Re: UK M5 Owners? (archive)

The complete automotive resource for buyers, sellers, and owners like you.

I'm near Reading. I have an '87 M5 which I've owned for just over 2 years, had an M535i before that.

I spent about 18 months looking for the right car, on and off - guess I looked at about 9 or 10. The car I eventually bought was within 10 miles of home (!). When I saw it, it was so much better than anything else I had seen (and 56k miles with a detailed history), I had to have it. No, it wasn't cheap... It had been advertised in the back pages of "Autocar" but I suggest that "Total BMW" seems to have carried the most ads in recent months.

Did you see the article in last month's "Classic Car" mag? The car profiled is now (or maybe by now "was") for sale (surprise, surprise....).

Have used ML for service - they work on these cars regularly. The senior technician has been there a long time, it used to be a BMW agent. There are other specialists, including Autobahn at Ruislip.

Parts back-up from the dealers is good: you can get virtually everything although some prices will make your eyes water.

Buy the best you can afford - look very carefully for corrosion in the sills, particularly around the jacking points and also in the front outer corners of the front footwells. The sills are harder to check properly if the car has the (optional) M-Technic body kit. Likewise look for poor accident repairs. Usual E28 maladies apply, e.g. perished tail lamp seals causing the boot to flood. Cheap/easy to repair provided that the soft trim isn't ruined. Front doors can rot around the hinges. Gearboxes can rattle, especially when hot (mine does). I suggest you try hard to buy a car that comes with a thick wad of old invoices showing what work has been done, particularly in the last five years.

If it's any help, an E28 M5 went through the well-attended BCA Classic Sale at Bridgewater in July: it had done about 123k and was described as having a full history although I didn't actually see the papers. Interior was OK, needed a clean though. Car sounded good on start-up (smooth, even idle) but the paint was poor, it had a badly fitted front wing, the boot lid was dented, foglights were cracked, screen was milky along lower edge, tow hook covers were missing, aerial broken etc. In fact, it hadn't even been washed before the sale! It was bid up to �5k but was unsold. To sort it out to a good standard would cost a lot of money and/or effort.

You probably already know that there were only 187 UK-spec cars - beware that there are M535's out there with the 24-valve S38 engines and dressed up to look like M5's.

The VIN of a genuine UK M5 will be in the range WBSDC920101679001-187. The ID plate (located on the suspension strut tower on the drivers' side) will also say M5, logically enough.

Hope this is some help, by all means send me an e-mail if you wish to pursue further!

Questions, comments, or problems, please visit the Roadfly help desk.