Raymond,
The owner of the shop was a fairly easy-going type, although to appeared to be a bit of 'slick' type. His place was full of 'exotic' cars, 550 maranello, Jag XJ, older 911's, and some E34/E38/E39 BMW's about. Found it hard to make out if it was a reputable shop or just some 'flash-cash' operation. I didn't get the impression he had any real buyers yet, only some people looking at it. He was prepared to talk about the price when I indicated I had no trade-in, and when I said I would like to check the car at a BMW dealership he didn't object.
About the car, i was my first live look at a E34 M5, so I have no baseline to compare to. The car was parked in the middle of the showroom, so couldn't start or drive it.
Exteriour:
Looked very good, tires (Yokohama) were in good condition. Only thing, they were 245 all round, I believed the M-parallel's were an inch wider at ther rear? One gas strut of the rear hatch was missing. No M5 badge on the boot. Exhaust looked fine.
Interiour:
Fitted with the fully automatic A/C. Black leather, including door panels and grab handles, leather center console (everything below the A/C controls). Electric seats, memory on drivers side. Drivers seat was a bit 'wobbly', probably the mountings need to be tightened? The leather of the gearshift knob was a bit worn, a few holes in it. Had a BMW stereo, with what I could see from the factory list of fitted options which was lying in the glovebox, a 6 CD changer.
Engine/drivetrain:
As I said I couldnt start/drive it, so only visual inspection. Engine looked very clean, the cam cover had no greasy look as you can see on photo's of other M5's on the net. In general the whole engine bay looked very clean.
Documentation:
The service records showed some oil changes, an Inspection I at 84K km (end of 2000), and a oil change at 112K km in march this year. I couldn't find a stamp for Inspection II, that surprised me. A lot of bills were in the glove box, all from BMW dealers, except the tires.
From what I could see, the following had been done:
-Replacement engine
-new flexdisk in driveshaft
-Work on the AC (fl. 4000)
-New control arms and bushings
-Work on the sunroof
-multiple work on the rear wiper.
Most of the work was done at Ekris BMW, so they might be able to tell you more about the history of the car
I had no time to correlate the time frame of all this work with the entries in the service record.
All in all it looked like a good car, a bit more maintenance done than I would expect for a fairly young M5. I think his 27.5K EUR price is way too high though, getting a similair one from Gemany + BPM would end up at something like 18-20K EUR I believe?
I'll wait with my offer for your car till after you've got the Touring and have 4 cars parked in front of your house. I'll think your wife will make you accept any offer I make by then
Regards,
Menno
Nice M5 Touring
. But bear in mind that it does not come cheap.
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