One possibility is that the seller has done what many Germans still do, in that he might actually be referring to his desired price in terms of the older Deutsche Marks. Even though the DM was phased out early this year, most locals still refer to what things cost in terms of DM -- not Euro.
If this guy actually intends his price to be 26k Euro, Caveat Emptor!! Some folks over here have taken notice of U.S. interest in these late '94/'95 vintage M5s, and are asking for increasingly unrealistic prices. The irony here is that these cars are not especially desireable in Germany because of the heavy tax and insurance burden they carry under the German system. (The logic is that is you have the money to drive an ///M in the first place, it makes far more sense for it to be one of the newer E39s.) There is still considerable demand from outside of the country (especially from Scandanavia), but a rock-solid, perfect '95 should still cost you no more than 15k Euro if you shop around. I've seen at least a half-dozen examples in this price range over the past 6-8 months.
Chuck
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1993 Euro ///M5 (Daytona Violet)
I tend to disagree. That particular car has covered only 53k km (That is around 35k miles). For 15k Euro, you can buy a 1995 M5 in Germany, but with 100k km more and then they are not rock solid and you need to spend EURO 5k for additional repairs and maintenance. Then the difference is only 5k Euro (DM10k) for a car with 100k km less then average!!
If that particular car has not been used in winter and it has a verifiable service record, then the price is right. Whether or not it is to much, the seller will find out when he is still stuck with the car within a few months.
I defer to your correction on this. I did not seek out the listing in question, and therefore had not noticed that this was a very low mileage car in essentially concours condition. Obviously, the price for such a car is completely up to the owner -- and will be whatever the market will bear. 26k sounds entirely reasonable for a truly "collectable" example of the breed.
I've seen several late-model E34 M5s in the 15k price range which had 100k-110k kilometers or less (mine had about 88K, as I recall), but your point remains valid: a perfectly maintained, one owner, seasonally driven, low mileage car is certainly going to be worth double the market value of an "average" example ... perhaps more.
This is not to say that one cannot find a sub-100k, dealer maintained example for under 15,000 Euro, but you will need to be patient -- and just a bit lucky. I waited 9 months to find the right car, but brought home a one-owner, dealer maintained, 90k km '93 for under 20k DM.
Chuck
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1993 Euro ///M5 (Daytona Violet)
My point exactly. If you look at a car who's owner is in a need to sell quickly, then you can find nice cars for not too much money. As a E34 M5's are offered quitte a lot, it is a buyer market.
However, lot's of E34 M5's are what the Germans call so nicely 'verbastelt'. As these cars stay longer on the 'hof' they are practically worth nothing. Unfortunatelly, these do have an impact on the Eurotax-Schwacke rating on an evenly equal basis.
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