black944 turbo

I am considering selling the 951 and another car and picking up an m5 . What is maintance like on these, how reliable? Is the gas mileage as poor as posted on EPA? What is the ownership experience like compared to the 951?

I have had my car a long time and love it, but am wondering if I would be as happy with one of these.

refresh951

They are junk, do not do it.

black944 turbo

Thanks Shawn, I am having a hard time deciding. I don't think my boy would ever forgive me if I sold it.

manticore33

The e39 will be more expensive to up-keep than the 951 and the gas mileage of the M5 will be worse. That said, the e39 is a tank of a car, well built, and extremely quiet. My family/daily driver 2001 530i/5 speed has 223k miles on it and has no squeaks or rattles. However, the car is very plastic heavy in the engine compartment which is its number one downfall.

BMWs are hard an on suspension components, cooling systems, and tires. The s62 can be hit or miss. Visiting the M5 board forums will give you a better idea about that engine. You will lose rack and pinion with any v8 e39. My i6 is extremely durable and is smooth as silk and returns good mileage (23.5 avg, around 28-30 hwy @ 70 mph). However, I find I spend more keeping it on the road than the 951. Granted, there is mileage gap (951 has 153k on it), but the part costs are more, and it always needs more parts!

To fully recondition and e39 to a show-level car costs significantly more. The e39s are notorious for cracking of the interior wood trim (replacement is about $800-$1k new), but the dash won't crack since it is recycled rubber. Exterior trim likes to fade (whether aluminum or black).Suspension rebuilds require two control arms each for each side ($150+/ea) of the front, plus a ton more bushings in the rear. The headlights are problematic with broken headlight adjusters (especially face-lift lights 2001+). Rotors and brake components, clutch, shocks, and seem to be about the same costs. Driving wise, I find the Porsche seats to be more comfortable.

At the end of the day, I still like the 951 better. And, I feel, more horsepower in the e39 would not sway me. A Porsche has a unique driving experience that BMW has not replicated. I will gladly send the e39 off into the sunset at some point and DD the 951 for a million miles. I too have contemplated buying an M5, but the economy to run it DD puts me off. You really pay to have the 400 hp. And you lose a spare tire (dual exhaust on the M5 caused BMW to remove the spare tire well). And, BMWs are not very tunable unless you go big. The best options are aftermarket supercharges which run about $6k/kit.

I sometimes wish my pragmatic side would STFU.

If you are up for it then it will be an exciting car to own. It is one of the great cars to eat up mileage on the highway.

Edit: I should caveat this with my wife saying last night if I find a good enough deal that I can acquire an M5. So, I've been contemplating an e39 M5 all last night and into this afternoon.

black944 turbo

Great write up. I do not want to jump into a car that requires more upkeep than the 951. I drove a beautiful Imola red m5 and liked it a lot, but as you said it was not as engaging to drive. I have a family I would like to take with me now, but maybe I am better off with what I have. Thanks again and if any other incites pleas respond.

Voith

Don't do it.

Its a great car, but 951 is better.

My DD is 528i and in five years I replaced everything on it, twice.

And to replace adjusters, you have to put the lights in sauna.

Cheburator

I don't think you can compare the two cars - and the 951 is certainly no better as it is totally different. One is a 2+2 sports car, the other one is a 4+1 supersaloon designed to munch miles on the autobahn. In an ideal world you would have them side by side on your driveway. The 951 for visceral thrills on Sunday morning, while the M5 can take the whole family on a drive, which is still thrilling.

And those of you who compare the cooking E39 to the M5 - it is like comparing a 924 to a 951. Same badge on the bonnet and some common genes, but that is about it. Everything on the E39 M5 suspension is bespoke (not cheap either)...

If you can afford to keep the 951 - go for it. If, however, you don't really need 4 full seats/doors and boot - keep the 951 - it will deliver bigger thrills for a bit less outlay.

P.S. I have a 540iT, have driven thousands of miles in the V8 M5 and have a V10 M5 Touring as a daily driver due to 2 kids and wife who cannot drive stick...

Thom

We put a turbo on a friend's E39 M5 and even if it now accelerates like a rocket it still feels quite lardy. Awesome engine, but put in the wrong shell, as is often the case with BMWs.

Voith

I am wrenching e39 for five years, and I converted all the parts except engine and mirrors from m5 to mine, trust me, the car is exactly the same. The only chasis difference is lack of spare tire place, brakes and dampers(that are not even close to 951 konis). Cosmetic differences are M bumpers, tail spoiler, oval mirrors and three m badges.

There are a lot of e39 m5 here, cheap too. But at this price of gas 1,54€/L ($2.02/quart - $8/gal) , not really something you would drive on a day to day basis.

This is mine before and after, now it is almost identical with m5 / less engine.

manticore33

Hahahahaha... I heard of baking them apart or cutting the lights to replace the adjusters, but SAUNA?

To OP, I should mention that the e39 chassis (not galvanizes) is not as rust-proof as the 951s, and BMWs like to rust at 10+ years of age. My car came out of Pittsburgh, PA and now lives here in Central Ohio with me and I had a few spots and inside the front door seams.

Cheburator

Given that I (mostly my wife) drives a V8 E39 and that 5 out of my 7 BMWs to date have been ///M cars, I think I know a thing or two about the model. I still maintain that the suspension parts are bespoke - they are interchangeable with the cooking E39, but certainly different from the standard E39 fare. Also, the M5 has a different chasis geometry to all other E39s. The LSD is also a bespoke addition - no cooking E39 had one... The M5 had a bespoke steering box too.

Anyway, why do you always have to say the Konis on the 951 are better, or that the 951 is the better car all together. That is one crazy statement. You are comparing apples and orranges.

If you compared a 951 to a Cayman or to a BMW Z3M/Z4M or Nissan 350Z etc - than you can say one car is a better proposition than the other. But to state that the Sports car is better than the Saloon?!

Btw, those of us who need 4 doors/seats do run our M5s as daily drivers. In the last 2yrs of ownership I have averaged 15.8ltr/100km. Not too bad when you consider that the car will do 0-100 in 4.6sec and will max out at 204mph... The E39 M5 will see 182mph and 0-100 in 4.9sec, and will carry 5 in comfort to the Nurburgring, then lap the Nordschleife in the mid 8s stock and then go home again. Sounds like a **** car, no?

Scott H

The worst thing about E39 M5s are previous owners (just like the 951), almost all the ones I've looked at have been run into the ground, just like most early 2000 BMWs at this point. They are great cars, but remember they were $70-80k when new and replacement parts are priced accordingly. The E39 chassis is fantastic and somehow pulls off this amazing trick where the car feels much smaller than it is when you drive it.

manticore33

Nobody is discrediting the e39 M5 as a great car. However, it may be a bit much for daily driver use. I feel the stock 951 is a better value prospect to performance and operating costs compared to my e39. And, I should state that the M5 costs quite a bit more to keep on the road and there are a premiums to all of those M specific parts.

That said, the e39 is still one of the best options to haul around my family with a manual transmission while being somewhat economical on gas (as stated I average about 23.5 MPG. I usually average in the 20s on my stock 86 951).

That said, many of the common failures to e39s are shared by the M cars and the non-M cars.

- Window regulators
- Final stage units (blower motor resister)
- Lighting control modules
- Dead pixels - cluster / MID
- Cracking wood trim
- Seat twist
- SRS seat sensors
- Vapor barrier leaks (easy fix, but makes your carpet wet and car smell musty)
- 50-100k control arm bushings/complete arm replacement (2x arm per side)
- Heavily consuming rear tires especially in sport alignments (~20k per rear set is doing good)
- Brake booster failures and wiper motor failures due to cowl flooding
- Rust inside the gas filler, jack points, and lower rockers
- headlight adjuster failures
- (V8s) timing chain guides
- (V8s) expensive water cooled alternators

Cheburator

The best two posts on the subject!

gregeast

My answer to this question was to buy a '93 E32 740i and keep the 951. 77k miles, 4.0L V8, 300ish hp with Dinan chip and exhaust for $5k. Quiet, comfortable, spacious but still fun to drive.