[nightspider]

Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

Hello Everyone,

Just like to say that this is an amaazing community. I am planning on buying and e39 m5 sometime in the next couple of months. I currently own an e39 523i oxford green. I wanted to ask anyone living in the uk how the m5 is on a daily basis. I live in london and will be driving to work about 20 miles each way. I have always wanted an M5 and plan on keeping the car for a veeeerrrry long time. :hihi:


I have read a couple of reviews on fastsaloons.com and just wanted some more input from anyone not just from the uk but from all over the world. Mainly london because thats where i live. costs etc....


Thank you all sooo much and hope to hear from you soon :byee55amg

 

[stumbo]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

Welcome aboard the M5board etc

I'll try to keep this pretty consise and on my relavent experiences, since I'm late to head down to Brands Hatch.

I live in London/Angel.
Keep her on the street.
Walk to work - so rarely drive her during the week.
If I have a bad day, a late night blast in town is incredible.
This car is very special.
Kentish Town BMW dont seem to be able to diagnose power problems. This board was by far the best resource for that.
BMW dealer labour rate is much cheaper outside London.

Come to one of our meets, it doesn't matter if you don't have an M5 yet. In fact thats a *very* good reason to come before you get one, so you can find out.
There are none scheduled at the moment and I'm not about next weekend but I'm sure we could find a few people looking for an excuse to meet up within the next month or two :thumbsup:

 

[stuart]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

Hi nightspider,

I hope to be in the same position as you shortly - looking for my first M5. After studying this board, and autotrader, for ages and ages I have come to this decision.

1. Wood trim is U G L Y. This is point number 1.
2. Almost all colours look fine by me - im not too fussy TBH

Which, for me, basically means that I have narrowed my search to any M5, without wood trim - quite a few out there - now being serious.

Pre 2001 cars are slightly different, different NAV screen, headlights, and steering wheel. In 2001 they performed a 'facelift' - it is possible to buy an older car, and update it, but its a lot of time and effort, you are certainly worth buying a facelifted car from the go.

You can pick up a lovely 2001 for just sub £25K. Get one with a BMW warranty, and you are able to extend it - I beleive this comes in at about £1.2k / year. If you get one malfunction it will pay for itself. If VANOS, MAF's go, thats lots (a few K), and £600 respectively. These will either have failed on a 2001, or will be just about to go when you get one (At 50K miles). Clutches are a PITA (and tend to fail about then too, but you get bigger variance on clutch lifespans), - at any rate the stock clutches go and are not cheap also. You really need to be aware of this.

The other option is to go for an older, cheaper 1999 at £15K - 100K miles, and chance it. You may well be fine, but I dont see the point looking at an m5 inbetween really - I think a 2001 with warranty is the best 2nd hand bet, they are cheap as chips and the warranty will last until 2007 (or is it 2008?).

Your servicing isnt so cheap, and if you want BMW warranty youll need to service with them, so there are bigger savings getting a non warranty car, you can take it to independants and save there too.

Tyres, expect £250 / corner, so go easy in 1st gear. Breaks are £300 corner (roughly) also - general consumables are not cheap, but not silly stupid IMO. Dont expect more than 22 MPG - 20 miles commute is fine, but I wouldnt recommend it as a rep car with current fuel prices here!!

Other than that, some cars get electrical gremlins (especially if you try to mod them, so staying stock is safest) which have cost many board members much of their hair from what I can see, but all told the beast should be really reliable, as long as you respect it.

Last thing is insurance, if you shop around you should easy find £1.5K (some uk members <£1K) fully assuming you are not too young - not too shabby for a very nice car.

Hope thats some food for thought,

Stu

 

[nightspider]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

Thanks alot guys for the replies

Wood trim is defo a no no :nono:

Stumbo if there ever is a meet count me in would love to see what The Beasts are like. Thanks for your info too will def help in making a decision

Stuart Wow you definately have been researching. There are a few on Auto trader and on the BMW approved used website.

If the car does not have a BMW warrenty can i get one after?

Should i stick with a BMW warranty or get a third party one?

Thanks for your replies

 

[stuart]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

Re: BMW approved, well you do pay a big premium - about £5K over private from what I can see.

If you buy private with BMW warranty, it is transferrable and extendable.

Aftermarket, well that is an option, my guess that BMW is safer - I HATE, HATE, Insurance companies. They always wriggle like hell, at least I know many guys on this board have good outcome with BMW warranty - apart from on the clutch, when only 50% get it done free. If i spend £1K /year, i want to know that I will be sucessfull when claiming on the bloody thing!

IF there is no BMW warranty, sometimes it is possible to take the private car to BMW, get them to buy it, and you buy it back for £2K more of so, to get the CPO status and warranty - though youd have to talk to a dealer about that to get confirmation.

The thing with these cars is that a well maintained 99 will look/feel/drive as well as a 2002. You can easy spend £10K+ more on a newer M5 - its up to you what sort of gamble you want to take really, but the M5 should be good to 200K miles really. I'll get an M5 as my daily driver, my only car. Therefore getting a newer one with less risk is more sensible for me. If you have the room for 2 cars, well a 99 with 100K miles can easy be had for £15K. That leaves you £10K to get a used TVR cerbera for the weekends - depends what your budget is, and what a boomhead you are :haha:

Good luck with the search, and also one last tip, when you find a car you are pretty set on, your last check should be to offer beer to a board member local to the car. Many will be happy to come out, and look + drive to car to make sure all feels well with it, they can tell if its pulling/handling as it should better than most.

Stu

 

[Ashok Arora]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

Welcome to the board nightspider :byee55amg

I have to disagree with the comments about wood trim. I have the bruyere club wood trim in mine and I like it. It goes very well with the Caramel Heritage leather and Carbon paint. It all depends on whether you're looking for a 'luxury' ambience or a more sporty look. Neither is better - they're just different.

There's a lot of information on the board so try using the 'search' facility to answer specific questions.

A couple of points I can contribute since mine is a daily driver in London:

- Get as new a car as you can afford. Mileage is not really an issue. A well maintained & gently driven 2000 car is always preferable to a thrashed 2002 model

- Insist on a full service history and BMW warranty

- SatNav (comms pack) is almost essential, especially when reselling

- Be careful where you park. If you see a car in the far corner of a supermarket car park it's usually an M5 trying to avoid dings

- Fit a tracking device as well a decent GPS speedtrap detector

Finally, colour and trim is an individual choice, but avoid Oxford Green and Alpine White which are very unpopular in the UK.

 

[nightspider]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

Thanks alot Stuart for the info

It will be the only car that i will use daily and the price that BMW approved charge is a bit more but its the piece of mind that you get buy paying abit more.

there are some really good 2001 models on autotrader that are well worth the money.

Keep in touch and let me know when you get there ill do the same.

If anyone ekse has any advice or day to day use stories let me know. I just want to get a general idea of how people get on with the car on a daily basis.


Thanks all

 

[Ashok Arora]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

Generally very reliable and easy to use as a daily driver. Of course, fuel economy in town is pathetic - I rarely see more than 14mpg in the city.

 

[Rampage]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

I have a MY00 with 51k on which I "facelifted" basically as when I was buying just over 2 years ago there was a £6k+ difference between a MY00 and MY01 and 10k+ to MY02. I spent way less than 1k on the facelift after selling the old parts... (they are particularly sought after by 540 owners).

Most important is buy one with BMW warranty... now £970 per year (was £470 when I bought)

The biggest headache I found was the spec list, it was huge. Comms pack ( Nav, phone) is desirable for resale, expect to pay less for one without it. A lot of the newer MY's have lower specs due to private buyers rather than company cars. Retro fitting Nav is possible but time consuming, just swapping over the screens and nav computer on pre facelifts is fairly painless.

At the end of the day a MY00 car with warranty and in good condition should be no less desirable than any other, but as stated a MY01 X reg on will have all the facelift stuff already... depends if you like tinkering...

I like Stumbo drive the beast very little during the week, I personally wouldn't choose one as a daily driver mainly due to the extreme fuel costs... I get no more that 18mpg and with sitting in London traffic would be closer to 13mpg

Costs wise: There is specific oil required and all M5's do drink an amount, though some do alot. From stealers its £14 a litre but through group buys around £30-35 for four.

A full set of tyres can be had for around £650 (GY Eagle F1's), BMW OE clutch fitted around £750, Front discs are £163ea and rears are £170, pads front £98 rear £70

Servicing can be expensive, shopping around and taking a trip out of town can pay dividends! I recently got my Inspection II for less than £500.

Exepect anything with the magic "M" on to be atlest 50-75% more expensive at the stealer...

Other than that nigh on everthing else should be covered under warranty. Just convincing the stealer to do so can be fun.

Yes MAFs and Vanos units are troublesome but again can be sorted under warranty. Have heard of plenty of post MY00 cars which have had Vanos issues. BMW have had issues with these for many years.

Hope some of my waffle is usefull...

-Steve

 

[nightspider]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

Hi Ashok,


Thanks for the info. Your right about the wood trim. It only looks right with the correct leather colour.

my budget is £20k. I have seen quite a few around this price not many 2001's, alot of late 2000's. With about 60-70k. I just need to sell my car or get a px which may make things easier.

If i do find what i am looking for would anyone be up for checking it out one weekend. Ill treat anyone to a drink and a meal for the inconveinince. mmmmmm

Thanks again to evveryone

Glad to be on board the board im never bored on this board......errrrr ill stop now......:7:

 

[Rampage]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

If i do find what i am looking for would anyone be up for checking it out one weekend. Ill treat anyone to a drink and a meal for the inconveinince. mmmmmm

Sure, no probs am around most w/e's and work in the City, always willing to help out a future M5 owner :cheers:

-Steve

 

[nightspider]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

Hiy Steve,


Thanks for the breakdown of costs. The warranty is a must. All in all it does cost a bit more to maintain and hopefully no major problems occur.

But it is after all a BEAST and they need to be looked after...

 

[nightspider]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

Ill hopefully be able to meet everyone (not everyone on the board) at one of the future meets.....never really been in an M5. My current car is a 523i does anyone think im moving to a car that is tooooooo pwerful for me and maybe i should go for something inbetween?

I dont drive around racing and and just want the car for what it is a well engineered machine. Of course there is the occasional unleashing of the beast

 

[Rampage]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

does anyone think im moving to a car that is tooooooo pwerful for me and maybe i should go for something inbetween?

You'll need to drive one, and find out... Only you can answer that...

My opinion is that the M5 is great grand tourer, it is way to big and comfortable to be a sports car.. Its does everything fantastically well nothing new really comes close. Brings a smile to my face everytime I get in it, turn the key and fire up the glorious V8 lovelove ... and thats not often enough!

-Steve

 

[stuart]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

I will do, when we both get there we should go out and celebrate

I Guess the best thing to do, is when you get serious, post links to 2, or 3 you are interested in seriously, and board members will chime in with their reasons why they'd go for one over the other - all this can help with the decision making process.

The hardest thing I think is staying detached. If you have 2 that look good on paper, but one in a colour you like more with a shady past, its too easy to get drawn to the dodgy one - be logical, and go for the BEST you can afford, not the dented estoril blue one shouting your name (I guess I'm speaking for myself there, I'm after a nice estoril if i can find it, Ok OK, im young )

Stu

 

[Rampage]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

my budget is £20k. I have seen quite a few around this price not many 2001's, alot of late 2000's. With about 60-70k. I just need to sell my car or get a px which may make things easier.

Ashok has a very pampered and well speced 2002 for sale though left hand drive would be great value for money...

-Steve

 

[nightspider]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

Once i narrow it down ill post a couple of links.

Cheers all

 

[nightspider]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

Hey Ashok,

How much is your M5 selling for if you dont mind me asking?

 

[Ashok Arora]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

Hey Ashok,

How much is your M5 selling for if you dont mind me asking?

Click here for full info:

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=55246

I am willing to negotiate price so send me a PM if interested :M5thumbs:

 

[nightspider]

Re: Neewbie Buying an E39 M5 (london)

Wow Ashok that is a very good example. You have looked after it well. Only problem i am thinking about is that it is left hand drive. Apart from that the price is amazing for the miles and the year of the model.

How have you found driving a left hand drive in london?