Fed up - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

ilundber · 24th September 2003, 14:57

I am getting fed up with the car. I have spent thousands of € and hundreds of hours working on it during the years and I have managed to keep it in pretty good shape. It has been re-sprayed, had an engine re-build, and lots of other things attended too. Lately I changed the air conditioning condensor. I am now getting rust from the inside out on both front doors and around the filler hole in the right rear wing. I have a couple of new problems as well. I repaired the heating valve and contol unit for the air guidance in the car this spring. Could not get cold air on driver's side and no air on the windscrren on the drivers side. Got it to work but now it is gone again. Winter season comming I need to have some defrosting capability. The rear window heater is now so slow that I have to put it on several times before the screen is clear. Electrially heated rear view mirrors need new glasses since the defrosting capability is gone. That goes for the washer "nostrels" as well. The car is getting to be like a grumpy old man. Very much like me

Talked to BMW and wanted to trade the car in for a 2001 M5 that cost close to € 60 000. The offer I got for my present car, which is a direct import from Germany to Sweden was € 5 000! It is not that bad

Hmmm..perhaps I should give the car to our son? Checked the insurance for him. A 1 year insurance is € 6 000!!!

What to do? Keep the car and restore it? Who wants a 14 year old M5 even if it restored to mint condition?
Sell it to someone who can't afford it and know that it gets run down in less that two years? Not tempting!

I can't make up my mind, so I wrote this to get rid of the frustration.

Mmm-Five · 24th September 2003, 17:10

You need to wake up one morning to find it has been 'stolen' and then claim the total value from the insurance company.

Use that money towards a 2001 M5 or something more exotic?

ilundber · 24th September 2003, 17:14

That is not an option. First, it is illegal, second I have had one M5 and one M3 stolen earlier, so I have a red tag to my name with insurance company and third, my wife works with the insurance company I use. Can't do!

Regards/

Mmm-Five · 25th September 2003, 10:56

It sounds like you're in the same situation as me!

I can't really afford a new model or something newer with similar performance/handling, etc., so I'm going to have to do all those little repairs as they happen and keep the beast until something really big needs repairing such as the engine or gearbox and then strip it and sell the profitable bits off!

I think my next BMW would have to be a 850CSi or M5 Touring

mikek · 25th September 2003, 21:55

Hmmmm. No wonder UK car insurance is so high when we have scousers dishonestly claiming their cars have been stolen !

Mmm-Five · 25th September 2003, 21:57

Quote:

Originally posted by mikek
Hmmmm. No wonder UK car insurance is so high when we have scousers dishonestly claiming their cars have been stolen !

I live in Liverpool so I don't have to be dishonest about anything getting nicked - the probability is that it will get nicked, hence I pay more in Liverpool than someone in the rich South!

IvanDias · 26th September 2003, 20:42

Quote:

Originally posted by Mmm-Five
someone in the rich South!

Not me!! To quote classic Blackadder... iirc

"I'm as poor as a church mouse that has just had an enormous tax bill on the very day his wife ran off with another mouse taking all the cheese".

I`d also like to point out that I didn`t make any comments about Liverpool and cars accidentally disappearing on purpose. LOL.

I`m in the same situation. I can`t find another car in the same price bracket that offers over 200bhp/tonne.

I`d like a 850Csi, or even better, the Alpina B12 version, but the running costs and fuel would kill me. I`d also want a late model with everything, so I`m looking at £15-20K.

I was considering a Porsche 928 S4 late plate, a 5 litre manual rear wheel drive, nice, but the insurance and Porsche parts scared me a little. A friend runs a 911 Flatnose and thats bad enough.

I don`t like little cars, so never fancied a Honda S2000, although the new Z4 will be nice when an M version comes out with over 350 bhp please. Something to buy in a decade then !!!

So, iilundber, I think that unless the funds are available to get something nice like an E39 M5, then those little jobs will just need to be done.

Good luck whatever you do.

Ivan.

M5 powered · 28th September 2003, 21:08

Look guys, I get to drive lots of new / exotic cars. Believe me, you have probably one of the best handling large cars out there with the street cred to match. you'll be *****ing more if you did end up breaking the beast up for parts!!

regards

M5 Powered

Steve Mac · 28th September 2003, 21:59

I agree m5powered

I`ve driven a lot of vehicles and pound for pound the M5 keeps coming up trumps and running gear aside it is an e34

Still a cheap car ,when you put depreciation in the equation you`re quids in

And you can surprise a lot of exotic cars with your "FAMILY CAR"

A car with a release in the 80`s and you can take your mates and 160mph+

ilundber · 29th September 2003, 10:24

Well, guys.
I did have a look under the dash and found that the actuators for the air valves had dropped the rod for the air valve on the left hand side and on the right hand side the actuator was not to be found in its proper place.

The mounting for the actuator (= small electrical motor) had been broken..?? Last time I was in there I replaced the rubber sealing with new ones and they are thicker than then old ones so it probably helped break the mounting.

However, having found that I am now going to repair this problem and I will probably keep the car.

It is a good car. I had the opportunity to test drive a Porsche 911 Carrera 4 this weekend. The car had 20 000 Km on the clock only so it was as new. All the necessities of life were onboard. GPS-Nav, phone, A/C etc. I think they had ticked evrything from the options list.

The sound and the handling was superb. I still have a smile on my face that is only limitted in size by the fact that my ears are stopping it from getting wider.

Now, compared with our old M5s, i'd say that we do have a lot of car for what money we can get for it. We usually take the car to the mountains for skiing. That means 4 grown people, skies, boots and what not. Try that in a 911 C4

The only car that I can seroiusly contemplate today is the E39 M5. Perhaps next year

Thanx for the support guys.