Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
If the BMW 530i we featured over the weekend didn’t satisfy your horsepower needs, then here is another example of the real deal, the M5. These sedans almost perfected the formula of combining supercar performance with four-door practicality. A decade on since production halted, they are still revered as much as they were when they were new. This M5 for sale in North Carolina looks downright immaculate for a car with over 80,000 miles on the clock, certainly the product of a fastidious owner.
With traveling for holidays and work occupying the majority of my December and the first significant rain we’ve seen in California coming during my time at home, my M5 has been sadly tucked away under his cover in the garage. I’m sure he doesn’t mind too much, but anything more than a couple of weeks without letting him loose always makes me uncomfortable.
Seeing cars like today’s M5 don’t really help the longing. After last week’s beautiful Eurofied M5 sold at the crazy asking price of $37,990, it would appear clean M5s have jumped up a rung on the value scale for the holidays. Today’s full-bumpered M5 has very similar miles and is in fantastic condition, though not quite the concourse-quality of the small-bumpered example, yet is still well north of $30k. I really thought that threshold was reserved for the few examples still lurking that are well below 100k miles, but when they’re selling, that’s the market!
Not a week goes by it seems that we don’t feature an E39 BMW 5 series of some sort. Generally we like to hone in on the V8 engined fast Fives, but the bread and butter E39s in the US market were the ones equipped with the inline-6 under the hood. This 2003 530i represents the last year for the E39 and the sunset on this particular chapter in BMW design language. Equipped with the sports package and a 5-speed manual gearbox, it is sort of junior version of the M5 for those who may be scared off by the running costs and thirst of the Motorsports beast.
We’ve seen some cool examples of the standard 535i recently, and today we have another clean, low-mileage example that is coming from its original owner. With just 116k miles, it looks pretty impeccable inside and out. The one main detraction is the automatic, but on the flipside it was just replaced. Having to drop some serious cash on the transmission and brakes was apparently enough for him to decide it was time to move on, as it’s up for sale with no reserve.
The E28 M5 still gets me excited, whether I’m driving mine or just pass one on the road. Today I saw a well-used but sweet example with throwing stars, Euro bumpers, and a nice Dinan badge complementing the standard trunk emblem. While that owner clearly went down the deep rabbit hole of modification, today’s low-mileage example looks almost entirely stock on the outside other than a slightly lowered stance. Some work has been done under the hood though, with the reportedly-howling Euro headers and a chip ensuring this M5 lives up to the legend of hauling ass. It’s not perfect – a few blemishes in the interior and the commonly-scraped front spoiler – but the completeness is what catches my eye here. The full trunk carpeting, first aid kit, and fully-functioning electronics are all items worth paying a little more for. With low (for an E28 mileage), this is a good M5 that could easily be made great.
