@ssbmw
Thanks mate.
WTF did your replace his E39 M5 with? I hope he got the price he was looking for. I think he was asking for $50k? for a 2001 model correct?
I'm the proud 4th owner of this car.
It is NZ new and was originally purchased in Aug 2003.
I believe their were 5 M5's sold that year new in NZ. This was the last one sold.
BMW Wellington informs me there is about 30 M5's in the country (well there was back in April ).
The original owner was a yoga company!?!
They sold it to a person based in Wellington, who was very helpful when I was looking to purchase this vehicle. He is a member here also.
The 3rd owner was also based in Wellington. He was also excellent to deal with and had truly treated this car like a God in terms of maintainance and conditioning. He collects cars...
I got BMW Wellington and an independent inspection prior to purchase and they both were absolutely impressed by the outstanding condition of the vehicle.
As stated, I intend to replace the clutch as it is the weak point of the car and feel a little slippage from 3rd to 4th. This is normal for a car with 60 k on it. The stock E39 M5 clutch ain't the best so I'll look elsewhere. Apparently upgrading from a stock clutch and flywheel makes a huge difference to the already staggering performance of this car. Opinions from members would be most welcome.
It is now back up and garaged in Auckland. I drive it once a week for approx 20km or so. I expect that I'll do about 6000 k a year. He gets polished "everytime" I use him... There a some great hand applicators out there atm and with the use of a micro fibre cloth it is an effortless 4 min job to make your car look mint everytime you use it. I can't remember the last time I actually had to wash my car because of this technique.
Originally I was looking at an M3 but I'm glad I didn't... purely from an aesthetic point of view the E39 M5 is a classic. It is an absolutely beautiful car. Whilst, it may not be the track beast that M3 is, it absolutely eats the road as a touring car and 4 people can do it in comfort! Most of the time they are blissfully unaware of how fast the car is exactly going...
@DaveO
In terms of comparing it to my old 530M 2001.
First off. I can recommend buying an E39 530M to anyone. That vehicle is such a smooth ride. Well done on your purchase. If you buy well (which I am sure you have) it will provide you with years of enjoyable motoring. I brought ours 3 year ago with 45000km on the cloak, did an additional 45000kms and I didn't to spend a cent on it. Great car, that my wife misses dearly as she finds the E39 M5 manual trans too aggressive. This really doesn't worry me as she now never drives the "beast" .
I could go on about comparing a the 530M with the E39 M5, but at the end of the day one a is a super car and one isn't. They really do feel/drive "completely" differently on every level. Simply put, the day I flew down from Auckland to Wellington to drive the car back up was something special... The first time you floor it to overtake, or the first time you press that sport button with stab control off and give the "beast" some beans are moments of pure joy...Puts a smile on my dial everytime...
