advice needed from m5 owners

[feanor75]

New to the forum, so hello everyone

Currently I am running an Insignia as a company car driver, however I have and always will be a petrolhead. It looks as though I will be offered a job with a company acr allowance of around 550 a month plus I could put a couple of hundred into it each month too.

The question I have is the M5 is my dream car (practical as I have a family and immense), I can afford the finance which would swallow up 400 of my 550 car allowance, but can I really afford to run it, how much are the tyres, the services, the one off problems, how much do I have to allow for those one offs?

I know what the fuel running costs would be etc but i am very interested to hear advice, thoughts opinions on this purchase

BMW M5 07 PLATE
37000 MILES
FINANCE WOULD MEAN ABOUT 400 A MONTH (DEPOSIT TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT)
COULD PUT ANOTHER 200 ASIDE A MONTH FOR ONE OFFS

Basically can I afford it? Any help greatly appreciated

Steve

[clabcon]

Is fuel included?

[E21_Ross]

tyres are 300-350 per corner on the back, and about 250-300 on the front, give or take. rear tyres don't last long, i reckon with normal-ish (well, it is an M5) you'd get about 10k miles out of a set of rears. £200 per month isn't really enough to be honest for "one offs" in my opinion. lets say you get the extended warranty (not sure of price...can anyone confirm?) but you have £2400 per year, i know the warranty will be at least 1/2 that, leaving just £1200. that's a set of tyres for the year gone. so for any other issues, you're left with nothing. inspection II services are about £800, give or take. sent of front brake discs and pads will set you back at least £1000 too if fitted by BMW and using official bits.

you've said you're allowed £550 a month but the car is £400. does this mean you'll have £350 a month to run it? including of excluding fuel?

[feanor75]

Hi I am excluding fuel as I have already allowed for it the cash stated would be for finance and other bits. This is all really helpful. What does the BMW warranty cover?

[sdc77]

Hopefully you'd be buying this from a main dealer.
1 years auc warranty covers anything pretty much.
After that under 60,000 a comprehensive warranty costs around £85 p/m
I do hope you get a fuel card like mark does though. Fuel is just a massive expense
Good luck

[beemarman]

E21_Ross said:

tyres are 300-350 per corner on the back, and about 250-300 on the front, give or take. rear tyres don't last long, i reckon with normal-ish (well, it is an M5) you'd get about 10k miles out of a set of rears. £200 per month isn't really enough to be honest for "one offs" in my opinion. lets say you get the extended warranty (not sure of price...can anyone confirm?) but you have £2400 per year, i know the warranty will be at least 1/2 that, leaving just £1200. that's a set of tyres for the year gone. so for any other issues, you're left with nothing. inspection II services are about £800, give or take. sent of front brake discs and pads will set you back at least £1000 too if fitted by BMW and using official bits.

you've said you're allowed £550 a month but the car is £400. does this mean you'll have £350 a month to run it? including of excluding fuel?

My M6 (had it for nearly 2yrs) cost me:

£77 per month for warranty
£100 per month for Insurance
£300 for oil service
Since I've had it I haven't had to do anything or change anything except for tyres.If petrol is not included and you have warranty then the car is not too bad to run, try and buy one with low mileage and a recent service, tyres and you would be ok.

[E21_Ross]

beemarman said:

My M6 (had it for nearly 2yrs) cost me:

£77 per month for warranty
£100 per month for Insurance
£300 for oil service
Since I've had it I haven't had to do anything or change anything except for tyres.If petrol is not included and you have warranty then the car is not too bad to run, try and buy one with low mileage and a recent service, tyres and you would be ok.

i'm assuming you must (surely!?) have an inspection II service coming up soon, they are normally every 2 years, unless you do really low miles? they aren't particularly cheap services....

[clabcon]

feanor75 said:

Hi I am excluding fuel as I have already allowed for it the cash stated would be for finance and other bits. This is all really helpful. What does the BMW warranty cover?

You do know they struggle to get 22mpg+ on a motorway and you will be seeing ~15mpg in town. So budget for that.

[ArmaghMan]

feanor75 said:

New to the forum, so hello everyone

Currently I am running an Insignia as a company car driver, however I have and always will be a petrolhead. It looks as though I will be offered a job with a company acr allowance of around 550 a month plus I could put a couple of hundred into it each month too.

The question I have is the M5 is my dream car (practical as I have a family and immense), I can afford the finance which would swallow up 400 of my 550 car allowance, but can I really afford to run it, how much are the tyres, the services, the one off problems, how much do I have to allow for those one offs?

I know what the fuel running costs would be etc but i am very interested to hear advice, thoughts opinions on this purchase

BMW M5 07 PLATE
37000 MILES
FINANCE WOULD MEAN ABOUT 400 A MONTH (DEPOSIT TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT)
COULD PUT ANOTHER 200 ASIDE A MONTH FOR ONE OFFS

Basically can I afford it? Any help greatly appreciated

Steve

Hi steve.
You have'nt given us the most important piece of info as far as I can see.
The cost of the car.
Here's my tuppence worth.
I too run an M5 "on the company". I'm now on my second E39.Assuming that you can live with the fuel costs which will be quite a shock after the Vectra, then your biggest problem is depreciation.
I traded my last one in a couple of months ago. I would have loved a V10, but i think they have a sharp hit in values comming very soon.
I suspect that there are a lot of people who will be trading in E60 M5's against the new F10 as soon as it becomes avilable. Cue the old supply and demand economics and the price of V10's might take a serious hit.
( I could of course be totally wrong). A BM dealer near me has knocked £6k of a 29000 mile V10 in the last 3 months!!
My advice bide your time, and ride the depreciation curve slightly later.

[feanor75]

Cost of car is 29k. It is being sold by sytners BMW. Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer, its a big buy so every bit of experience is a big help in my decision making

[feanor75]

Cost of car is 29k. It is being sold by sytners BMW. Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer, its a big buy so every bit of experience is a big help in my decision making

[danjp]

well then, the cost of your first year should be quite straightforward. AUC warranty for a year, check the following: date until spark plug change, date of next oil service (has diff oil & smg oil been done at last one? Probably as should be done at 3rd service). Have the discs/pads been done? Again at that mileage should just have been done. How much meat on the tyres? Seeing as its from a main dealer, the car should be prepped properly. If the brakes have been done recently, and the spark plugs replaced, then the main expensive items will have been done, and you just have to see how long a set of tyres last you. A straight forward oil service is £250, and thats all I've had to do in a year other than buy winter tyres. I don't expect any other regular costs for the next year either, and for anything else there is the warranty..

[feanor75]

Thanks everyone for the time, help and advice

It looks like I may be able to manage it and still be able to have a life and I hope to able to report a succesful purchase in the near future.

By the way I noticed a registration plate on the M62 today which said M3 F4N and it was a 318 with a stick on m badge .......mmmmm sad

Cheers

Steve

[E21_Ross]

feanor75 said:

Thanks everyone for the time, help and advice

It looks like I may be able to manage it and still be able to have a life and I hope to able to report a succesful purchase in the near future.

By the way I noticed a registration plate on the M62 today which said M3 F4N and it was a 318 with a stick on m badge .......mmmmm sad

Cheers

Steve

the funniest was when me and my dad (in an E92 M3) were driving along the M27 and we came up behind a 3 series coupe with a wonky M3 badge on it, it was only a 4 cylinder engine as it had 1 exhaust. cue my dad pulling up along side him and i just looked at the driver and mouthed "nice M3" to him he then gave me the wker hand gesture next cue was my dad dropping it into 3rd gear and absolutely nailing it past him and leaving him, erm, quite far behind in not very long will never forget that!

[M5 Mark]

Biggest question is HOW many miules will you do? My E60 M5 is my daily drive for work and I do 35k-40k miles a year. I would NOT dream of taking the M5 with a fuel allowance. It will NEVER pay, lets be realistic depending on what sort of driving you are doing will depend how much you lose. 40p and 35p a mile will NOT cover it! Take the fuel card and pay the next to bugger all tax it gives you.

35k-40k miles a year cost me between 8k-12k a year in service, tyres, brakes etc. NOT including fuel remember! Tyres will depend on make driving style, contis suck but last a while. PS2s I get about 8k out of a set...

Hope that all helps!

[E21_Ross]

M5 Mark said:

Biggest question is HOW many miules will you do? My E60 M5 is my daily drive for work and I do 35k-40k miles a year. I would NOT dream of taking the M5 with a fuel allowance. It will NEVER pay, lets be realistic depending on what sort of driving you are doing will depend how much you lose. 40p and 35p a mile will NOT cover it! Take the fuel card and pay the next to bugger all tax it gives you.

35k-40k miles a year cost me between 8k-12k a year in service, tyres, brakes etc. NOT including fuel remember! Tyres will depend on make driving style, contis suck but last a while. PS2s I get about 8k out of a set...

Hope that all helps!

you brave, brave man! that's massive miles on an M5!!! where abouts from southampton are you? i'm from chandler's ford so only just up the road

lovely car by the way!

[feanor75]

I would only be using for a small commute and the occasional family and solo trip I do around 9k-10k a year

I would of course have to do a few extra miles just to enjoy the M5 but not too many on the 10k figure

[DocSteve]

Whatever you might think it will cost you, it will cost more!

The other important thing to consider is the clutch. It will not be covered on any warranty and it could easily fail at that sort of mileage - check if it has had one replaced. They are around £4k to do. You will not be able to tell if one is wearing until it fails - they auto adjust until they just leave you stranded at the side of the road. I know this from experience - check out the M5board.com for many clutch woes. Budget for a tracker as well - it will hopefully have one so you'll just need the subscription.

MPG - I've averaged 14.3mpg since I got mine with a mix of driving. Long motorway journeys you may just get 20mpg out of it but expect less than 15 if you like using the loud pedal much at all.

This said, it is an awesome car. The SMG is not as bad as it's cracked up to be and it can be driven fairly smoothly if required. The poor range is a bit of a nuisance on road trips. Otherwise the M5 is just one amazing car - good luck!

[ecain63]

DocSteve said:

Whatever you might think it will cost you, it will cost more!

The other important thing to consider is the clutch. It will not be covered on any warranty and it could easily fail at that sort of mileage - check if it has had one replaced. They are around £4k to do. You will not be able to tell if one is wearing until it fails - they auto adjust until they just leave you stranded at the side of the road. I know this from experience - check out the M5board.com for many clutch woes. Budget for a tracker as well - it will hopefully have one so you'll just need the subscription.

MPG - I've averaged 14.3mpg since I got mine with a mix of driving. Long motorway journeys you may just get 20mpg out of it but expect less than 15 if you like using the loud pedal much at all.

This said, it is an awesome car. The SMG is not as bad as it's cracked up to be and it can be driven fairly smoothly if required. The poor range is a bit of a nuisance on road trips. Otherwise the M5 is just one amazing car - good luck!

Clutches can be covered under warranty if its the Release Bearing that fails (more common failure than actual clutch failure). The difficulty is getting a dealer that will listen to the theory. I had mine done under warranty in March at 44k. Result.

Tracker is useless in my opinion. Would you really want the car back if it was nicked? It will have been ragged to death by the time you have it returned to you. Thats if they recover it (rare these days). Tracker is one of the most easily beaten parts of your cars security system. It'll only save you £30 - £50 a year on your premeium too. I used to have one on my RS6 but when i enquired as to how much i would save by having the tracker i ditched it immediately. £100/year subscription vs £50 insurance saving. Maths is easy.

Whatever you decide to do, just get out and enjoy the car.

Eddie

[DocSteve]

ecain63 said:

DocSteve said:

Whatever you might think it will cost you, it will cost more!

The other important thing to consider is the clutch. It will not be covered on any warranty and it could easily fail at that sort of mileage - check if it has had one replaced. They are around £4k to do. You will not be able to tell if one is wearing until it fails - they auto adjust until they just leave you stranded at the side of the road. I know this from experience - check out the M5board.com for many clutch woes. Budget for a tracker as well - it will hopefully have one so you'll just need the subscription.

MPG - I've averaged 14.3mpg since I got mine with a mix of driving. Long motorway journeys you may just get 20mpg out of it but expect less than 15 if you like using the loud pedal much at all.

This said, it is an awesome car. The SMG is not as bad as it's cracked up to be and it can be driven fairly smoothly if required. The poor range is a bit of a nuisance on road trips. Otherwise the M5 is just one amazing car - good luck!

Clutches can be covered under warranty if its the Release Bearing that fails (more common failure than actual clutch failure). The difficulty is getting a dealer that will listen to the theory. I had mine done under warranty in March at 44k. Result.

Tracker is useless in my opinion. Would you really want the car back if it was nicked? It will have been ragged to death by the time you have it returned to you. Thats if they recover it (rare these days). Tracker is one of the most easily beaten parts of your cars security system. It'll only save you £30 - £50 a year on your premeium too. I used to have one on my RS6 but when i enquired as to how much i would save by having the tracker i ditched it immediately. £100/year subscription vs £50 insurance saving. Maths is easy.

Whatever you decide to do, just get out and enjoy the car.

Eddie

Eddie

I think you were lucky (but correct) in having your clutch done under warranty. The clutch is no doubt a weak point and expensive consideration when buying one of these.

The point about the tracker is interesting - all of the brokers I have been to say that the underwriter insists on a tracker. I will raise this again as am just changing my policy as Zurich Special Risks has unfortunately ceased to operate.

Steve