989.65 or £182.83 a month, or £250 excess is £1584.97 or £145.57 a month.

[abbaszb]

Fully comprehensive. The costs you have stated are for a brand new policy. On a monthly policy, the costs remain fixed regardless whether you exceed the 60k. It is only if I opt to take a new policy out that the above costs would apply to me

Edited by abbaszb on Monday 20th August 14:48

Edited by abbaszb on Monday 20th August 14:51

[scoobyc]

I appreciate what you're saying about renewal of a monthly policy but this is a renewal for me too although annual and not monthly, therefore anybody buying a new car to them would have to be aware of this as monthly policies can't be forwarded to the new owner, it states in the policy book.