Discussion
But im a pussy and too scared to buy one.
This car wont go away, it keeps cropping up, a little bit cheaper each time and i have to go through the hole process again, do the sums, trail the forums, lay awake at night only to come to the same heartbraking result, i cant have it.
Someome buy it so i can have my life back.
This car wont go away, it keeps cropping up, a little bit cheaper each time and i have to go through the hole process again, do the sums, trail the forums, lay awake at night only to come to the same heartbraking result, i cant have it.
Someome buy it so i can have my life back.
What's stopping you from buying one?
Do your homework, get onto M5Board and find out about potential problems, look at, and drive a few cars, and get someone who knows what they're doing to check over any potential purchase, and you'll be fine.
Yes, fuel consumtion is pretty high, but not horrendous, mine averages around 20mpg. It goes 15,000 miles between services, and the most expensive Inspection 2 cost me £440 at the BMW dealer.
I don't find it to be particularly heavy on tyres, or that expensive to insure, and in 4 years and 42,000 miles the biggest single expense I've had was £500 for front discs and pads.
The internet would have you believe that wallet armageddon awaits you as soon as you set foot in one of these cars, but my own experience tells me it's not the case.
Take your time, be sensible, and get a good unabused and properly maintained car (there are plenty out there) and, fuel aside, it won't cost you that much more to run than a regular five series.
Do your homework, get onto M5Board and find out about potential problems, look at, and drive a few cars, and get someone who knows what they're doing to check over any potential purchase, and you'll be fine.
Yes, fuel consumtion is pretty high, but not horrendous, mine averages around 20mpg. It goes 15,000 miles between services, and the most expensive Inspection 2 cost me £440 at the BMW dealer.
I don't find it to be particularly heavy on tyres, or that expensive to insure, and in 4 years and 42,000 miles the biggest single expense I've had was £500 for front discs and pads.
The internet would have you believe that wallet armageddon awaits you as soon as you set foot in one of these cars, but my own experience tells me it's not the case.
Take your time, be sensible, and get a good unabused and properly maintained car (there are plenty out there) and, fuel aside, it won't cost you that much more to run than a regular five series.
M5Dave said:
What's stopping you from buying one?
Ive got the cash burning the holiest of holes in my pocket for when the right car comes along, but unfortunatly im about to burden myself with my first mortgage, i really really need to get that sorted before i go blowing all my cash on german uber saloons. The sheer effort of restraint is taking its toll!
Also keep getting distracted by those wretched C32's, damm good value and may yet spoil my ambitions
Dave's right, go get one - you won't regret it.
The downside is, as Dave says, fuel consumption's not great - but then again, compared to, say, a Focus RS and considering it's a 5 litre V8, I think 20 mpg pretty damn good! I've had over 28 mpg on a 200 mile motorway run. Servicing is pretty reasonable, tyres £130 a corner, rear pads and discs for about £300 with the fronts being around £450.
The upside... well there's loads:
minimal depreciation
cheap car tax
reasonable insurance (mine's under £350 p/a)
full leather, loads of toys and very comfortable
proper family car
400 bhp
still a good looking car
no shortage of spare part and mods
it's manual
V8 acoustics
there's very little on the road that will out run it
And that is, with maybe the exception of Le Mans blue
, the best colour. Go on, you know it makes sense
The downside is, as Dave says, fuel consumption's not great - but then again, compared to, say, a Focus RS and considering it's a 5 litre V8, I think 20 mpg pretty damn good! I've had over 28 mpg on a 200 mile motorway run. Servicing is pretty reasonable, tyres £130 a corner, rear pads and discs for about £300 with the fronts being around £450.
The upside... well there's loads:
minimal depreciation
cheap car tax
reasonable insurance (mine's under £350 p/a)
full leather, loads of toys and very comfortable
proper family car
400 bhp
still a good looking car
no shortage of spare part and mods
it's manual
V8 acoustics
there's very little on the road that will out run it
And that is, with maybe the exception of Le Mans blue
, the best colour. Go on, you know it makes sensePhil....
Sometimes in this very short life, there comes a point where you've just got to say......what the f
k!
Get one of these wonderful cars bought and get on with the real fun.
These are truly brilliant cars....I have an E60, but still dream of driving the E39!
Look forward to seeing the pictures soon!
Best of luck with it!!
Sometimes in this very short life, there comes a point where you've just got to say......what the f
k!Get one of these wonderful cars bought and get on with the real fun.
These are truly brilliant cars....I have an E60, but still dream of driving the E39!
Look forward to seeing the pictures soon!
Best of luck with it!!
My driving is a pretty mixed bag of town, country roads and motorway, and I get 15k miles or thereabouts from a set of rears.
At the moment the car has Dunlop Sport 01s on the back, which My Tyres are listing at about £195 each fully fitted inc VAT.
As far as I'm concerned the Dunlops do a reasonable enough job, although some people swear by the Michelin PS2s, which are quite a bit more expensive.
At the moment the car has Dunlop Sport 01s on the back, which My Tyres are listing at about £195 each fully fitted inc VAT.
As far as I'm concerned the Dunlops do a reasonable enough job, although some people swear by the Michelin PS2s, which are quite a bit more expensive.
You are confusing need, with want. You dont need an M5, you want an M5. Nobody, needs an M5. I, for example, dont need, or want an M5. Oh...... wait...., hang on a minute. I've just looked at the ad. Crikey! Thats a lot of car for £7500! and that colour, low miles, 5ltr V8 sT! now I need an M5! I mean I want an M5! 
T! now I need an M5! I mean I want an M5! If cars and driving are up there with the things that make you happy then look for a decent M5 at the price you can reasonably afford and go for it. So what if you have to pay a bit more to keep it on the road... as long you can do it financially then what the hell.
Life moves fast and would dull if we didn't succumb now and again. V8 M car in a wonderful discreet and handsome package, what's not to like.
Just get all the information you need from those who have done it and buy wisely.
Heck, I'm trying to talk my wife into letting me supercharge my M3 at the moment.
Life moves fast and would dull if we didn't succumb now and again. V8 M car in a wonderful discreet and handsome package, what's not to like.
Just get all the information you need from those who have done it and buy wisely.
Heck, I'm trying to talk my wife into letting me supercharge my M3 at the moment.
Edited by torres del paine on Saturday 14th August 16:51
I pulled the trigger in March and haven't regretted it for a second. Imola red looks the nuts, If there had been a decent one about when I was looking I would jumped at a red one. A lot of the regular maintenance issues are well within the scope of the average home mechanic and if you have a problem, the guys on M5board will solve it for you 99 times out of a 100. As long as its been maintained there isn't tons to go wrong. The vanos scare stories are just that, very few ever actually fail.
Unfortunately there is only one way to scratch that itch you have. I could probably write much more but I'm off out for a drive
Unfortunately there is only one way to scratch that itch you have. I could probably write much more but I'm off out for a drive
Do it, do it, do it... but not that one (I've viewed that one, just search for my previous posts on that one)
I've just returned from a 'little jaunt' to Brittany and although it went through a liter Castrol and only averaged 23.9mpg (damn the French and their 'un-economical' motorway speeds) it was a great pleasure driving it there.
I've just returned from a 'little jaunt' to Brittany and although it went through a liter Castrol and only averaged 23.9mpg (damn the French and their 'un-economical' motorway speeds
) it was a great pleasure driving it there.For the nth time i'll relate this great tale to an e39 //M5 Ditherer!!
A story involving myself and an M5 as told by the Poet of Schnell DeR!
That sums up IMO just what an e39 M5 is all about,
I was privileged enough to be driving DeRs M5 and this is the tale
A jaunt which took place in an environemnt and in a spirit of appropriate legal rectitude...
I was in the X50 support vehicle and Gandalf Kacher was tasked with the sub light duties.
Now, the 996 interior is a work of true sadism; plastics not good enough to have graced my 1981 Fiat 127 and assembly quality that would render the Mirafiori as but the Lexus.
Trundling along is not an option since the associated trim racket is so appalling (I mean the worst it has ever been my misfortune to endure) that deliverance lies only in full and wholesome levelling of the anvil so that induction in association with the accompanying external road and wind roars may combine to drown things out.
So it was that as autobahnic splendour bade us hither, I slowly eased into a firm 160lph cruise.
Here, the 996 Turbo shows it's mettle, the combination of trick electronic supervision allied to supreme mechanicals, clawing into the tundra as all four paws clawed indominatably through the sweepers.
Emboldened by this harnessed solidity (the car, like it's 993 forbear, feeling quite revolting at lesser velocities) I squeezed some more.
Stunningly, the 'squatular nuggetation,' to borrow from the Dunk 76 Alamanc of Favoured EVOisms, was mesmerising and as I cantered into a perfectly acceptable 175lph, began to forget the car's awfulness in departments governed by men in suits and relish the underpinnings of true, engineering genius. It was, to quote the Reevian Keanuc, "f@cking amazing."
Except for one thing: the blue blob of a TIE Fighter, curiously maintaining a tractor beam busting yardage some way ahead.
It's four canons were just about perceivable and the rear valance seemed devoid of bobble. This was a car from the planet Tron. It was a seven year old, 100k M5.
It was also a complete slight to the known hegemony of The Order of The Holy Roman Teuton and I would not have it. [H Grant]Or so I thought...[/H Grant]
The M5 proceeded to pull away. No, I couldn't believe it, either but it did.
As the roads natural camber and corner ebbed and flowed, this was in many ways GT hooning in it's classical, most rarified form. No other traffic, autobahn-a-calling and man unt machine.
It was also very much a topography bereft of sustained, pure straight and so scphincteromics were a factor, it's true but even so, raw grunt - something the Porker could rarely be accused of lacking - was always going to be a telling injector of decisiveness.
Except it wasn't and it didn't. Instead, the sensible family saloon loped harder, faster and stronger. At 180lph, I removed the towel from my fevered brow and threw it into the passenger footwell and informed Mr Sulu to cool down the dilithium. Only David Grohl screaming on the CD remained to keep me safe from the return of sttus cabina maximum as I gave up and made my way to our prearranged coffee stop.
Here, as I parked next to the ticking splendour of a French registered 4200GT, the custodian of some exceedingly questionable facial hair awaited, standing proudly next to the conveyance in which he had so brutally served up my undoing.
As we considered the sensation of that which had transpired, Captain Middle Earth proceeded to reveal the full extent of the sublime thraper. Let's just say that the guage which measures lph had been breached...it was still gunning but I'm sure it was his sense of magnanimity which brought things back a tad...
Now, let's get something clear. I'm not for one moment suggesting the old bus is faster than an X50 nor as accelerative (certainly from the off/lower speeds) but what I am rejoicing in, is the blatent reality that once up and rolling and once you've thrown in the sorts of 'real world' curves and esses that define continental routiering of the finest order, the significance of that last percentile of uber grunt evaporates and power differentials suddenly seem a lot tighter as chassis balance, damping, handling feel, poise and solidity all rear their head like some Gorgonic light of automotive judgement.
Even then, the ability of the old master to say 'bks' and simply cog drop so as to 'haul ass' out of the more tightening radii, perhaps in 3rd, had me scrabbling for sufficient lyric wax.
Now I know why every single saloon - if not road car - I drive, feels wanting.
I know of nothing else, no other road car with a repertoire so wide yet honed.
My Lord Daz of The West Country, a fellow who has tweaked the nose of hoonstriction here and there, chuckled the knowing chuckle of the man who knows, for about the eight millionth time, last night. "I think they hit the bullseye with that one, mate," is our perennial conclusion and this experience convinced me that in fact, the arrow head did not just pierce the cork in the board's centre, it may indeed have forced it through.
I do not apologise for this perpetual championing: it is my mission to encourage as many PHers as can feasibly afford to stop mincing around and dive on in.
Trust me, it's free fitting...
A story involving myself and an M5 as told by the Poet of Schnell DeR!
That sums up IMO just what an e39 M5 is all about,
I was privileged enough to be driving DeRs M5 and this is the tale
A jaunt which took place in an environemnt and in a spirit of appropriate legal rectitude...
I was in the X50 support vehicle and Gandalf Kacher was tasked with the sub light duties.
Now, the 996 interior is a work of true sadism; plastics not good enough to have graced my 1981 Fiat 127 and assembly quality that would render the Mirafiori as but the Lexus.
Trundling along is not an option since the associated trim racket is so appalling (I mean the worst it has ever been my misfortune to endure) that deliverance lies only in full and wholesome levelling of the anvil so that induction in association with the accompanying external road and wind roars may combine to drown things out.
So it was that as autobahnic splendour bade us hither, I slowly eased into a firm 160lph cruise.
Here, the 996 Turbo shows it's mettle, the combination of trick electronic supervision allied to supreme mechanicals, clawing into the tundra as all four paws clawed indominatably through the sweepers.
Emboldened by this harnessed solidity (the car, like it's 993 forbear, feeling quite revolting at lesser velocities) I squeezed some more.
Stunningly, the 'squatular nuggetation,' to borrow from the Dunk 76 Alamanc of Favoured EVOisms, was mesmerising and as I cantered into a perfectly acceptable 175lph, began to forget the car's awfulness in departments governed by men in suits and relish the underpinnings of true, engineering genius. It was, to quote the Reevian Keanuc, "f@cking amazing."
Except for one thing: the blue blob of a TIE Fighter, curiously maintaining a tractor beam busting yardage some way ahead.
It's four canons were just about perceivable and the rear valance seemed devoid of bobble. This was a car from the planet Tron. It was a seven year old, 100k M5.
It was also a complete slight to the known hegemony of The Order of The Holy Roman Teuton and I would not have it. [H Grant]Or so I thought...[/H Grant]
The M5 proceeded to pull away. No, I couldn't believe it, either but it did.
As the roads natural camber and corner ebbed and flowed, this was in many ways GT hooning in it's classical, most rarified form. No other traffic, autobahn-a-calling and man unt machine.
It was also very much a topography bereft of sustained, pure straight and so scphincteromics were a factor, it's true but even so, raw grunt - something the Porker could rarely be accused of lacking - was always going to be a telling injector of decisiveness.
Except it wasn't and it didn't. Instead, the sensible family saloon loped harder, faster and stronger. At 180lph, I removed the towel from my fevered brow and threw it into the passenger footwell and informed Mr Sulu to cool down the dilithium. Only David Grohl screaming on the CD remained to keep me safe from the return of sttus cabina maximum as I gave up and made my way to our prearranged coffee stop.
Here, as I parked next to the ticking splendour of a French registered 4200GT, the custodian of some exceedingly questionable facial hair awaited, standing proudly next to the conveyance in which he had so brutally served up my undoing.
As we considered the sensation of that which had transpired, Captain Middle Earth proceeded to reveal the full extent of the sublime thraper. Let's just say that the guage which measures lph had been breached...it was still gunning but I'm sure it was his sense of magnanimity which brought things back a tad...
Now, let's get something clear. I'm not for one moment suggesting the old bus is faster than an X50 nor as accelerative (certainly from the off/lower speeds) but what I am rejoicing in, is the blatent reality that once up and rolling and once you've thrown in the sorts of 'real world' curves and esses that define continental routiering of the finest order, the significance of that last percentile of uber grunt evaporates and power differentials suddenly seem a lot tighter as chassis balance, damping, handling feel, poise and solidity all rear their head like some Gorgonic light of automotive judgement.
Even then, the ability of the old master to say 'bks' and simply cog drop so as to 'haul ass' out of the more tightening radii, perhaps in 3rd, had me scrabbling for sufficient lyric wax.
Now I know why every single saloon - if not road car - I drive, feels wanting.
I know of nothing else, no other road car with a repertoire so wide yet honed.
My Lord Daz of The West Country, a fellow who has tweaked the nose of hoonstriction here and there, chuckled the knowing chuckle of the man who knows, for about the eight millionth time, last night. "I think they hit the bullseye with that one, mate," is our perennial conclusion and this experience convinced me that in fact, the arrow head did not just pierce the cork in the board's centre, it may indeed have forced it through.
I do not apologise for this perpetual championing: it is my mission to encourage as many PHers as can feasibly afford to stop mincing around and dive on in.
Trust me, it's free fitting...
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