My name is Josh and, admittedly, I became a member here primarily to aid in the sale of my father's 2001 Alpine White M5 w/ red/black leather. Before you get scared, I am 31 years old and I sell cars for a living, so I was an obvious choice to help my dad when he decided to sell his babied M5, which is his absolute pride and joy.
Like many other car enthusiasts, my dad simply has too many vehicles. He is currently interested in purchasing a modified '08 diesel X5 and has made the very difficult decision to let this car go. His thought process is that he can justify losing the M5, along with his 2006 Trailblazer SS, in order to pick up such a vehicle, which he will also be using as his "daily" driver. With that said, my dad owns a business which is directly across the street from his home, so he doesn't do much driving, "daily" or otherwise.
Please understand that this car has been absolutely adored and, as such, has always been garaged, has never been in bad weather, has been professionally serviced at Sun Motor Cars, BMW in Mechanicsburg, Pa., and has been driven in a spirited manner only on occasion by its 50-60 year old owner. I myself have only in recent years been given the opportunity to operate the car unsupervised, an arrangement I always loathed, but also understood.
Dad purchased the car in 2002 as the second owner when it had just 11,xxx miles on it. He had been looking for white, specifically, and went all the way from Pa to Massachusetts to pick it up. The car has been his prize possession ever since, and in that time he's owned two Corvettes, one 2001 convertible, and now an '08 coupe. There's just something special about a large sedan that performs and pleases the senses the way the E39 M5 does.
There are some very minor tasteful modifications done to the car, including a Supersprint Magnum cat-back exhaust, which sounds absolutely phenomenal and looks equally as good. The stock exhaust, of course, will be included with the car.
When dad purchased the car, he was told that the headlights had been upgraded to "angel eye" style lights. I'm not sure exactly what he's referring to as I've only ever really been around this M5, so I have no real point of reference. Also, one year I got him some black emblem covers for the front of the car from Bavarian Autosport. They are a nice upgrade and look very classy with the white car and black trim. We also tend to install WeatherTech floor mats in pretty much every vehicle either of us ever own, and this car is no exception. They are the highest quality all-weather mats you can buy and they will also be included with the car.
This car has a brand new set of Yokohama Avid tires on it, as well. They have been driven on for maybe a couple hundred miles, tops.
As far as the condition of the car goes, it is in a condition I would refer to as excellent. I am extremely fanatical about automobiles and that trait comes as a hand me down from my dad. That is not to say the car is showroom perfect, however. There are the unavoidable stone chips here and there on the front of the car, along with maybe a couple of chips here and there on the sides of the car. Nothing that would warrant hideous "touch up" treatment, just unfortunate inevitabilities of car ownership. There are absolutely no dings or dents of any kind that we are aware of. I went over the car today and washed it by hand many times, so I know this vehicle well. It will not in any way disappoint anyone who takes the time to view it with high expectations.
Mechanically, the car is perfect. I won't bother listing everything that does work, I'll simply say that nothing doesn't. This car is as clean mechanically as you'll ever find a ten year old car to be. It has, as stated above, always been professionally serviced by the people who don't skimp on parts/labor, your local friendly BMW dealership.
I am very particular about how seat bolsters wear and I will say that these are about perfect, showing little to no wear at all beyond the normal wrinkles in the leather grain. You can see them in the photos. The rest of the interior, including the original mats, hidden most of their lives under the WeatherTech mats, is/are in equally superb condition.
This E39 M5 is as good as it gets. There aren't many unmolested, low mileage examples like this left anymore and we do expect to sell it for good money. We'd like to see $28K for the car, and even though I've seen them cheaper, I can't say I've seen any with this mileage, in this condition, any cheaper. If you'd rather spend $24-25K for less car, be my guest. Dad doesn't have to sell it and he doesn't plan to give it away. We will of course speak to anyone at length who would like to inquire further about the car.
I will provide a clean CarFax/Autocheck report to anyone interested via e-mail. I'll be happy to forward, through PM only, my father's phone number as well. I wouldn't consider buying a car like this until I spoke to the person who owned it almost its entire life, so I don't expect anyone else to.
You'll notice in the photos that I did not remove the car from its spot in the garage to snap pictures. We have had a rough winter here in the northeast and even though it was 45 degrees today, there was still some snow outside of the garage and I wasn't about to move it outside. I simply uncovered it and took the pictures. I can get some better pictures but I wanted to have something to post right away.
You'll also notice that I did not take a picture of the gauge cluster showing the mileage and vitals. This is because dad didn't remember to actually plug the battery tender into the wall after the last time the car was started and the battery went dead. An honest mistake, but I was in a hurry and didn't have time to deal with the fact that the trunk wouldn't even open due to the dead battery situation. I plugged the tender in and I'll deal with it later this week.
I work for my dad and will be letting him know what kind of interest I get here on the site. I haven't listed the car for sale anywhere else because I believe this kind of automobile is best marketed in a place where it's appreciated properly.
I apologize for the length of the thread but hope I haven't left anything out.