Brother Michael
Well-Known Member
After what have been a rough and tough couple of years - for reasons I will not disclose at this time - life might just about be turning in a forward moving direction again and thus it is finally time for a new car.
Criteria was as follows: big'ish wagon with a diesel engine and RWD/AWD. W211 E-class rose quickly to top candidate, being large, comfortable (55km commute one way), reliable and a decent aftermarket and enthusiast following. However my budget wouldn't allow me to go for a facelifted model, I would've had to settle for pre-2006 models with their SBC brakes. I wasn't keen on shelling out 2000? on replacing the unit on a car worth not even close to five figures...
So the search for a unicorn began - E39 530d M-Sport with a manual gearbox. I loved my old E39 540i to bits and of all the cars I've owned and drive, the E39 still is the most....me. As much as I try to run away from it, I find it useless. I still think it is one of the best looking cars BMW has ever made, I love the interior, I like the (realtive) simplicity of it - the car was launched for 1996 afterall. I simply adore the E39. And looking at it from a more pragmatic viewpoint, it makes sense as well: big, comfortable, realiable good to drive and fairly affordable. Ticks all of the boxes I want in a car. The trouble was there are more or less 250 530d BMWs for sale in Finland (all generations included) out of which around 25 were manual. Out of those half were E61/F11 and another 7-10 examples were high mileage and or base model E39s....Things get even more difficult when I absolutely will not budge on having webasto and xenon lights. Things were looking dim. Maybe I would have to settle for a Mercedes...Until I found this one. Not the most perfect example of its breed, though one couldn't expect such a thing with my budget, but it has everything I wanted and then some.
The shortcomings are:
- miniscule rust on driver's side door and rear fender (like most E39s)
- PDC (parking sensors) are wonky (again, most times the case in E39s)
- rear window wiper is seized (yet another E39 type fault)
- no leather interior in favor of Alcantara
- previous owner has lowered the car with a set of K.A.Ws, making the ride just about on the better side of comfortable but more importantly I now have to watch for potholes and other road surface imperfections way too much
There are, though, many things I like about the car, enough to well overcome the flaws (other than the ideal spec):
- perfect maintenance history, dating back to first owner in Germany including a bunch of receipts and the previous owner is a BMW enthusiast himself
- chip tune on the engine taking the power figures from 190hp/410nm ==> 220hp/550nm.
- E60 545i short shift kit
- USB and AUX connectivity
- mild tint on windows done professionally (saves me the money from doing it)
- It doesn't have Servotronic steering (adjusts according to speed) - I prefer the heavy, linear steering at all speeds.
- muffler delete means it sounds quite decent for an old diesel
After the first 500 or so kilometres I am rather happy with my purchase. By far the most notable aspect is the amount of torque. Now I've had an Audi S8, E39 540i and a V70R Volvo but the shock this thing gave me on the way home was sizeable. Off the line it's not anything too special but after 2000rpm, 80km/h on 3rd gear this will, I'm fairly sure, smoke my old 540i of the same E39 variant. Another interesting thing is for a diesel it is rather rev happy and I so wish it'd go another 500rpm (redline at 4500rpm). I had the same bewilderment in the 540i - DaBoom assured me then this is a case of BMW being...well...BMW. Even big V8s and diesels need to be like this, even if it means feeling (relatevily) lackluster on lower revs. Also, a 6th gear would be very welcome but seeing how that was never possible for the E39 save it for the 540i/M5 variants, this is a useless complaint. Can't comment on fuel economy quite yet but seems to be doing under 6L/100km in 80% highway/20% twisty backroad driving.
The ride is just about bearable on on the B-roads by our house but highway driving is a breeze. The shocks and springs are 6 months old so I'm not going to swap them out even if I maintain E39 M-sport chassis & suspension setup has to be the best factory "sport" suspension ever designed. I can live with this. Was thinking prior to purchase to get a set of 18" wheels for next summer but have decided since to stick with the current 235/45R17 tire size to preserve the remaining comfort levels.
Other than that, not much to report yet. Hopefully many trouble free miles ahead and more importantly hoping to keep this one for a long time.
Couple of quick iPhone photos of a dirty, dusty car. Will get some proper ones once I have the car detailed (paging public...).
Edit:
Criteria was as follows: big'ish wagon with a diesel engine and RWD/AWD. W211 E-class rose quickly to top candidate, being large, comfortable (55km commute one way), reliable and a decent aftermarket and enthusiast following. However my budget wouldn't allow me to go for a facelifted model, I would've had to settle for pre-2006 models with their SBC brakes. I wasn't keen on shelling out 2000? on replacing the unit on a car worth not even close to five figures...
So the search for a unicorn began - E39 530d M-Sport with a manual gearbox. I loved my old E39 540i to bits and of all the cars I've owned and drive, the E39 still is the most....me. As much as I try to run away from it, I find it useless. I still think it is one of the best looking cars BMW has ever made, I love the interior, I like the (realtive) simplicity of it - the car was launched for 1996 afterall. I simply adore the E39. And looking at it from a more pragmatic viewpoint, it makes sense as well: big, comfortable, realiable good to drive and fairly affordable. Ticks all of the boxes I want in a car. The trouble was there are more or less 250 530d BMWs for sale in Finland (all generations included) out of which around 25 were manual. Out of those half were E61/F11 and another 7-10 examples were high mileage and or base model E39s....Things get even more difficult when I absolutely will not budge on having webasto and xenon lights. Things were looking dim. Maybe I would have to settle for a Mercedes...Until I found this one. Not the most perfect example of its breed, though one couldn't expect such a thing with my budget, but it has everything I wanted and then some.
The shortcomings are:
- miniscule rust on driver's side door and rear fender (like most E39s)
- PDC (parking sensors) are wonky (again, most times the case in E39s)
- rear window wiper is seized (yet another E39 type fault)
- no leather interior in favor of Alcantara
- previous owner has lowered the car with a set of K.A.Ws, making the ride just about on the better side of comfortable but more importantly I now have to watch for potholes and other road surface imperfections way too much
There are, though, many things I like about the car, enough to well overcome the flaws (other than the ideal spec):
- perfect maintenance history, dating back to first owner in Germany including a bunch of receipts and the previous owner is a BMW enthusiast himself
- chip tune on the engine taking the power figures from 190hp/410nm ==> 220hp/550nm.
- E60 545i short shift kit
- USB and AUX connectivity
- mild tint on windows done professionally (saves me the money from doing it)
- It doesn't have Servotronic steering (adjusts according to speed) - I prefer the heavy, linear steering at all speeds.
- muffler delete means it sounds quite decent for an old diesel
After the first 500 or so kilometres I am rather happy with my purchase. By far the most notable aspect is the amount of torque. Now I've had an Audi S8, E39 540i and a V70R Volvo but the shock this thing gave me on the way home was sizeable. Off the line it's not anything too special but after 2000rpm, 80km/h on 3rd gear this will, I'm fairly sure, smoke my old 540i of the same E39 variant. Another interesting thing is for a diesel it is rather rev happy and I so wish it'd go another 500rpm (redline at 4500rpm). I had the same bewilderment in the 540i - DaBoom assured me then this is a case of BMW being...well...BMW. Even big V8s and diesels need to be like this, even if it means feeling (relatevily) lackluster on lower revs. Also, a 6th gear would be very welcome but seeing how that was never possible for the E39 save it for the 540i/M5 variants, this is a useless complaint. Can't comment on fuel economy quite yet but seems to be doing under 6L/100km in 80% highway/20% twisty backroad driving.
The ride is just about bearable on on the B-roads by our house but highway driving is a breeze. The shocks and springs are 6 months old so I'm not going to swap them out even if I maintain E39 M-sport chassis & suspension setup has to be the best factory "sport" suspension ever designed. I can live with this. Was thinking prior to purchase to get a set of 18" wheels for next summer but have decided since to stick with the current 235/45R17 tire size to preserve the remaining comfort levels.
Other than that, not much to report yet. Hopefully many trouble free miles ahead and more importantly hoping to keep this one for a long time.
Couple of quick iPhone photos of a dirty, dusty car. Will get some proper ones once I have the car detailed (paging public...).
Edit:
Last edited:
gratz!
