Here’s some free advice: There’s nothing more expensive than a cheap German car. There’s a reason why that advice is free, though. It sucks. Any older car can be problematic and any car, from any company or region, can be expensive to repair. Here’s some better advice: There’s nothing more expensive than a car you bought thoughtlessly. I’ve thought a lot about this 2003 BMW 530i with the five-speed and the sport package. Yeah, it has traveled almost the distance from the Earth to the Moon, but that doesn’t faze me.
Am I tempting the automotive gods here? Absolutely. That’s the point of this car. It might turn out to be a super dumb purchase and I may be eating my words as well as drawing down my kid’s college fund. It also might be the single greatest purchase I’ve ever made.
How I Got It
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about how the search for the perfect cheap/fun car on Facebook Marketplace was slowly causing me to lose my mind. At that point I kind of gave up trying to find my next project car. Here’s what I wrote:
I love having oddball cars, but I tend to assume the universe will bring them to me as they’ve always done. One day a few years ago I was bored and on the Internet and decided to look and see what Volvo 240s were going for on eBay and, magically, I had a Volvo wagon in my driveway a week later. Not long after I acquired the Volvo a Greek clubowner friend-of-a-friend needed to stash a ’60s Mercedes sedan and that, too, ended up in my care (a friend of Alex Roy, of course, which is also how I ended up with a Tesla Model 3 for a bit). How does one become a Merkur owner? Unintentionally.
Not long after I posted the story I got this message, from reader Chris:
Matt,
I just read your story about the fruitlessness of Facebook marketplace and think I may have a car to save your sanity. It’s not as quirky as a Saab but at least it has a manual.
I have a 2003 BMW 530i with 235k miles. I’ve owned it for the last 12 years, primarily while living in Georgia and California but I now live in Philadelphia. I bought it from Texas with 108k miles. It’s now my 3rd car and I’ve been meaning to sell it but haven’t been motivated to get rid of it until I read your article and thought you might like it. It runs great, no check engine light, jut got an oil/filter change last month, new coils and plugs 2,000 miles ago, stacks of maintenance records and a clean title. The attached pictures are from this summer when I first considered selling it. Someone had hit it while parked, I’ve since completely replaced the rear passenger door. I can take new pics but the weather is miserable right now.
Happy to share more info if you’re interested.
Thanks for all the work you’ve done at Jalopnik and now The Autopian.
Chris
The universe had spoken! I’ll admit to some initial hesitancy. I love E39s, but have only driven the Alex Roy Cannonball Run M5. Driving his car was a great experience for the first thirty minutes and then it decided to die on me. Some would consider this an omen. Not me. I’m an optimist and, besides, most of my Alex Roy experiences result in a car breaking, an entire film crew getting arrested on the Oregon Trail, or Alex going out for a three-minute drive around the block in a Peugeot 405 mi16 and just disappearing in Eastern France for a while.
With the help of our own Thomas (an old BMW expert) [Editor’s Note: That’s giving me way too much credit. – TH] and a few other friends in the community, I worked out an agreement with Chris ($3,000 delivered) and he brought the car up from Philly yesterday and I’m just counting the days until I can put some real miles on it.
Why I Felt Comfortable Making This Decision
When you’re buying a new car you’re mostly thinking about what you need and what you want. When you’re buying a used car it should be the opposite: What does your car need and what does your car want? After a lot of emailing and texting with Chris and consulting with friends I got the sense that this BMW didn’t need much immediately and mostly wanted someone to keep giving it the love and attention that it had gotten from Chris.
Part of the used car process is sizing up the person selling you a car. I won’t buy a car without knowing its story. Who is selling it? Why? How’d they get it? Chris bought the car with just 108,000 miles on it and managed to more than double the range. He’d read Alex’s book, actually, and knew he wanted an E39. An M5 was a little expensive for him so he decided on the 530i with the slightly more powerful BMW inline-six, sport package, and five-speed transmission.
[Editor’s Note: The sport package on E39 530is adds a wonderful set of sport seats with adjustable thigh support, blacked-out Shadowline window trims, M-Technic sports suspension, a lovely M-Technic three-spoke steering wheel, and 17-inch two-piece alloy wheels. It’s a pretty sweet option pack that’s definitely worth seeking out. – TH]
In the years since buying the car he’s driven it across the country multiple times and kept detailed records of every step of the car’s life. Seriously, look at the spreadsheets:
He even noted when the distance from the Earth to the Moon will be reached! There’s a good first goal. Chris was extremely clear with all the bits that had been addressed on the car as well as the little quirks. I don’t know Chris, of course, but I got good vibes and everything he said made sense. Thomas also pointed out that a higher mileage German car is less suspect than a low mileage one because you know someone had to be taking care of it.
As for the car, the 3.0-liter M54B30 straight-six is well known to be robust and the addition of a manual transmission means that there’s no big surprise automatic rebuild in my future. Bill Caswell, who knows more about BMWs than I know about the history of the Berlin Airlift (and I know a lot), thinks of E39s as Legos. “Just replace the pieces as you go,” was his advice.
What It’s Like
When Chris pulled up to my place yesterday I was delighted to see the Sterling Gray Metallic BMW looked just as good as it did in photos. There were a few scratches here and there, the nose is heavily pocked from more than 200,000 miles of road debris, and the headlights are in need of a refresh. If anything, the imperfections took a little pressure off the car. Chris spent so much time loving this car I’d have felt bad if it ended up being perfect.
There are a couple of awkward moments once we got into the car, however. The first was probably my fault. Chris installed a DICE media bridge that allows the E39’s older system to connect an iPhone and even display songs on the little media display. There’s a small cubby ahead of the armrest that contains the necessary cords for this system and, trying to close it, I immediately broke the brittle plastic cover. Oops. The car went 230,000 miles and couldn’t survive five minutes in my care.
Chris immediately froze up when this happened and I had to assure him that it wasn’t his fault and I didn’t care. It was something to fix and it in no way impacted the usability of the car.
The second issue was totally his fault, though. In the email he noted that the headliner was sagging on both sides where the fabric met the front window. Sitting in the car I couldn’t identify either sag and so he pulled down the passenger side visor to show me and the whole thing drooped maybe an inch. I laughed. Maybe too much. I could barely even photography the sag it was so minor.
Other than the predictable blemishes from years of use and a needed engine detail, this thing was nice. Just look at the tool kit! That tool kit is nicer than anything David owns.
Driving the car to the bank (heads up, Zelle will only let you send $500 to someone if you’ve never sent them money before) I knew I made the right decision. The car felt great. Everyone says these cars just feel right and this one feels right. The six is as smooth as everyone says, and the 228 horsepower and 221 lb.-ft. of torque felt more than adequate. This one’s equipped with the sport package so it hunkers down a little lower than a standard E39. This is a vast improvement in feel over my tall Forester.
Thomas suggested I swap over for a short-shift kit given that the throws, like the films of Paul Thomas Anderson, tend to run a little long. Maybe it’s just me, but I like the longer throws and I liked “Punch Drive Love.”
[Editor’s Note: While an E60 545i shift lever and a ZHP shift knob definitely shorten throws, their big benefit is taking much of the rubberiness out of the shifter in a cost-effective manner while using OEM parts. Think slick but not really notchy. -TH]
There’s a lot more to say about the car and I’ve got a big comparison with our man Gossin coming up, but I thought I’d let everyone know that I own a BMW with more than 200,000 miles and all I feel is happy.
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E39’s are fantastic cars, especially in 530i/5 form. The ZF 320z gearbox is one of the nicest-shifting gearboxes from that era of BMW, far better than the flimsy Getrag 250 found in the 525i/5 or the notchy rock-grinder Getrag 420g in the 540i/6. In the E39 lineup, the 530i is the sweet spot— enough power to be satisfying to drive, but also far more reliable than the 540i, with much better fuel economy to boot.
My current daily driver is an 1992 525i/5 (E34) with 300k miles on it. The E34 and E39 are some of the best sedans ever made in terms of build quality and driving experience. I regularly track my E34 and it easily keeps up with a lot of smaller and newer cars.
Looks sweet Matt. Sometimes we get lucky and score a good deal. Best of luck on this one.
I can attest of the qualities of the M54B30. My Z4 has 110000 miles and the only issue I’ve had was with the DISA valve, which I fixed (and upgraded) for 60€. Do be careful about this valve as its failure can ruin your engine, but beyond that this engine has been lovely since day one.
AND, at least two bodies in that trunk. More if, you know…parts.
Former E39 owner here. Treat the cooling system (the entirety of it) as a preventative maintenance item, not a “replace parts when they break” item, and it’ll run well for years to come. That’s probably my favorite color & spec outside of the M5. I love those wheels. Congrats! They really are as great to drive as everyone says they are.
Agreed on the cooling system.
And dont overfill the cooling system, it is an odd system.
Current E46 owner. I love my 328, it runs great!
I still daily drive my 2001 325. It has 219,000 miles on the ticker and still gets 33 MPG on the highway. I change the oil every 5000 miles and rotate the tires. Sure, the clear coat is peeling off, I can’t change the clock time because the adjuster is broken, the wood trim is cracking in places, etc… However, it is still fun to drive and quite reliable. The last thing I had to fix was a final stage resistor for the air conditioning blower. Before that it was a small oil leak about 3 years ago. The A/C even still blows cold.
Years ago a friend of mine had a 540i. While lovely to drive (although I believe the V8s have recirculating ball steering like a fucking tractor) the front suspension was never right. New arms, bushes, struts and the damn thing still squeaked like a bastard. He never got it sorted.
I probably should have mentioned this on the Slack a week ago.
The E34 and E39 540s did have a recirculating ball steering mechanism.
The I6 cars had a different front subframe with rack and pinion.
“Any older car can be problematic and any car, from any company or region, can be expensive to repair.” That’s a true statement, but one only made by those of us attempting to rationalize the purchase of an older (or newer!) German car.
That era BMWs were great cars mechanically but the Germans had just started to discover the glories of plastic for weight and cost saving. Longevity… nicht mein Problem!
This is definitely one of those cases where you’re buying the owner as much as the car. It sounds like you did well on both fronts! I’ll always prefer buying from an enthusiast because they typically know the foibles of their favorite car. They might use it harder (or not), but it’s nearly always been well-loved.
You sound like a person who just married the highest point on the hot/crazy scale.
Tick…tick..tick…
Good luck!
Been an owner of a I6 E39 for 15 years. One of the best cars I ever had. I’ve had more problems with some of the Japanese cars I’ve owned than this very old German barge.
You will get to love it (and hate it sometimes), but the E39 is a car that stays with you even if you decide to sell it. It’s not for nothing that is lauded as the best sedan ever made.
BTW, take the headliner off yourself, it’s a rather simple process to get it out unless you have a sunroof (which I can’t see from the pics). If you do then it becomes a bit of a nightmare. If the fabric is fine you can reattach it yourself with spray adhesive.
As for the headlights, I’m afraid to tell you that other than polishing the lenses, you won’t be able to pry them open. After around 2002 BMW decided to switch from butyl to epoxy to seal them up. Open the hood and wiggle the bulbs from behind the housings. If they move a lot then that probably means your internal adjusters are broken and you will need to replace them so the projectors point forward and not down. There are DIYs on how to do it. Bimmerforums, Bimmerfest, realoem.com, FCP Euro and ECS are your friends.
Yes, if I wasn’t close to FCP Euro (both geographically and emotionally) I probably wouldn’t do it. It is a sunroof car, though, so that’s good to know. The bulbs are pointed straight, thankfully, so I think I’m just polishing the lenses and accepting what I get.
You could also pop the housings out, sand off the oxidization and hit them with Spray Max 2K clear. Buff that to a shine and you should be seeing clearly right up until you give up on this thing.
Congrats! These cars are great mechanically and the only preventive maintenance really needed is the cooling system (radiator, water pump, thermostat, hoses, etc.) FCPEURO for the win with their lifetime warranty and they cheaper than buying the parts from an retail auto store.
The E39 will have oil leaks which are easy to fix (valve cover, oil filter housing) with the exception of the upper oil pan which requires dropping the subframe slightly. Electronically the only real pain points are the door locks (they wear out) and window regulators if they fail.
Handling wise they are very good but not the holy grail that people make them out to be since they are now 20 years old. I did a full suspension refresh (oe sport struts/shocks, control arms, bushings, etc, BMW spec alignment) and found they either need B6 bilstein struts/shocks or an 18in wheel as I found the suspension a bit soft.
Revving out the M54 inline six is a joy and just a tad slow on the street but fly serenely on the freeway.
As a fellow owner of a 200k+ mile E39, welcome to the club! Fantastic driving experience and weekend car, but would never recommend one to a single-car owner.
You have my condolences.
My old z3 M Roadster never missed a beat, at least mechanically, and it was far cheaper and easier to maintain than any of my toyota trucks. The whole subframe tearing out thing is another matter entirely though, I chickened out once a few of the spotwelds in the trunk floor started to pop…
Nice find. You’re going in with your eyes open and fully aware that this car is not going to be reliable, so I think you are a good match for it. These higher mileage German cars often get bought by people who want filet on a Quarter Pounder budget, and then the car sits because they can’t afford to fix it. This thing is analog enough that you should be able to do the routine maintenance yourself. Enjoy!
I think you may have bought the exception to the rule. Enjoy!
My brother had a car in this exact configuration. While it did run fine, everything that you could touch or see started falling apart after 90,000 miles. I’ve never seen a car fall apar at the speed and volume as his. He even parked it indoors and took good care of it, but man that thing was closer to late 70’s American passenger car quality.
I bought my German car at 307k on the clock and in the 30,000 miles I owned it, it cost me 14 dollars in repairs outside normal items such as oil, filters and brakes. Granted, it was a 300SD which is the benchmark of reliability, but I digress.
The plastic trim ring around the headlight switch costs $300 to replace. I’ve had my E39 for two months and I’m on the third radiator.
But I do love the car. It drives so nice.
Hey Bob- if you’re on your third radiator it sounds like you’ve probably got too much pressure in the cooling system- if e39s are overfilled, the cooling system will run way over-pressure, and you’ll find out what the weak links in your system are one at a time. If it’s still over-filled after a proper bleed, siphon coolant out of the expansion tank until the floating rod fill-indicator is even with the top of the opening where the cap goes.
Also, the cooling system is the one big Achilles’ heel in these cars, as you probably well know- it’s worth inspecting *all* of the coolant hoses, the expansion tank, the thermostat housing, etc. for bulges, leaks, etc. Most of those pieces are pretty inexpensive and manageable as DIYs even for the less-experienced home mechanic, but the bill at a shop (especially if it’s done as an emergency during a trip or the like) will be seriously pricey- frequently 10x the DIY cost if not worse.
On the BMW forums I used to frequent, the basic consensus seemed to be the the cooling system — yes, all of it — was a maintenance item to be replaced every 60K miles. And it makes a certain amount of sense.
I totally get it, and I can appreciate the idea that a high-mileage German car has the benefit of being “sorted out” compared to a newer one.
But I know how those Germans are with tools. They invent special fasteners just so they can invent special tools to work those fasteners. Then they invent new numbers to describe the cost of said special tools.
my neighbor gave me a +300k, 4matic, w211, black out, tan in, e320 ( hold on, I have to go in the other room to get more commas) wagon, after the rear suspension air bags failed once again. I put on new steel springs all round with the tube damper conversion in back,raising it 50mm, with 205 mud + snows. The ride is indecernable from an early american aboriginal person wrangler. I convey myself to tipi camping, mushrooming, boat messing around in, and dd when the a6, c6, avant is down, so, not much really. Done 13k in the last 5 years. I maintain the fluids in every vessel that contains them without leaks or seaps. All the stuff I care about works except the offside rear window regulator, and the ac’s no longer icy. Sits for months, then starts right up drives off to be drifted down fire roads. The only thing that hangs down to receive a bump is the rad so maybe, possibly I’ll get my buddy to weld one up. Really, I don’t know what all the bother’s about.
My E36 was one of the most reliable cars I’ve ever owned, good luck!
“counting the days until I can put some real miles on it”
Please be sure to take (and post) a picture when the odometer hits 234567.
Also congratulations! That appears to be a very nice purchase.
I’m at lunch, but I’ll be back in the shop in about an hour when it breaks. Call me and I’ll get you set up then turn around and write my own column, with your permission of course. Otherwise, all repairs are strictly confidential so I can keep your secrets. ????