136k BMW E39 M5 – new daily driver
Discussion
So after a couple of months of looking, I’ve found my new daily driver - a year 2000, 136,000 mile, 4.9L V8, BMW M5. Wahoo.
Creating this as a bit of a project log & to share what it’s like living with a >100k 20 year old M car as the one & only car in the household.
I’m not a stranger to high miler noughties BMW’s, I’ve been running this for the past 2 1/2 years:
2003 E46 330i touring, with (apparently pretty rare) 6 speed manual. Just ticked over to 150k on my way to view the M5. Second pic is it's natural habitat… Elan valley with MTB’s on the roof!
Before this I’d always been wary of >100k mile cars, the back of my mind told me that as soon as you hit 100k then boom; rain would start coming through the floor, doors would fall off going over potholes, it would smell like trench foot & big end failures would be a weekly occurrence. How wrong I was. Practical enough, quick enough, economic enough & reliable. Would love to keep it, but can’t justify 2 cars.
So why the change... whilst recently ‘looking after’ a friends 911 997 Carrera S for a couple of months, on a road trip up to Scotland I decided that I permanently needed some more power in my life. Such an amazing car, every journey was exciting but mega comfortable for a long motorway stint. Thank you car friend :-)
I’ve always wanted an M car and after ruling out E46 M3 (not enough doors) & M135i (too small for Mrs Roundabout), the choice was made, e39 M5. Because V8.
So hopefully it'll be all be glorious open roads, sunshine & 1000's of trouble free miles rather than spirit & wallet crushing breakdowns, doom & despair.
Picking it up later today… will put up some pics then. wish me luck
Creating this as a bit of a project log & to share what it’s like living with a >100k 20 year old M car as the one & only car in the household.
I’m not a stranger to high miler noughties BMW’s, I’ve been running this for the past 2 1/2 years:
2003 E46 330i touring, with (apparently pretty rare) 6 speed manual. Just ticked over to 150k on my way to view the M5. Second pic is it's natural habitat… Elan valley with MTB’s on the roof!
Before this I’d always been wary of >100k mile cars, the back of my mind told me that as soon as you hit 100k then boom; rain would start coming through the floor, doors would fall off going over potholes, it would smell like trench foot & big end failures would be a weekly occurrence. How wrong I was. Practical enough, quick enough, economic enough & reliable. Would love to keep it, but can’t justify 2 cars.
So why the change... whilst recently ‘looking after’ a friends 911 997 Carrera S for a couple of months, on a road trip up to Scotland I decided that I permanently needed some more power in my life. Such an amazing car, every journey was exciting but mega comfortable for a long motorway stint. Thank you car friend :-)
I’ve always wanted an M car and after ruling out E46 M3 (not enough doors) & M135i (too small for Mrs Roundabout), the choice was made, e39 M5. Because V8.
So hopefully it'll be all be glorious open roads, sunshine & 1000's of trouble free miles rather than spirit & wallet crushing breakdowns, doom & despair.
Picking it up later today… will put up some pics then. wish me luck
First rule of thumb... get membership of ...
https://www.m5board.com/
and
https://forum.bmw5.co.uk/
Both of which are fantastic sources of both E39s and E39 M5s....
Since 2004 I've had two of them and racked somewhere in the region of 275k miles in them... my current one has just turned 185k my first was sorn'd with 232k.
Awesome cars and so rounded for most types of driving. Certainly in individual aspects you could argue there are better cars but not necessarily as the complete all round package...
https://www.m5board.com/
and
https://forum.bmw5.co.uk/
Both of which are fantastic sources of both E39s and E39 M5s....
Since 2004 I've had two of them and racked somewhere in the region of 275k miles in them... my current one has just turned 185k my first was sorn'd with 232k.
Awesome cars and so rounded for most types of driving. Certainly in individual aspects you could argue there are better cars but not necessarily as the complete all round package...
Seesure said:
First rule of thumb... get membership of ...
https://www.m5board.com/
and
https://forum.bmw5.co.uk/
Both of which are fantastic sources of both E39s and E39 M5s....
Since 2004 I've had two of them and racked somewhere in the region of 275k miles in them... my current one has just turned 185k my first was sorn'd with 232k.
Awesome cars and so rounded for most types of driving. Certainly in individual aspects you could argue there are better cars but not necessarily as the complete all round package...
Nice one, thanks Seesure, will get signed up. https://www.m5board.com/
and
https://forum.bmw5.co.uk/
Both of which are fantastic sources of both E39s and E39 M5s....
Since 2004 I've had two of them and racked somewhere in the region of 275k miles in them... my current one has just turned 185k my first was sorn'd with 232k.
Awesome cars and so rounded for most types of driving. Certainly in individual aspects you could argue there are better cars but not necessarily as the complete all round package...
Do you have plans to get your 2nd one back on the road?? can't be many people out there with a combined total of over 415k on M5's!
grahamgraham said:
Nice one, thanks Seesure, will get signed up.
Do you have plans to get your 2nd one back on the road?? can't be many people out there with a combined total of over 415k on M5's!
Maybe at some dim and distant point in the future... Essentially it needs new timing chain guides and tensioners although the tin worm was attacking the doors and sills. I'd already sourced some replacement doors so it will boil down to time and money .... Do you have plans to get your 2nd one back on the road?? can't be many people out there with a combined total of over 415k on M5's!
Lovely stuff. I daily drive mine, bought at 150k miles a couple of years ago and now nudging 170k (there's a thread on here somewhere, but I've not updated it for a while!).
Looking forward to the pics. How are the sills?
Edit: I'm also a member of a whatsapp group with 100+ UK based E39 M5 owners. It's very active - if you drop me a pm with your mobile number I'll get you added if you like
Looking forward to the pics. How are the sills?
Edit: I'm also a member of a whatsapp group with 100+ UK based E39 M5 owners. It's very active - if you drop me a pm with your mobile number I'll get you added if you like
Edited by seiben on Tuesday 5th November 12:01
seiben said:
Lovely stuff. I daily drive mine, bought at 150k miles a couple of years ago and now nudging 170k (there's a thread on here somewhere, but I've not updated it for a while!).
Looking forward to the pics. How are the sills?
Edit: I'm also a member of a whatsapp group with 100+ UK based E39 M5 owners. It's very active - if you drop me a pm with your mobile number I'll get you added if you like
Can I drop you a PM as well?Looking forward to the pics. How are the sills?
Edit: I'm also a member of a whatsapp group with 100+ UK based E39 M5 owners. It's very active - if you drop me a pm with your mobile number I'll get you added if you like
Edited by seiben on Tuesday 5th November 12:01
- another E39 M5 owner....
thanks for all the message everyone.
seesure - ulgh re the tin worm, good luck with it & at least you have one for now ;-)
mumbojumbo - thanks, fingers crossed its a good one, will get back to you on that in time!
seiben - good to know, nice work on the daily driving, i'll try and dig out your thread, thanks, will PM you my number
church of noise - now way, gotta love a noughties beemer!
seesure - ulgh re the tin worm, good luck with it & at least you have one for now ;-)
mumbojumbo - thanks, fingers crossed its a good one, will get back to you on that in time!
seiben - good to know, nice work on the daily driving, i'll try and dig out your thread, thanks, will PM you my number
church of noise - now way, gotta love a noughties beemer!
The car was down on the south coast so decided to get the bus down there.. journey started on board the wonderful ‘Caetano Levante’, mmmm. Apparently has a rear mounted 12-Litre 6 cylinder Volvo engine… had a minor issue getting out of the bus station…
but once that was done, Mick the driver bezzed on down to south coast. Was so excited, really wanted to chat to someone but didn’t think my fellow sleeping bus passengers would care…
Anyway, got there eventually. Car was waiting in the garage - dreadful pic sorry:
massive kudos to the seller, car was cold and had been kept in the garage since agreeing the sale,
sorted the paperwork and all that and then it was off, to the petrol station... gonna be seeing a few of these.
the hundred miles or so back was awesome, it's so calm and smooth when cruising but then goes like stink when you need it to. and the noise, wow. quite a lot like the e46 to drive, not intimidating. the traction control cut in a couple of times on slipways when i floored it, but it was pretty greasy today
Stopped for a few pics on the way home:
and then a couple more from this afternoon.
It's had quite a bit of work done in the past few years, including full respray, rust cut out underneath to sills & jacking points plus new brake lines. I'll get under it to have a proper look around in the next few days.
so excited to have it on the driveway, can't wait to get some miles in over the next few weeks!
but once that was done, Mick the driver bezzed on down to south coast. Was so excited, really wanted to chat to someone but didn’t think my fellow sleeping bus passengers would care…
Anyway, got there eventually. Car was waiting in the garage - dreadful pic sorry:
massive kudos to the seller, car was cold and had been kept in the garage since agreeing the sale,
sorted the paperwork and all that and then it was off, to the petrol station... gonna be seeing a few of these.
the hundred miles or so back was awesome, it's so calm and smooth when cruising but then goes like stink when you need it to. and the noise, wow. quite a lot like the e46 to drive, not intimidating. the traction control cut in a couple of times on slipways when i floored it, but it was pretty greasy today
Stopped for a few pics on the way home:
and then a couple more from this afternoon.
It's had quite a bit of work done in the past few years, including full respray, rust cut out underneath to sills & jacking points plus new brake lines. I'll get under it to have a proper look around in the next few days.
so excited to have it on the driveway, can't wait to get some miles in over the next few weeks!
Lovely stuff, looks great in black, carbon black is it?, I just sold my imola one, have massive regrets, but such is life.
Tin wom will be a non issue if you don't drive in the salt and crap of winter, especially since it's had a re-spray, financially down the line that will make sense aswell since they appreciate some and problably will continue to do since they're getting rarer, I made close to 5k on mine in 2 years not counting the outlay.
Tin wom will be a non issue if you don't drive in the salt and crap of winter, especially since it's had a re-spray, financially down the line that will make sense aswell since they appreciate some and problably will continue to do since they're getting rarer, I made close to 5k on mine in 2 years not counting the outlay.
Very nice OP, I had a Le Mans blue one for a while and loved it to bits, I'm still gutted about selling it years later, they're awesome, awesome cars, modern enough to be comfy and refined yet old enough to be 'analogue' when it comes to the driving experience (sorry for the cliche!).
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff