True Running costs of an e39 m5

In a simple word; expensive.

Group 20 insurance - expensive. (£1000?ave)

400hp V8 - expensive fuel bills (£60 per week for under 300 miles)

Any repairs out of warranty will be phenomenally expensive.

Yes, it has been known to suffer vanos issues.

That aside.... what a car

Would be interested in some feedback as well - it's on my radar as the next M power investment...

Can indepedants cope with it, or is it computer meltdown for every single problem?

How about tyres, pads, discs and inpection I & II costs?

M5 suffers from the same dual vanos unit failures as the E36 Evo, expect to pay £5000 to have these replaced if they fail, which they do rather often. They also eat air flow meters, expect to pay around £500 for a pair of these. All this and a running cost that exceeds even the already expensive M3 models and you have your self a lead weight hung around your neck..

What a car though, just buy it!!!!

i had an e39 for 2 years - had quite a few things go wrong and without the warranty i would estimate it would've cost me £10k or so in the two years to do all the bits they did for free.

Its a truly great car though, very finely balanced, never wanting for power (even at silverstone!) and when coupled with a good exhaust system is possibly the best sounding engine BM has made for the road. (see july 2005 BMW car, my car was featured)

The brakes are ok for the road if youre a 'normal' m5 driver. If you like to reach the upper ends of the performance the brakes can suffer on repeated hard stops. Track day on standard brakes is tough unless youre and excellent driver and can carry silly speeds through corners. I opted for some Stoptech 4 pots on the front with two sets of pads to switch between, and they were much better.

i sold mine 3mths ago, and although i miss it, it was a pricey hobby - but then when you have the engine & performance specs that this car has, and you compare it with similar supercars, the costs aren't too outrageous.

Servicing at BMW was reasonably priced (supply own oil ;o))

Standard tyres used to cost me £125 for front and £150 for rear if you shop about.

Any other questions im happy to answer, just ensure you buy one with a BM or aftermarket warranty to ensure u dont tiptoe the whole time!

cheers

piers

I think foxworth has the point though.  You have to compare it against something like a 612 Saglietti or a mase Quattroporte if you want a fair comparison in terms of what is on offer, and they are terrifying cars to run.

There's always the old man's Mercedes AMG.  It has the power and the badge, but in my personal opinion anything with a three pointed star younger than about 10 years is a PoS.

I looked at an M5 fairly seriously a while back, but I came to the conclusion I would resent spending what it would take to run it properly, and backed off. I would say the only person who could reasonably buy one without a warranty is someone who owns a dealership!

One hell of a car though.

///Mister_G wrote: Tyres - £100 per corner

maybe for cheap korean brands...decent rubber costs much more than that!!

e.g. the previous owner of my car (which uses the same profile of tyres as the m5 - 235/40/18 front 265/35/18 rear) shelled out over £700 for a set of Michelin Pilot Sports

you don't put cheap tyres on a car like an m5

i've just checked the price at kwik-fit... front £418/pair & rear £486/pair

SeeSure - you must have one of those Guardian Angels from the Polo advert!  Brave man to run such a car without warranty coverage.

stephenperry wrote: ///Mister_G wrote: Tyres - £100 per corner maybe for cheap korean brands...decent rubber costs much more than that!! you don't put cheap tyres on a car like an m5

Sounds like some brand snobbery going on.

I used to think in a similar way until I was offered a trial of some dubious brand tyres (for free but retails at well under £80 per conrner on my m3).

The pilot sports which were on it previously caught me out a couple of times due to their breakaway, these ones track better, are quieter, are far more stable in the wet and were fitted by a local motorsport racing tyre company. Wear is to be seen, but everything else has impressed greatly so far.

Don't believe all you read and do some experimenting yourself