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Tag: 540i

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2003 BMW 540i Individual

While the wild men and woman over in Stuttgart were cranking out the crazy colors, it looks like the usually serious folks at BMW wanted to have a little fun too. Or rather, it looks like someone paid them to do this. This is a 2003 BMW 540i created by the Individual department with not only one of the crazier exterior colors I’ve seen on an E39, but probably a top three wildest interior setups I’ve seen as well. The story is a corporation reportedly ordered this car and had it armored as well, which makes no sense considering you usually want cars that blend in if you are the kind of people who needs an armored vehicle. Whatever the case may be, I am glad it exists because I live with these wild specs. Wait until you see this interior.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2003 BMW 540i Individual on Auto Scout

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2002 BMW 540i Sport

The E39 540i will probably go down as one of the great from the company; combining good looks, potent performance, a luxurious cabin, and acceptable – but not too advanced – technology into a clean package. Dynamically, they’re great to drive, they make really good noises, and yet they still manage to fly under the radar more than an M5 does. They’re certainly one of the few have-your-cake-type cars out there. And despite being all of these things, they generally manage to be a lot cheaper than you might expect for a decent example; that is, outside of the 2003 M-Sport models. However, if you’re willing to step back just a year and get ever so slightly less M DNA in your E39, you can still find good examples of the breed for reasonable rates. Today I ran across a very nice 2002 to consider:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2002 BMW 540i Sport on eBay

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2000 BMW 540i Touring 6-Speed

Are you a ‘want your cake and eat it too’ kind of person? If so, you probably appreciate performance wagons. And why not? They offer practicality, are (generally) much more affordable than sports cars, and can literally fly under the radar. With their numbers dwindling in the open market, it’s always a great time to look at one from our past. Enter the E39 Touring.

There were several configurations that the 5-series Touring was available in over the years, but the ‘big stick’ was the 540i with its 286 horsepower M62. Sure, the N54-equipped E61 was faster and available as a manual. But if you wanted a really classic BMW setup, the 540iT was about as good as it got for US-bound BMW wagons. As a result, many have been turned up by their owners and drafted into M5 clones. Such is the case here, with this Sienna Red Metallic E39 sporting a host of Dinan bits, E39 M5 bits, and a 6-speed manual swap for good measure.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2000 BMW 540i Touring 6-speed on eBay

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1995 BMW 540i M-Sport

Although the letter “M” attached to a BMW has generally represented the pinnacle of performance for the brand, the reality is the term “M-Sport” has not always denoted the same characteristics. Take the E82 135i, for example. The M-Sport package for that car consisted of slightly different 18″ wheels than the standard 18″ wheels and a black headliner. That’s it.

But zoom back in time to the beginnings of the title “M-Sport” and it meant a bit more. If you wanted a fast, executive super saloon in 1995, your options were dwindling. 1995 was the last year of the Audi S6, and one year after both the V8 Quattro and 500E were taken away. 1995 would also be the last year of the iconic M5, and hints were that it might be a long time before we’d see another. Why? Well, the reality was that with the 6 speed 540i the performance gap between the “super” M5 and the “normal” V8 engined 540 was so close it just didn’t make a lot of sense to have the premium model anymore. The S38 was by now a quite old motor and was getting harder to pass increasingly strict emissions standards; indeed, shrinking sales and high price had resulted in the M5 being pulled from the U.S. in 1993.

As a result, BMW offered a hint at what it could do with the V8 in the form of the M540i in Canada and the 540i M-Sport in the U.S. market. The Canadian model was quite close in spec to the European M5, except that in place of the venerable S38 it ran the M60 V8 out of the normal 540i. If that sounds like a letdown, it wasn’t – mated to the Getrag 6-speed transmission it was a great driver, and with the M5 adjustable suspension, brakes and cosmetic details it was 95% plus of the M5 for most drivers. The 540i M-Sport that the U.S. received differed a bit in not having the trick floating rotors of the M540i, but with nearly everything else out of the M bag of tricks these are cool cars, great drivers, and even more rare than the M5:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1995 BMW 540i M-Sport on eBay

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2000 BMW 540i Sport

Back in November of 2017, I looked at an early special-order 540i Sport Package. It ticked many of the right boxes; while the later cars gained the shouty M5 exterior bits, the early cars are understated in a nice way, yet still potent. I’ve especially always been a fan of the Style 19 BBS wheels on the early Sport cars, but the follow up wasn’t bad, either. The turbine Style 32s mimicked Alpina’s signature style, but looked right at home and as if they were always intended for the E39.

But this car has some other items going for it that the first didn’t. While both are M62/TU 6-speeds and carried the M-Sport suspension, this one also has the M-Sport steering wheel and sport seats. The downside?

BEIIIIIIGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2000 BMW 540i Sport on eBay

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