lowlander

Does anyone on here have any experience with running and E39 M5?

Trying to get a feel for the running costs. Obviously fuel and insurance will be pricey but what about servicing and repairs?

Thanks.

Martin.

craig5

do not buy 1 without a warranty- a pair of mafs are 500 quid,the vanos will set you back about 3k and the m5 has 2

Dracoro

Tyres! 6000miles for rears. A bit more for the fronts.

There's an M forum to find that will know best.

Budget at least £1000 per year running costs on top of servicing, ins, fuel and tyres.

Lust4Life

I would suggest you check out www.bm3w.co.uk as there are some major changes just happening with the warranty which will affect running costs.

Basically I get 21MPG on Optimax or similar and the servicing is around £200 for an Oil Service and £380 for an Inspection 1 with Inspections 2's being between £600-800 generally.

The service schedule is Oil/Insp1/Oil/Insp2/Oil etc. with intervals of around 15k miles.

The BMW warranty was fantastic but it's gone up massively wef 1st February with an excess of £250 per claim (which can be for more than one item though) and the price is now over £1800 per year for cars between 60k and 100k miles with cover no longer available over 100k.

Still cheap to run for what it is though and other than the new RS4 or a nice RS6 Audi I can't think of anything I consider changing it for.

Cheers!

Phil

MattOz

Martin,

I had one for about a year. Averaged 21 mpg and only required an oil service. I supplied the oil and the dealer charged me £72 for the rest. 13-15k miles between services is the norm. My tyres lasted well, because most of my mileage was motorway.

Try and get one with warranty, but the cost is soon to be ridiculous, so check out 3rd party alternatives. BM3W has a host of information.

It was a fantastic car, and they now represent good value for money if you find the right one. Just remember that it's effectively still a £60k car when it comes to parts prices and main dealer service items.

Mine



Cheers
Matt

Paul_M

What is it with BMW and those dreaded VANOS units? Isn't it a very similar principle to the Honda VTECs which seem to be very close to 100% reliable?

I'd love an E39 M5 but every time I think of that VANOS I shudder. I currently have an 840Ci which is also a V8 but without VANOS, and these V8s are almost totally reliable save for the odd niggle such as leaking valve cover gaskets.

What is it about the VANOS that BMW got so wrong? After all the issues with the E36 M3 EVO you'd think they'd have sorted it by the time the E39 M5 came along

Dracoro

I'm not sure but I think your 840 DOES have vanos. Is it the 4.4 or the 4.0? My 740 has the 4.4 and it has the vanos. It's the M3 which has DOUBLE VANOS that has the problems. AIUI the single vanos are ok. I stand to be corrected though.