The 1995 BMW 530i Dinan we featured earlier this month has been relisted. The car failed to meet it’s reserve last time at $5,600.
1995 BMW 530i Dinan – REVISIT
The below post originally appeared on our site May 8, 2013:
If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck…it must be a duck, right? Not necessarily. At first look, you’d see a clean M5, but then look closer and you see a clean 530i with the Dinan treatment. While the M5 is an all out performance sedan, this Dinan 5 is more of a gentleman’s sedan with a touch of sport.
On a lot of levels this car falls short of the M5, but on other levels, this car is just as good. The smooth and torquey V8 is a bit more civilized compared to the high strung six in the M5 and with the Dinan upgrades, the power gap becomes a lot less. Add in the smoother suspension and plush interior, and this car offers a great alternative to the increasingly pricey E34 M5. This beautifully maintained 530i for sale in Pleasanton, CA is a great daily sedan.
Year: 1995
Model: 530i Dinan
Engine: 3.0 liter V8
Transmission: 5-speed manual
Mileage: 124,668 mi
Price: Reserve auction
Click for Details: 1995 BMW 530i Dinan on eBay
This BMW came to us, as do the majority of our cars, from one of our very good customers. We have been dealing with this customer / friend for years and he regularly arrives at our showroom in some very interesting German sports cars and sporting sedans. One day, he arrived in this great BMW indicating that he had purchased another “toy” and that something had to go ( and he didn’t want it to be his marriage!). We drove the BMW DINAN, fell in love and, as they say, the rest is history.
For over 2 years, the “Dinan 5” has been an occasional use car by our owner when 2 seaters and SUV’s are not being used. The BMW is a practical yet fun car to drive and represents a truly wonderful sporting sedan. This 530i is factory equipped with the strong 3.0 liter V8 that offers excellent performance in addition to very good fuel economy in part as a result of the cars manual 5-speed transmission. The BMW has had no major mechanical modifications and the DINAN upgrades have not negatively affected the BMW’s comfort for five, great handling, sporty 5-speed and even very good fuel economy! Perhaps the best part is that this generation E34 cars represent a tremendous value, especially if well maintained, low mileage cars can be located. This car is one such example.
With meticulously kept service records, relatively low miles and tasteful upgrades, this is a great car for someone looking to drive an older sedan. This car is selling in a reserve auction and I would expect that it sells in the $6,500 ballpark. That’s much less than an M5 of the same caliber, with just about the same looks.
-Brian
All the expense and complexity of a V8 with the power of a 6cyl. No thanks.
Great example of putting lipstick on a pig. It certainly looks good, but it’s not a 540, or the M5 is trying so hard to look like.. Some nice flashy upgrades on a higher-mileage 530. So what you have here is a well kept, flashy looking, higher-mileage 530. “The strong 3.0 liter V8″…relative to what? When introduced, this was the lowest output V8 on the market. It’s reason for existence was to enable BMW to market a V8 against it’s V6 competitors. Considering the backstory and gushing from the dealer, I’m guessing the reserve is well above Brian’s $6500 ballpark.
I had almost the same car from 1994-1998. White, with all these Dinan goodies plus the Dinan exaust. Saw 47 of the lower 48 states in it, dozens of drivers schools, and is the only car I regret selling. Replaced it with a 1998 540i sport 6-speed, and had the future ///M5 on order. I was seduced by the low end torque of the 540i, but the rest of the package was too heavy and bland, even with the Dinan parts, and I felt the same way when the ///M5 came out. I never should have sold the 530i, but kept telling myself it wasn’t an ///M5 and I could always find one of those. 6 months later I started looking for an e34 or e28 ///M5. The e34 ///M5 stock was no better than the than my old 530i/Dinan5. V8 may have been small, but woke up with the chip, and loved revs. I ended up finding a 1988 ///M5 with 36k (it was already 12 years old), and used it as a fair weather daily driver until I fell for MINIs, but I still have and love my e28 with 75k.
lol why would you buy a 530i when you can find a nice 540i for the same price?
This vehicle just fails in every way possible.
Pretty harsh comments here for a nice E34 that would likely sell for $5k – $6k. Yes, the 530i would not have been my E34 of choice, but so many years later, if you want an E34 with a manual transmission you would be primarily buying condition and the previous owner. This car seems well maintained and certainly should be a bit more lively than a 525i or a stock 530i, and certainly on par with a 535i. As to the 535i, yes I love the old M30 too but early run 535i cars are an electrical basket case, so that rules out the ’89s and ’90s, urges caution with the ’91s and makes the last run 535i’s desirable and hard to find, so the issue is largely mooted by the reality it’s getting really hard to find a nice, late run 535i. Now, is this car as nice as a 540i M sport or 540i manual? Probably not, but to take one example, EAG had a really clean 540i M sport and I think he wanted well north of $10k for the car — probably closer to $20k IIRC. This car is half to a quarter of that price. Is it worth that? I would leave that to the buyer and the seller but the price — if it is in the ballpark of $5k-$6k — certainly isn’t out of line with what I would expect to pay for a really nice, well sorted E34 with a manual transmission. The fact that this is a 530i with some added goodies only makes it that much nicer, provided the car isn’t priced like a 540i, which this car isn’t (if you are looking at nice 540i examples.) So again, I don’t get all the “hate.”
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