Tell me about the E39 535i
- Thread starter MikeHiow
- Start date
Whilst I had answering questions for people, I'm bored....
No idea on the E60 - his parents have one IIRC, so it's not like it's been frivolously ignored.
Test drives don't tell you everything about a car, I think Fox has said this already and I've experienced the same thing myself - you can love a car on a test drive, but that doesn't tell you much about how it's going to be for you actually living with it.
No idea on the E60 - his parents have one IIRC, so it's not like it's been frivolously ignored.
Test drives don't tell you everything about a car, I think Fox has said this already and I've experienced the same thing myself - you can love a car on a test drive, but that doesn't tell you much about how it's going to be for you actually living with it.
He bought a 335 because the 530 was getting on a bit I think, and then the 335 turned out not to be "5" enough for him
Mmm... That doesn't "sound" like [TW]Fox. For starters our Fox is not the kind of buyer that would impulsively splash £15k on a coupe just to sell it few months later. He's the guy who specs stuff for months to impossible standards, tests half the available models in the country to the smallest of details, writes 10 A4 pages about each one, then turns it into several thousand replies worth of threads.
He wouldn't attempt to replace his wafty, legendary, intergalactic mileage sporting, BMW rebuilt, touchuppenned to perfection, modded, minter 530i with just any random hedge fund broker coupe without going through motions, details, tests, double tests, and eventually driving up and down the country several times to hunt down The One, making sure it is absolutely unique, perfect and usually sporting something exotic and exclusive, like little fountain and duck pond in the middle of back seat, or exhaustive manufacturers warranty allowing extensive, no quibble, reassembly independent of age and/or mileage.
What I'm saying is, there are links to his internet threads provided by lecturers in marketing research classes, that's how famous the man is for his detailed research work before buying anything car related. It never fails. If he bought 335, the world would know. It would be the 335 to be had. It would be irreplacable for years. It would be 335 that even BMW would want to buy off him.
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Except he did. I believe he said it was the absolute correct, sensible thing to do. But in a shocking development, emotions came in and he just didn't like it as much. Sort of like irrational fond memories of the first few girls you nail, there's still a higher value placed on the old car.
Anyway back on the thread, the photo is blurry but it looks like there might be some projectors on those lights. However, given all the costs we've spoken about already, a headlight washer kit should not really deter the OP too much...
I think he realised that not everything regarding cars can be quantified, distilled and dissected. Gut feelings and emotions come into things, something can look perfect on paper and still not be right "for you" when it comes down to it.
We're humans, and as much as we sometimes try not to be, we're ultimately very irrational at times.
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
He bought a 335 because the 530 was getting on a bit I think, and then the 335 turned out not to be "5" enough for him
Scary when MikeHiow gets it totally spot on
The 335i was a fantastic car and all my test drives were great fun - the power was amazing, etc etc. But of course day in day out driving isn't a test drive, you settle into a rather mundane rythm and its here where a car shows whether its for you or not. The harsh ride, relative lack of refinement and inferior build quality of the 335i was annoying - and my driving didn't allow enough blasts of the loud pedal and tight twisty A roads to enjoy it's poise to make up for that. Trim rattles et al are not the end of the world but it actually rattled more than the E39, which I think is pretty sad really
So I hung onto it for 3 months, during which I made the most of enjoying a car I'd wanted to own since they came out 5 years ago, and then sold it on.
Best of both worlds - I've had a 335i, but I'm happier in a 530i.
As for the E60 - try as I might I simply cannot love the E60. It's a great car, but I just don't want to own one. I drive one on a regular basis as my parents have one but... I just dont like it. Part of this is the price - it simply doesnt seem like a clever place to chuck £15-£20k and the pre LCI ones have a horrible interior. To get an LCI 530i M Sport requires £15-£20k and it'd be 4-5 years old. The last 4-5 year old 530i Sport I bought was in 2006 for HALF that. The E60 is too unreliable and complex to run without a decent warranty which means as with all newer BMW's you need to pay the low mileage premium and get a warranty. Hence the inability to simply repeat what I did 5 years ago.
I would like an F10, but I'm of the opinion that until you literally have money falling out of your ears spending much more than £20k on what are at the end of the day simply (albeit excellent) everyday cars is just wasteful and pointless. Bit different if it's a 911 or something, but over £20k on a non M Power BMW is just money you are throwing away. So unless I succumb to the ever heightening calls from the £10k E39 M5 market, I'll hang onto the 530i until I can replace it with something worthwhile - the first sub £20k F10 530/535 M Sport.
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The lights aren't on, how can we tell?
(Unless of course the pre-facelift was never fitted with Xenons?)
The only way to tell if a facelift E39 (I know his isn't but it has facelift lights) has Xenons or not is to open the bonnet and look for the control gear, or look in the interior where the headlight aim adjuster will be blanked off. The facelift cars use the same headlight housing even regardless of whether they have HID's or not and all facelift E39's have headlight washers as standard.
R124's car is irriating because he has EU spec facelift headlights normally only found on EU spec cars which, in the UK, are police cars
I bought it from a dealer and sold it privately so yes - but not a huge amount at all because it was so well priced in the first place, infact I was very happy with the low monthly depreciation cost to 'rent' a 335i for 3 months
[TW]Fox;20095291 said:I bought it from a dealer and sold it privately so yes - but not a huge amount at all because it was so well priced in the first place, infact I was very happy with the low monthly depreciation cost to 'rent' a 335i for 3 months
So what now?
E39 for a few years?
You could try the E class
The E92 had a rattle from the parcel shelf, drivers seatbelt mounting and random misc ones that came and went from... err, everywhere else, mostly over bumps and potholes. The E39 has one rattle - from the passenger seatbelt mounting, which I have made it my personal mission to cure
You could also feel the windscreen wipers pulsing through the pedals at traffic lights because of the way they were mounted, things like that really just made you think it wasn't quite as brilliantly put together as the E39. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad at all, it's easily nicer than Fords and Vauxhalls etc and it's probably quite unreasonable of me to be expecting it to be like a 5 Series. But as it was me who had to drive it..
Me too. I absolutely love the look of the facelift Sport and the M5 - IMHO one of my favourite car shapes ever which is why I bought it in the first place. I particularly love the front and rear lights
What happens now is you read my previous posts on this page
It's funny, one of the common complaints from 5 series owner is that they can't find a newer car that gives them the same (or slightly better) level of ability and satisfaction, without spending more than twice as much again.
I'll be holding onto the M5 for a while because IMO I can't find a worthy replacement under 25k. And I don't want to spend 25+ just to be where I am now.
I'll be holding onto the M5 for a while because IMO I can't find a worthy replacement under 25k. And I don't want to spend 25+ just to be where I am now.
It's completely true - its such a hard car to replace. It doesn't seem to get irritatingly old as quickly as older cars do either, I got rid of say the Xantia because it had no AC, etc etc. The 530i has Dual Zone climate, Xenon Angel Eyes, LED lights, DSC, etc etc. Fundamentally it's missing none of the must haves of the newer cars with the exception of iDrive so the leap to something new just isn't as big as it would have been in the past. Couple this with the fact that nothing else seems as well put together without going bonkers into S Class land and you have the issue you've identified. I think this will be a problem for a lot of people with all sorts of cars - as cars get newer we don't seem to get the leaps forward we used to. They just get more 'modern' - more gimmicks, newer fonts, nicer displays..
I figured the best way to replace a car as good as that is to try something different. So I tried something different. And here we are back with it again
I hope that the F10 is the answer.
[TW]Fox;20095333 said:The E92 had a rattle from the parcel shelf, drivers seatbelt mounting and random misc ones that came and went from... err, everywhere else, mostly over bumps and potholes. The E39 has one rattle - from the passenger seatbelt mounting, which I have made it my personal mission to cure
You could also feel the windscreen wipers pulsing through the pedals at traffic lights because of the way they were mounted, things like that really just made you think it wasn't quite as brilliantly put together as the E39. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad at all, it's easily nicer than Fords and Vauxhalls etc and it's probably quite unreasonable of me to be expecting it to be like a 5 Series. But as it was me who had to drive it..
Is that level of build quality normal for a 3 series, was the E46 built to a similarly less standard to the E39? Or has BMW just gone a little downhill in this department recently?
Just seems quite surprising to me on 2/3 year old car. I know my car hasn't got the same level of switchgear quality but it does have a huge amount of trim bits and buttons, yet the only rattle I have is the driver's door pin when I have bose stereo on loud.
I'm having this 'problem' with my car too, my car is 10 years old but still has sat nav, phone, dual zone climate, heated seats, good stereo, xenons etc... I originally got this car to replace one of the parents but I liked it so much that I kept it instead, I've had it a year now and have no desire to upgrade which is strange for me.
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Or go bonkers into S-Class land as you alluded to, my judgement with experience in all of the classes is that you would like a luxury class car more than the exec class. Leave the exec class cars to the middle managers and get yourself a directors level car
How do you know unless you try it?
95% of the time you drive normally i assume, sitting in queues like the rest of us, wafting at 70mph on highways, sitting in a chair, playing with the controls, etc, whatever. In this 95% of the time a luxury class car is 100% better.
5% of the time you hoon, in this 5% of the time something like a 5'er is 100% better.
No brainer.
95% of the time you drive normally i assume, sitting in queues like the rest of us, wafting at 70mph on highways, sitting in a chair, playing with the controls, etc, whatever. In this 95% of the time a luxury class car is 100% better.
5% of the time you hoon, in this 5% of the time something like a 5'er is 100% better.
No brainer.
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