E60 M5 - Thinking of selling

[GravityLee]

E60 vs. E39: Which BMW 5 Series is Better?

20 years ago, BMW shook up the 5 Series with the E60. Was it a success? Was it a flop? Read our article to find out and see if you should buy one today.

www.bmwblog.com

I don’t want to be negative, but every time I scan through BMWblog article I feel dumber. If they weren’t around for long, I’d think they are a ChatGPT project.

 

[Mytfine]

Same thing happened with the E28 and E34 M5, prices were low and now they are astronomical. I think a clean example like this will be approaching 800 to a mil in 5 years.

 

[modocrat]

Same thing happened with the E28 and E34 M5, prices were low and now they are astronomical. I think a clean example like this will be approaching 800 to a mil in 5 years.

But do they actually sell at these prices..?

 

[Mytfine]

The really clean examples actually do trade hands at those prices. South africa has alot of multi millionaires who never actually work hard for the the fortune so these people dont look at value.

But do they actually sell at these prices..

But do they actually sell at these prices..?

 

[Peter@AEW]

The manuals in the US might end up worth something, but I agree. The gearbox is by all accounts horrendous and the reliability and maintaining costs make it frightful. Cool and interesting cars but I don't think they'll ever be much more than a tid bit (V10 family saloon, ironic that Audi made one at the same/similar time...) of history (as opposed to an E28 or E39 which are genre defining and clearly all time greats).

The same thing was said of the e39 M5 and look at them now.

If you are able to keep it you would be wise.

 

[TurboLlew]

The really clean examples actually do trade hands at those prices. South africa has alot of multi millionaires who never actually work hard for the the fortune so these people dont look at value.

So this is the trouble with belief and anecdotes. Do you actually know whether they traded hands at those prices? How? Because the buyer or seller told you? The two people with a vested interest in keeping the market perception buoyant? How many of these deals do you know the details of? This is the problem when you cannot see via a database of some sort what the actual price trends have been. This is a thing in other markets. There is even a youtuber who covers this for particular cars as content (Unfortunately following this in a market like SA is not without issue either since there are cars that are super rare here and in other places are cheap because they are abundant - and vice versa).

You are 100% correct in that there are plenty of people who didn't work hard for their money, but are they also the ones who are going to buy one of these cars (bearing in mind if they wanted one they would, by now, probably already have one?) Are they not going to get the tenderpreneur starter packs or flex with the latest of limited editions that they get invited to launches of?

Facebook marketplace and autotrader seem to suggest that prices on these sorts of cars are no longer climbing in value and the ones that are junk are actually now marked down a lot (and you get notifications from the platform when sellers are reducing pricing) - Some of these, especially on the Merc and Audi front, are literally half the original "I know what I have" or "it's going to Europe if I can't sell here" asking prices. This is something you CAN actually see and track as opposed to stories of "yes I totally paid R1bar for this 80s car" and sellers claiming vehicles are sold only for them to crop up elsewhere (or even at a different, affiliated seller). You are not watching the market close enough if you haven't spotted these things happening. I am sure this is where @modocrat is also coming from. We really don't know.

THIS PARTICULAR car yes is worth keeping (or selling at a higher price) especially because of the low miles and is a candidate to be one of those forever under 100K kms with all the preventative work done etc. The average (or rather majority of) E60 is probably not IMHO.

 

[TBP88]

The same thing was said of the e39 M5 and look at them now.

If you are able to keep it you would be wise.

The E39M5 from launch was lauded as an all time great, arguably at no point since launch has it ever not been considered an elite level car. The E60 is less well built, has a more finnicky engine, an inferior gearbox, numerous pieces of tech that are now heavily dated (old screens, iDrive gen1, early safety systems like lane assists and HUD). I agree that a really clean, really low miles one might end up worth money, but if OP is wanting advise on purely a monetary basis - he's better off selling and investing the money into something else. Again, assuming you have no emotional attachment to the car, it's already worth more than most others on the market because it's a low miles well looked after car.

So this is the trouble with belief and anecdotes. Do you actually know whether they traded hands at those prices? How? Because the buyer or seller told you? The two people with a vested interest in keeping the market perception buoyant? How many of these deals do you know the details of? This is the problem when you cannot see via a database of some sort what the actual price trends have been. This is a thing in other markets. There is even a youtuber who covers this for particular cars as content (Unfortunately following this in a market like SA is not without issue either since there are cars that are super rare here and in other places are cheap because they are abundant - and vice versa).

You are 100% correct in that there are plenty of people who didn't work hard for their money, but are they also the ones who are going to buy one of these cars (bearing in mind if they wanted one they would, by now, probably already have one?) Are they not going to get the tenderpreneur starter packs or flex with the latest of limited editions that they get invited to launches of?

Facebook marketplace and autotrader seem to suggest that prices on these sorts of cars are no longer climbing in value and the ones that are junk are actually now marked down a lot (and you get notifications from the platform when sellers are reducing pricing) - Some of these, especially on the Merc and Audi front, are literally half the original "I know what I have" or "it's going to Europe if I can't sell here" asking prices. This is something you CAN actually see and track as opposed to stories of "yes I totally paid R1bar for this 80s car" and sellers claiming vehicles are sold only for them to crop up elsewhere (or even at a different, affiliated seller). You are not watching the market close enough if you haven't spotted these things happening. I am sure this is where @modocrat is also coming from. We really don't know.

THIS PARTICULAR car yes is worth keeping (or selling at a higher price) especially because of the low miles and is a candidate to be one of those forever under 100K kms with all the preventative work done etc. The average (or rather majority of) E60 is probably not IMHO.

Broadly agree - if you're buying a car purely for flex purposes you get a new M4, a new AMG a new Cayenne GTS Turbo or whatever it's called. I don't really think many people are going to be flexing by buying a near 15yr old BMW that will almost certainly be requiring tons of maintaining.

Even that Hamilton Ndlovu guy, I saw his stuff being auctioned off - Urus, 922 carrera, Range Rovers. Thats flex status. Not an old bmw. As car guys we always confuse what the majority of the public thinks - the truth is as cool as we think old M5s are, for 99% of the world it's just a 4 door BMW, and in this case an old one.

If you're buying a car to impress others you'd target the latest and greatest. (unless you're in the 0.0000000001% buying 1960s ferraris or something).

 

[Spanky]

Even that Hamilton Ndlovu guy

Off topic, but good lord is that schadenfreude sweeeeeeeeeet. F#@k this guy and those like him.

/Off topic over

 

[VinceM]

Urus, 922 carrera, Range Rovers. Thats flex status. Not an old bmw. As car guys we always confuse what the majority of the public thinks - the truth is as cool as we think old M5s are, for 99% of the world it's just a 4 door BMW, and in this case an old one.

Sobering truth!


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[NBN]

The E39M5 from launch was lauded as an all time great, arguably at no point since launch has it ever not been considered an elite level car. The E60 is less well built, has a more finnicky engine, an inferior gearbox, numerous pieces of tech that are now heavily dated (old screens, iDrive gen1, early safety systems like lane assists and HUD). I agree that a really clean, really low miles one might end up worth money, but if OP is wanting advise on purely a monetary basis - he's better off selling and investing the money into something else. Again, assuming you have no emotional attachment to the car, it's already worth more than most others on the market because it's a low miles well looked after car.



Broadly agree - if you're buying a car purely for flex purposes you get a new M4, a new AMG a new Cayenne GTS Turbo or whatever it's called. I don't really think many people are going to be flexing by buying a near 15yr old BMW that will almost certainly be requiring tons of maintaining.

Even that Hamilton Ndlovu guy, I saw his stuff being auctioned off - Urus, 922 carrera, Range Rovers. Thats flex status. Not an old bmw. As car guys we always confuse what the majority of the public thinks - the truth is as cool as we think old M5s are, for 99% of the world it's just a 4 door BMW, and in this case an old one.

If you're buying a car to impress others you'd target the latest and greatest. (unless you're in the 0.0000000001% buying 1960s ferraris or something).

or even a GT4

But Amen brother, you are definitely speaking the gospel here

Off topic but of some relevance is that know of some so called car "guys" , I cant call them dealers because they are definitely not legit but these guys are using old cars to launder and wash money . If you observe the market you will see the same "collector" car being sold amongst a group of "friends" for exorbitant prices and then eventually end up back to the original owner

 

[TBP88]

or even a GT4

But Amen brother, you are definitely speaking the gospel here

Off topic but of some relevance is that know of some so called car "guys" , I cant call them dealers because they are definitely not legit but these guys are using old cars to launder and wash money . If you observe the market you will see the same "collector" car being sold amongst a group of "friends" for exorbitant prices and then eventually end up back to the original owner

Hahaha. Fair!