True Running costs of an e39 m5

Interesting comments on running cost, especially as EVO magazine have said on more than one occasion how reasonable running costs are.....

///Mister_G wrote: stephenperry wrote: [QUOTE=///Mister_G] Tyres - £100 per corner Don't believe all you read and do some experimenting yourself

i've had lots of makes of tyre over the years on various cars from cheap to dear (verdstein; pirelli; continental; naankang; marshall; federal; yokohama; michelin; bridgestone; avon...)

pirelli p-zero's were no more impressive than the avon zz1's, naankangs have a very hard wearing compound but can be lethal in the wet; yokohamas are overrated - very soft compound and rapid wear; continentals, for the slogan being "the rain tyre" i found wet weather performance nothing exceptional

the sierras on 15" naankangs at the moment.... so im not averse to cheap tyres - just wouldn't want to put them on a 160+ mph rwd motor car... just my opinion of course

Edited by stephenperry

Rags wrote: ...I want an M5...(but am a bit scared)

Rags,

You're not bored of the Mazda already are you?

Edited by Phil-C

Have been running a Dec '01 now for 18 months, for 25,000 miles, the only faults have been a blower motor pack , £50.00 and the rear anti roll bar brackets - £2 ish !!. Occasionally the check engine lamp comes on and reports a dodgy lambda sensor, about every 2 months.

Hard driving does result on about 1litre of oil / 1200 miles or so.

Compared to most Italian and British super saloons it's positively peanuts to run ! 

I get around 18 mpg in town , 25ish on the motorway, driving like my gran.

As I run a business servicing these cars , repairs for me are parts costs only.

If advising on buying one, I would definately go for a Sep '01 build or later car, as all the engine and Vanos mods were implemented at build by then, as well as getting things like revised steering wheel, auto headlamps and other gadgets as standard.

Word of warning - don't put Eagle F1s on an M5, they're much too soft for such a big powerful car- it's like driving around with 5psi of air pressure. I agree that there's no point in splashing out for the big name tyres (once others are properly rated) as the difference is marginal and the likes of pirelli rossos will be worn (at least the rears) in no time.

The vanos is effectively a mechanical gear which continuously adjusts camshaft timing and very rarely (if ever) goes wrong, rather the vanos solenoids, or more precisely the vanos solenoid oil seals that cause the noisy rattle on startup. Main dealers just replace the whole unit on both banks and that's why it costs so much.

Camshaft position sensors (4no.) give up the ghost around 70kmls and mass air flow meters (2no.) shortly afterwards, other than this I've had no mechanical problems after 120,000 miles on a y2k and I've trashed mine within an inch of its life every day for the past 3years.

You really need the Stoptech BBK on the front as it helps carry so much extra speed (and confidence) into corners without oem's fade and front/rear bias problems of other brake setups. I've driven loads of other cars and few are as well rounded and composed one minute, before absolutely obliterating an Sti from 70-140mph at the drop of a hat the next.

Forget the E60M5, if it had the dinan S3's supercharger conversion (at a cool $70k) this car would be perfect, although fuel consumption and tyre wear would go up exponentially