E39 Average Running Costs

I really don't think 2000 miles over a year is a representative enough sample to be meaningful. I had occasions when mine did as much as 15k between any expenditure. Then some occasions when within the space of about 3k it cost me over a grand!

Even the most unreliable moneypit of a car ought to be able to go £2k between bills at times..
 
Yea you are probably right. And they were all miles for business so it actually hasn't really cost me a penny after fuel expenses are worked out.

Maybe once I put some proper miles on it I'll get a better idea of costs. For now it makes money for me on mileage and is a nice place to be.
 
My 2000 530i cost me roughly £1300 over just under 18months of ownership, mainly brakes, tyres and chasing an intermittent power loss issue (which on reflection was probably just the early signs of its ultimate head gasket failure) which involved changing the MAF sensor, cam & crank position sensors - more than once - and one major service, not bad given I only paid £1550 for it and still got £500 back as spares or repair, in the grand scheme of things I still think it was a relatively cheap way of running such a car for that time all things considered.


It could easily have cost me more, and would have done so had I fixed its head gasket and the gearbox fault that ultimately did for it but in the end I decided enough was enough.

I'd dearly love an e38 740i Sport next but am after the e39 experience I'm alas only too aware that an e38 would be no better in terms of niggly and / or expensive problems and am left pondering if it's worth the bother, probably not much as it pains me to say so, I see why Fox retired his e39 - which I'm sure is a much better example than mine ever was - they reach a point where they are more trouble than worth bothering with....

What I ultimately replace it with now I don't know, I'll probably end up sticking with the diesel Corsa I've bought as a stop gap for longer than initially envisaged.....
 
The transmission oil cooler on the missus' 525i auto went pop, and with a new cooler, ATF, filters and various other bits, that came in at £900.

We also had the airbag light on due to a faulty passenger occupancy sensor and a faulty inertia sensor. They cost about £20 for both.

I also fitted new front wheel bearings (pig of a job) at about £150 the pair.

Then the starter motor died, which cost £200 to replace iirc.

Other than that, iirc in the 3 years we've had it, it's only been consumables and service items (Inc. front and rear discs and pads). I've done all the work myself, bar the starter motor and transmission oil cooler.
 
For me it's more the hassle factor of the things that tend to break on these cars than the outright cost. It'll be niggling things that you can fix yourself but need to be willing to spend the time doing it. Fix a £50 part then you'll notice something else etc etc. Tends to not feel like so much of a problem when the car is worth £5k+ but you could be constantly fixing a £2k car with an e39

They're just old now, but m5 aside general 'stuff' for them isn't expensive. I spent relatively big lumps of money at a time on the Honda which was much newer than any e39 will be (or my e46), but it didn't break very often. The Skoda seems to be more aligned to BMW ownership where it's small things I can foresee going on it fairly often despite it being 'only' 7 years old
 
[TW]Fox;29346501 said:
Ok here we go..

September 2006 to May 2014:

Repairs and Servicing: £6000
Tyres: £3000

Notable expenses:

Power Steering Pump @ £400
Front suspension refresh @ £400
Multiple radiators @ £600ish
Clutch @ £500
Alternator @ £350

etc

It worked out at about 53p a mile for fuel, insurance, depreciation and all running costs.

Interestingly my F10 has come out at almost exactly the same cost per mile. Ha, actually amazed at that.
Click to expand...

Is that mainly because of depreciation of has it actually cost you anything sizeable in terms of repairs?
 
monkey_boy said:
How much was that and over what time period?

Was hoping Fox would have a spreadsheet that would shed some light on the situation! :p
Click to expand...

I bought the car in May 2011 if memory serves. As for cost I am not sure of the exact figure but its a lot, multiples of what the car is worth!

This mug bought a lemon though. :o
 
I've looked over my bills and I'm pretty sure I've mislaid some but it looks as though it's cost at least £5k over 7 years in maintenence. I would say that's pretty lucky so far and what I'm concerned about is whether that luck will run out and I'll be faced with bills for Front Suspension refresh, coolant system, rear subframe bushes and other significant niggles in the next 3 years. Potentially meaning I could spend another £5k in the next 3 years.

If thats what its going to need then so be it but I want to go into it knowing what its going to cost and what the alternatives are so I've attempted a spreadsheet to estimate costs and compare them to other options ie, buying or leasing.

Have I done it right, am I comparing the right things?

**Warning** Some of the other options are suggestions blurted out and are NOT a shortlist of preferred cars. Just something to put in to test an idea or suggestion.
EDIT- Resized for sanity
carresearch86f9b.png
 
This is the right approach but I'd question why an X5 is going to cost 3 times more a year to fix than an old C Class or an old A5. And for £10kish thats exactly what they are going to be.
 
both prices were based on a 2 litre petrol or diesel 5 years old with <50k miles. Repair estimates for the X5 are based on above and purchase repair estimates are based on figures plucked from my exit but broadly thinking of basic brakes, oil, tyres type maintenence as the x5 had, but cheaper due to smaller engine, wheels, tyres, brakes etc, and using an indy garage.
 
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