It must take some herculean self control to care for a E39 M5 with this sort of mileage. It’s not as though you can hop in and take a spur of the moment spin to Vegas. This is a garage queen through and through. To the point where it even has forgone some of the common upgrades (screen, DVD nav, etc) in the spirit remaining 100% stock.
2000 E39 M5:
From the seller –
“This is one of the most gorgeous examples of the E39 M5 that you will likely ever see. Shown in stunning jet black with the solid black leather interior, this garage queen has a mere 19,821 actual miles on the odometer. Owned and lovingly maintained by several collectors over the years, no expense has been spared, no maintenance overlooked to keep this high performance automobile running at the high level that it was designed for. Just within the past two years all fluids have been changed with OE factory specified products including transmission, differential, brakes, coolant and of course, engine oil. Inspection II has already been performed, and all rubber parts including belts, hoses, weather stripping are either like new or have been replaced. The car has a new set of Michelin tires installed in early 2011 and there are only minor imperfections in the wheels. Difficult to see in the pictures is a professionally installed Passport SR1 remote radar detector, with sensors in the front and rear of the car and a discretely mounted display unit under the dash. The common instrument panel pixel drop-out problem that so many E39s suffer from has been repaired with a lifetime warranty. This car is 100% original and unmodified. The E39 M5 is becoming more and more rare, and extremely low mileage examples like this are nearly impossible to find any more.
If you are shopping for an M5 you probably know all about the car and the plethora of standard features that come on this car including CD changer, navigation, ABS, side and head air bags, rear air bags, etc. This car also has the factory shades.
The paint is excellent with some minor imperfections from rock chips and road debris, typical for a car with this mileage. The interior looks and smells like new with little to no visible wear, no odors or stains. The car comes with both keys, all manuals, service records, and 2008 navigation disks.”
Beautiful car, the interior photos show just how well it has been cared for. Some (not I) would say the $33.5k asking price is on the high side. I am of the opinion that cars in this sort of condition should fetch this sort of price. The seller is an enthusiast and active on the M5 Board, he knows fair market value for his vehicle.
Best of luck to the seller and an early congratulations to the lucky new owner of this beautiful M car.
~Aaron.
I just did an apprasil on one with 57k on it, I put $16k on it. Small market for them. The message boards are not fair market value boards. I am overly active on the air cooled Porsche boards and they know what to look for on those boards but the sellers are too high and the buyers are too low.
The car belongs to Roundel contributor Michael Bird. He just bought the car last year and did an extensive write up on it. I wonder why he’s getting rid of it so quickly?
Curious, but perhaps his situation has changed, or maybe he drew placement for a ’12 M5.
Perhaps he is not really selling it if his starting bid is far far above the market for these cars?
@Aaron: You may be right about his personal or job situation but I doubt that he’s getting a new M5 since he also leases an F10 5-series (he has written several articles on it).
@Howard S: I suspect that you’re right. He posted ads for this E39 M5 on the BMW CCA website and then removed them. To borrow an expression from Brer Rabbit he may just be fishing for suckers.
I didnt mean to imply suckers per se. Some times you get the tap on the shoulder from your wife that says one toy or another needs to go for some reason. Then you put it up at a high price and say look hun there are no buyers right now.
Relisted at $28.5.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110803733016
I sent Michael an e-mail to ask why he was selling. Here’s his reply. Makes sense. This car should be in the hands of someone who wants and can afford to keep it pristine.
“I’ve gotten myself in a quandary where I don’t want to put a bunch of miles on the car since it is such a garage queen, but I also don’t want to be tied down to a car that I don’t drive much. And quite frankly, I’m a bit fickle and wouldn’t mind something different.”
Getting closer on the price. This is the problem with owning a garage queen isn’t it?