Anyone here had an E39 530d - manual?

[mattyprice4004]

My old 530d sport regularly returned around 50mpg but the majority of my driving was on motorways. I think mine was magic though as it was far economical than it should have been. To put it in perspective, the worst tank I had from it was 37mpg indicated (which was always within about 2mpg).

How would you rate it, drive and power wise, compared to a modern run-of-the-mill family diesel, for example the Mondeo or Insignia?

 

[alexthecheese]

Do the lad a favour and close the thread.

 

[commited]

How would you rate it, drive and power wise, compared to a modern run-of-the-mill family diesel, for example the Mondeo or Insignia?

When I owned it, it was only 4 years old (2007) so it's a fair while ago but it was replaced by a 2008 Navara and then a 2008 Saab 9-3 TiD, neither of which compared well, although the Navara was great fun in a totally different way. I never really felt like the 530d was underpowered in anyway and I towed some relatively heavy loads with no issues. I now have a 2001 e39 530i sport auto which is great, but it's not a car to run on a shoestring budget and even though it's fantastically built, things break.

That said, I rate the Rover 75 as a mile mucher so I think you should just stick with that

 

[mattyprice4004]

I'll be sticking with the 75 until such a point as it needs a fair bit of money spending, and saving up for either an E39 530d or an E46 330d.

I drove the 530d and it blew me away - now isn't a good time to be changing cars, but at least I have an exit path to my Rover 'problem'.
It's not particularly built better than the 75, however that engine is a real peach for a tractor. I can live with the 40MPG I'll get too.

Cheers guys.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I'll be sticking with the 75 until such a point as it needs a fair bit of money spending, and saving up for either an E39 530d or an E46 330d.

There is no point to the 530d now they are all so old. The 3.0d is an engine you enjoy when they are newer, more reliable or when somebody else is responsible for the bills (ie it's under warranty). It's false economy now they are all so ancient. They are not considerably more economical than the petrol equivilents, certainly not by enough of a margin to make the additional risk involved worthwhile unless you do significant mileage and if you do significant mileage you don't really want an ageing 530d for it anyway.

It's not particularly built better than the 75

Yes, yes it is. By quite some margin.

I can live with the 40MPG I'll get too.

On a good day.

 

[mattyprice4004]

It didn't feel much better put together - then again my 75 is one of the first before they started cutting costs. The later 75s (inc my old Tourer) appeared to be constructed on a much more meagre budget.

I'm struggling to find any other BMW under £4k with similar pull whilst maintaining 40MPG. I'll be doing 60% motorway cruising, so a big wafty 5 Series seemed the logical choice if going down the German route, and the M57 seems a really good match to the car in 3.0 form.

I guess I could drive a 525d, but I'd miss the extra power of the 530d. I'll go hunting for horror stories to see what it can throw at me, but it'd be entirely DIY maintained so can't imagine it being a total money pit.

Cheers for the advice

 

[[TW]Fox]

I'm struggling to find any other BMW under £4k with similar pull whilst maintaining 40MPG.

The 40mpg is irrelevent - you slightly reduce fuel spend and instead spend money refurbiing injectors and fixing other problems. It's not some sort of economical cheap to run wondercar. As I keep saying - 10+ year old E39 is not a car you buy for economy. It's a waste of time.

I'll be doing 60% motorway cruising, so a big wafty 5 Series seemed the logical choice if going down the German route, and the M57 seems a really good match to the car in 3.0 form.

Only 60% Motorway? It's not going to average 40mpg then. I regularly drove a 530d from 2 years old to 8 years old and it was almost without exception about 7mpg better than my 530i in any given circumstance. Unless it was a long journey it didn't tend to average over 40mpg. And this was a low mileage, nearly new example that was perfectly maintained. Around town it was doing high 20's. Only on a pure Motorway trip could you get a proper tank-full average in the 40's really. This was a manual, most are auto which is about 20% less efficient again.

I guess I could drive a 525d, but I'd miss the extra power of the 530d. I'll go hunting for horror stories to see what it can throw at me,

The 525d is pointless. It is simply a 530d with 400cc less capacity and less power.

but it'd be entirely DIY maintained so can't imagine it being a total money pit.

Every car you buy and DIY maintain lasts about 2 months with you before it has to get scrapped or go on Ebay 'Spares or Repairs'. And you always tell us when you buy them that they are really good examples, too....

Cheers for the advice

You'll heed none of it

 

[mattyprice4004]

What would you have that'd do 40MPG+, be quite interesting and have a bit of grunt for under £4k?

I've seen the injector horror stories etc - I'd go scrapyard part collecting as I'm lucky enough to know someone that owns a yard.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Why is fuel so important to you, surely overall cost matters more. At this end of the market the sort of car that's fun or interesting and does ever 40mpg is generally life expired or troublesome.

 

[paradigm]

As a previous owner of a high mileage, ageing, M57 based car (330d), I can tell you right now that they do pull some rather hefty bills. Mine was in the minority in getting above 160,000 miles before needing a turbo, but need a turbo it did. I did the whole thing DIY too and that cost me the best part of £1000 in parts and ancillaries.

The injectors were something that hadn't gone... yet, but I imagine that whoever owns it now has had to refresh them, and getting to Cyl 6 is no easy task!

Mine threw a PAS pump too, another fair few £hundred.

I did do a full breakdown of costs at one point, but with the age these cars are now getting that old (I got mine, a 52 plate 5 years ago), that the value of the car will be far less than the cost per year of keeping it serviced, maintained and repaired.

Save more, get a newer (E9x, E6x) generation car.

 

[Tesla]

An e39 is not a cheap car to run. They're mostly all at least 10 years old with 6 figure odometers. Consumable parts are requiring replacement. My 530i has FBMWSH and a huge pile of receipts. Yet, I find myself underneath it every other month, parts costs are higher than the Fords I've previously owned.

 

[Matt82]

But to be fair, you are under yours every other months for preventative maintenance and doing jobs that make the car better rather than because things are broken?

Im sure if half of us here treated our cars like the general public, we'd barely ever see under the bonnet