New M car in the garage...

One of the features that drew me to this particular car were the split rear folding seats option. I had it in my Legacy and I loved this feature for the extra cargo space

Yeah, I wish I had this option on my E39. I'm a filmmaker, and that means you have to carry gigantic metal boxes full of lenses and crazy shit like that. It doesn't go together well with leather...

Oh, and I hate you. I'd even put up with the culture over there if it meant I could have a cheap M5... :( That, and we didn't get manual box E39s apart from the M5. Lucky man! (or until you get that VANOS bill! ;) )
 
Yeah, I wish I had this option on my E39. I'm a filmmaker, and that means you have to carry gigantic metal boxes full of lenses and crazy shit like that. It doesn't go together well with leather...

Oh, and I hate you. I'd even put up with the culture over there if it meant I could have a cheap M5... :( That, and we didn't get manual box E39s apart from the M5. Lucky man! (or until you get that VANOS bill! ;) )

I think I know why your country didn't get that option, because the split folding rear seats was marketed as a 'ski/cold weather vacation' option package in our country for loading of skis and snowboards. I'm guessing they didn't want to market it that way in Oz.

Yeah and a 'cheap M5' is never 'cheap'. ironically I think the less one pays to purchase...the more it will cost him in the long run.

My advice for anyone shopping for one, if you find one at a price you desire...buy the one that is actually $2-3K more that already has some of the preventative maintanance/parts replacement not done on the cheaper one. Will save wasted time and money, as well as you can use that time actually driving the car vs it being up on stands or stuck in a shop.

We buy these cars after all to drive and enjoy them...not to get them worked on all the time.
 
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I think I know why your country didn't get that option, because the split folding rear seats was marketed as a 'ski/cold weather vacation' option package in our country for loading of skis and snowboards. I'm guessing they didn't want to market it that way in Oz.

Yeah and a 'cheap M5' is never 'cheap'. ironically I think the less one pays to purchase...the more it will cost him in the long run.

My advice for anyone shopping for one, if you find one at a price you desire...buy the one that is actually $2-3K more that already has some of the preventative maintanance/parts replacement not done on the cheaper one. Will save wasted time and money, as well as you can use that time actually driving the car vs it being up on stands or stuck in a shop.

We buy these cars after all to drive and enjoy them...not to get them worked on all the time.

We get snow here, I'm sure it was an option, just very rarely optioned.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I completely agree with you. I'm talking about a "cheap" M5 that's not $40-$50k AUD... the prices we pay for cars here are crazy compared to over there. The E39 I bought has barely done 60k miles and has a book full of dealer stamps to ensure that I'm not going to be throwing money at it for the next few years... that's why I got rid of my E34!
 
Finally pulled out the hideous wood trim and refreshed the interior and stereo

Before

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After

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How are you liking the Dynavin? Heard some pretty conflicting reports of it.
 
How are you liking the Dynavin? Heard some pretty conflicting reports of it.

It's not a perfect solution and I've read a lot of the same complaints you have. The version I bought runs on Win CE and was from a local BMW owner who demonstrated the unit operations to me before he pulled it out of his car, so I got to see it in action and confirm that it works. It has USB inputs in the back but when I put in a USB flash drive it didn't read the files so Im not sure if files need to be properly formattted.

But DVD and divx video playback is nice. I didn't put in the ipod controller but instead used a passive ipod input cable and plugged it into the Aux IN so I can control music directly from my iphone. Radio is so-so, even with the antenna adapter, the reception is so-so but I don't listen to radio anyway so it doesn't bother me. the Bluetooth pairing works really well with good audio and microphone pickup, as well as instantly pairing with my phone on power up, also pairing is very quick within seconds of starting the car. Also I can stream bluetooth audio without plugging the iphone into the cable as well which is a nice option, but for some reason I cannot run the nav at the same time as bluetooth audio streaming. However the nav software can work at the same time while ipod music is playing. radio, or DVD/mpg videos are playing.

The Nav software is good in some ways, not good in others.
 
Also got it waxed & washed today, did a semi-proper photoshoot

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It's not a perfect solution and I've read a lot of the same complaints you have. The version I bought runs on Win CE and was from a local BMW owner who demonstrated the unit operations to me before he pulled it out of his car, so I got to see it in action and confirm that it works. It has USB inputs in the back but when I put in a USB flash drive it didn't read the files so Im not sure if files need to be properly formattted.

But DVD and divx video playback is nice. I didn't put in the ipod controller but instead used a passive ipod input cable and plugged it into the Aux IN so I can control music directly from my iphone. Radio is so-so, even with the antenna adapter, the reception is so-so but I don't listen to radio anyway so it doesn't bother me. the Bluetooth pairing works really well with good audio and microphone pickup, as well as instantly pairing with my phone on power up, also pairing is very quick within seconds of starting the car. Also I can stream bluetooth audio without plugging the iphone into the cable as well which is a nice option, but for some reason I cannot run the nav at the same time as bluetooth audio streaming. However the nav software can work at the same time while ipod music is playing. radio, or DVD/mpg videos are playing.

The Nav software is good in some ways, not good in others.

Thanks for the honest review, good to know. One of the biggest gripes about the units over here is that they don't like winter temperatures (below 14 degrees fahrenheit, but I'm guessing that won't be a problem there. :)

The car looks awesome. The hood looks remarkably stone chip free. Have you changed the angel eyes bulbs to purplish ones or is that just the photo?
 
Your car is just gorgeous. I hope I will be able to buy one myself someday. Still the best M5 ever.
 
Liking the trim! Where did you source it from? I love woodgrain, but the idea of piano black trim is very tempting...
 
I got the black trim from a local importer of euro-market BMW parts. It's called black-cubic trim and its different in color from piano black because it has a metallic grain to it. Here's a better photo up close

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Thanks and the angel eyes aren't purple, they just look that way because of the photoshop filter.

this is closer to the real color

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Thanks for the honest review, good to know. One of the biggest gripes about the units over here is that they don't like winter temperatures (below 14 degrees fahrenheit, but I'm guessing that won't be a problem there. :)

The car looks awesome. The hood looks remarkably stone chip free. Have you changed the angel eyes bulbs to purplish ones or is that just the photo?

There's supposed to be a newer version 6 that runs on Android OS, same as the smartphones, I'm curious about it and wouldn't mind upgrading to that unit some time in the future.
 
How did I miss this epic thread?!?!?!?

E39 M5 & E36 M3 FTW.

Some nice choice of cars there, mate! Well done!
 
Thanks for the honest review, good to know. One of the biggest gripes about the units over here is that they don't like winter temperatures (below 14 degrees fahrenheit, but I'm guessing that won't be a problem there. :)

More shots of the dynavin in action:

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those wheels are just about the best wheels i have seen on a BMW ever
 
those wheels are just about the best wheels i have seen on a BMW ever

Agreed, E39 M5 OEM wheels ftw. They did look a bit tired 10 years ago when everyone and their grandmother was sporting shoddy replicas, but luckily that's behind us.
 
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