Are E60 530i any good?

rs1800

rs1800

rs1800

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I see a lot of people recommending E39's (530i) as a lowish cost decent car but little mention of E60's.

Are they any good as I have £4k and there seem some decent ones at that price?

cheers
 
The styling is a bit love / hate, the build quality compared to an e39 isn't as good and £4k bags you a ropey e60 or an extremely tidy if older e39, the e60 is the more moden of the two clearly arguably better to drive, having said that a healthy e39 is still a fine driving machine.

Try both and draw your own conclusion, buy on condition not age nor mileage.

I have an e39 530i Sport, it looks so much the better car when parked next to an e60 IMO.
 
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I actually prefer the E60 to the E39 (sacrilige on this forum, I know) - the E39 interior looks incredibly dated to me. If I was spending 4K, I'd just take the risk with a higher mileage E60, and prepare for the hate from Fox / Fox fan club :p
 
Here is the one I was looking at. I liked the fact it has lpg so fuel costs shouldnt be too bad.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201502090807043/usedcars?logcode=visc

Basically I have a 50 mile round trip to work on mainly A road with a bit of twistys but only do this 1 in every 3 weeks as I lift share.
My last two cars were a modeo 2.2D titx which I really liked (my wife now has for running the kids about but also drives 50 miles twice a week to work). I then had a 5.7l monaro for a couple of years (with lpg) that was my favorite ever car I have owned. I then ran out of money on my house so sold it about a year ago and was given an 05 C3 from my parents who didnt use it any more. I hate the C3 as I am 17st.

So looking for a replacemet now. Will be just used for about 600 miles a month mainly to work with 2 passengers. My initial thoughts were an ST220 which seem to have come back down in price (about 2.5k seems to get a decent sub 100k) but then I saw the above E60 and the lpg does appeal as I has it before.

other option is to buy the wife a petrol mondeo mk3 and have the TDCi back - a bit boring now I have considered petrol but probably sensible option?
Or maybe a Mk4 4 for me but may cost may be too much as I would want titx again.

budget of 3-4k is ideal but I could go a bit higher it made a big difference.

cheers for advise.
 
I didn't even know you could buy an e60 without climate!

It looks tidy enough but I couldn't have one with that spec even if you do prefer the way it looks.

Can't help but feel the right ST220 would be a much better car for you to be honest - you'll be buying near the top of that market rather than the bottom.

I'm thinking about an estate or large hatch just now anywhere between £3 and £6k and have been having a look at:

E46 touring (not that roomy if you're a big lad, plus things will break so you need to want to fix it)
A4 3.0 avant - See e46, only far less entertaining to drive
Legacy Spec B (think you'll struggle a touch with budget, up to a grand more by the looks of it)
E39 touring (try finding a nice one)
ST220 hatch or estate
VRS hatch or estate (out of your budget)
Accord 2.4 estate (you'd be into the iteration with the very boxy rear but they're decent cars)

Going saloon for some of these will help the chances of finding a decent one, especially the BMW's
 
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Looks tidy, but I cant help thinking your better at that age and mileage spending less on an equivalent e39 and use the difference sorting out things like the cooling system which will most likely need a refresh.

I'd find a decent e39 and have a good look at it then compare it to the e60, I'd be surprised if you didn't see you'll effectively be paying more for the e60 when its e39 equivalent will be just as good but should be cheaper to buy.

If it was a later e60, arguably they are much improved,thing is though it isn't. IMO a late e39 is a vastly better place to be than an early pre LCI e60.

I keep driving past a local BMW specialist with an 03 plate 530i SE for sale @ £3995, it's clean and tidy but not a patch on my £1500 X plate 530i, even the guy at the garage agreed when I took it in to check out the e60 out of pure curiosity.:D
In many ways, IMO an early e60 is less for more by comparison.
 
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Thanks for comments. I do like the external look of the E39 but its a bit too old with some large bills possible.

I think the ST220 is looking more attractive again (slightly less large bills I hope)
 
rs1800 said:
Thanks for comments. I do like the external look of the E39 but its a bit too old with some large bills possible.
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Do you think the E60 is any different?

If anything the E60 has the potential to produce even larger bills than the E39 can, particually with regards to electrical items.
 
Doesn't seem a bad place to be for 4k in my opinion. Didn't realise they were this cheap now.

Is it mainly looks/interior people dislike? How are they to drive?
 
Jesus, if that LPG system was installed for fuel saving then honestly how poor do you have to be to LPG a 530i. Top it off with the budget rear tyres.
 
pepsilol said:
Jesus, if that LPG system was installed for fuel saving then honestly how poor do you have to be to LPG a 530i. Top it off with the budget rear tyres.
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If you're doing high miles then investing in getting almost double the MPG equivalent is a good idea, nothing to do with being poor.

When I got my car lots of people told me I should get it converted to LPG and I didn't bother. I wish I'd listened to them - sure, I can easily afford to fuel my car, but it would have saved me quite a bit of cash and what's not to like about that?

I think a lot of people hate LPG because they've seen dodgy old cars with cheap conversions, run by people who skimp on maintenance. And whilst I'd certainly agree that those types of cars are common, there's equally plenty that have been converted by people who have simply done the sums and worked out that it makes sense for them.
 
rodenal said:
I didn't even know you could buy an e60 without climate!
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It does have climate. Not a particularly fancy system, but it is climate control.

Right hand dial to set the temperature for the whole car (only single zone), and then auto button to enable climate control.

Or if you don't want to use the climate control, you use the left dial to set which vents are open, the centre dial to set the fan speed, the circular arrows button to enable/disable recirc, and the ********* button to enable/disable AC.
 
soundb0y said:
Doesn't seem a bad place to be for 4k in my opinion. Didn't realise they were this cheap now.

Is it mainly looks/interior people dislike? How are they to drive?
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Fine to drive tbh,arguably the e60 is s better drive - it should be, it's the generation on from the e39,but, back to back IMO the looks are an aquired taste on the e60 and the e39's interior is certainly made of better quality materials.

They will only get cheaper too, the one the OP was looking at is nigh 12years old with 130k mind you, I certainly feel compared to the car the OP was looking at, which is up for £4k, my 14year old e39 with 110k miles for £1500 was by far a better buy.
 
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