BMW E60 520d M Sport. Manual or Auto?

edwardcasbon1 · 25 Jul 2014 at 08:32

Hi all,

I'm interested in purchasing a BMW E60 520d M Sport for my next car. It needs to be newer than 58 reg (due to personalised registration) and have a budget of max £12,000.

They look great cars (haven't driven one yet), and have great reviews.

I've never had an automatic car before, but I'm thinking I should consider it for these BMW's. Am I right? What would you go for, and why?

Does anyone here have one? And what are your thoughts on them? What's reliability like?

(FYI - I commute 50 miles/day to work and back, on motorways and dual carriageways. Currently have an Insignia SRI (160) returning about 47mpg)

Many thanks in advance,

Edward

Hades · 25 Jul 2014 at 09:02

For that I would get an auto because I imagine that there would be more choice and resale value would be lower if it were a manual.

What seems strange to me is having a personalised number plate that is dated. So presumably for the sake of having a number plate that must be just like every other standard plate out there you have boxed yourself into only owning cars from very recent years (and the associated cost with it).

rodenal · 25 Jul 2014 at 09:05

That's an awful lot of money to be spending on an e60 imo. They're an old car now (even if you're looking at 2009 cars) and its replacement is significantly better.

If you really want one can you not live without the reg and spend a few k less? Alternatively find another 3 grand and try to get an F10

In terms of the auto box it's a nice, traditional slushbox but i've only ever driven it with 6 cylinder cars (which it suits fine, petrol or diesel)

edwardcasbon1 · 25 Jul 2014 at 09:14

The registration was bought for me by my wife as a birthday present. I quite like it (CA58 ONS - Surname is Casbon) and want to keep it, hence the 58 restriction.

£12,000 is max, so can't really add more to get a newer one (F10).

Thanks for the info. Any other thoughts?

rodenal · 25 Jul 2014 at 09:24

I just don't think they're worth that kind of money, they're still a nice enough car but now look a bit dated inside and have questionable electronics.

I'd honestly rather drive the insignia, if it's turned out to be reliable enough

If spending 12 grand it's not a car you should be considering imo. Would an e91 be an option? if you're sticking with a 320 or 325d the budget is plenty, plus they're a bit fresher looking - particularly the lci estates. The BMW warranty is also significantly cheaper on a 3 series

edwardcasbon1 · 25 Jul 2014 at 09:29

Hi Rodenal. I'm looking for a saloon really. We have a 3 month old son, so need the space, but don't quite need an estate.

What do you mean by questionable electronics please?

Yeah, don't want to spend £12,000 but looks like that what it costs to get one that has reasonable mileage (80,000) for its age.

I might consider a 3 series, but like the look of the E60 m sport more, and slightly bigger with more boot room for pram/buggy etc.

Firestar_3x · 25 Jul 2014 at 09:33

Bad move this imho, too much money to spend on an E60.

Have you factored in the additional running costs, vs your current car?

[TW]Fox · 25 Jul 2014 at 09:34

It's a horrible engine with the manual box, auto or don't bother.

Dandle · 25 Jul 2014 at 09:35

rodenal said:
I just don't think they're worth that kind of money, they're still a nice enough car but now look a bit dated inside and have questionable electronics.

Whats questionable about the electronics? Personally I think they are a pretty good buy at around the 12k mark and I would take another E60/61 over the E90/91 any day.

rodenal · 25 Jul 2014 at 09:44

The early e60's had shocking electrical gubbins, pretty much everything is linked to the idrive brain ( I know that's the way with them all now, but the e60 was one of the first, which isn't really a good thing) meaning the simplest of issues can become an absolute nightmare to diagnose. I have no experience of later cars, but when first released we had a workshop full of them taking days or weeks to fault find.

At the time BMW were clueless too, I'd like to think that's changed but even when I was last in a BMW indy with the e46 they had an e60 that had been stripped through to the boot for a Nav fault, BMW had sent the wrong modules out several times already (even with a part number)..

I'm not suggesting later cars are anything like this bad (I just don't know), but it's just a consideration. Really the problem is the cost of the car, it's way too much for something that was introduced 10 years ago and basically never changed.

I have a problem with paying £12k for a 3 series too btw - but at least you'll be getting a generation of car that's only just been replaced, in saloon/touring received a reasonable facelift and should be a bit newer than the 5.

Dandle · 25 Jul 2014 at 10:02

I think the issues you highlighted are more to do with failing of the garage to work with can based cars. Maybe due to the lack of diagnostic software at the time.

E60/61s aren't that bad and theres loads of people driving them without warranties and you very rarely ever see hard to diagnose electrical faults with any age E60s on the BMW forums. The iDrive gen 2 and gen 3 are very reliable, common faults are normally tailgate wiring, rear window switch and the diversity antenna on the E61 and all are well documented on how to fix, none are relevant to the E60 either.

The only thing to really worry about with the E60/61 are things like swirlports and dpfs on the diesels and injectors, coil packs and fuel pumps on the later petrols.

Django x2 · 25 Jul 2014 at 10:09

I have an E60 LCI 530d (57 plate) which I am changing this year. It has almost every conceivable extra and is worth no where near £12k (from a dealer maybe). It's perhaps worth £10k tops. I'm the 2nd owner, the first being BMW fleet, and its done 116k miles (110k of which I've done).

Bar one failed turbo from a questionable oil service, it's never failed me and I've had no electronic issues, period.

Would I pay £12k for a 520d? No. Maybe for a full spec 530d of 535d with low miles (and 2009), but that's it.

edwardcasbon1 · 25 Jul 2014 at 12:41

Django, good to hear you haven't had many problems. When the turbo failed, did they say why, and how much did it cost to repair? Did you have a warranty or was it fixed as act of kindness, or did you have to pay full whack?

Thanks again, and keep the thoughts coming

Scania · 25 Jul 2014 at 14:08

Find an older one for between £8 - £9k and put the difference in the bank as a just in case fund!

Nice cars but £12k for an e60 520d is IMO too much.

edwardcasbon1 · 25 Jul 2014 at 14:24

I think it might be the M Sport model that's pushing the price up. I had a look and you can get cheaper ones but they usually have loads of miles in them. What kind of mileage becomes an issue on an E60 520d M Sport do people think?

Thanks.

Scania · 25 Jul 2014 at 14:32

edwardcasbon1 said:
I think it might be the M Sport model that's pushing the price up. I had a look and you can get cheaper ones but they usually have loads of miles in them. What kind of mileage becomes an issue on an E60 520d M Sport do people think?

Thanks.

M Sport seems to command a premium, as it does on the f10 also.

As for mileage, swings & roundabouts, I know of one that's been a real pig reliability wise despite being on it's first owner and "only" done 70k in 6 years, equally, I know of one that's used as an airport transport taxi, been to the moon & back (iirc 250k+ miles on it) and bar an injector failure has been faultless!

Django x2 · 25 Jul 2014 at 16:40

edwardcasbon1 said:
Django, good to hear you haven't had many problems. When the turbo failed, did they say why, and how much did it cost to repair? Did you have a warranty or was it fixed as act of kindness, or did you have to pay full whack?

Thanks again, and keep the thoughts coming

long story short, they overfilled the car with oil at an oil service (dealer). It was replaced under warranty.

scania said:
despite being on it's first owner and "only" done 70k in 6 years

If that was a diesel, therein lies the problem. These cars will die and cost you a bomb if you are doing 12k a year. They are motorway cruisers with the odd A road blast. DPF and EGR trickery will catch you out and cost you $$$ because low mile cars mean they don't work as efficiently as they should

Scania · 25 Jul 2014 at 17:22

Django x2 said:
If that was a diesel, therein lies the problem.

Indeed it is, 58 plate e60 520d, why he didn't buy a petrol given his mileage I don't know (his previous car was an e39 525i).

People think diesel = cheap running regardless to the extra cost of the stuff on the forecourt relative to their annual mileage alas.

xs2man · 25 Jul 2014 at 18:16

What a load of nonsense.

A low mileage diesel isn't necessarily anything to be afraid of. Granted I probably wouldn't buy one if it lived it's life in London, but a car could equally be low mileage and do nothing but motorway runs, which wont have any adverse effect on components.

I wouldn't think twice about getting a diesel if I were "only" doing 12k per year. 12k per year is just average miles really. Certainly not a mileage that will cause the car to "die and cost you a bomb". blooming ridiculous statement that.

And the circa £850 a year fuel saving (based on a 12k driving year) will easily save you money. It's not like DPF's pop every year. And the residual values are higher, so whatever more you pay to buy it, you get a good chunk of that back when you sell it. Any way you cut it, doing average miles or more, you are more likely to save money than not with a diesel.

Django x2 · 25 Jul 2014 at 22:33

Wow, you know very little about the E60, or, it seems, modern diesels in general. 12k a year, of city driving, will never see a DPF regen. By very nature, a low mileage car is not one that spends a lot of time on the motorways and certainly not one that matches the fickle criteria for a DPF regen.

And goodness knows what school of maths you went to, but the fuel difference saving between a diesel and petrol of 12000 miles at 38mpg petrol and 50mpg diesel is only about £300 a year

According to fairly recent data, taking full TCO of a diesel vs petrol, you need to be averaging mid 20k to 30k miles a year for a diesel to make sense.