“End of term Report”

[ianm5]

I’ve sold my M5

Really sad to see it go but we needed more carrying capacity and didn’t want more cars, so indulge me a little farewell speech.

Best car I have ever owned? Probably.

Bought from a BMW dealer, now part ex it at a car supermarket. Owned for about 3 years and 25k miles, lost about £4k. They are opposite ends of the second hand value spectrum, in reality I suspect the car depreciated by little or nothing.

I pulled the full service history on the key before the sale, all main dealer. Turns out the brakes and disks were unchanged after 53,000 miles. It sounds unrealistic but I’ve heard it happening on threads elsewhere. The car has been driven really gently it’s whole life.

I spent most of my ownership in a state of slight paranoia about big bills and reliability. Those stories make interesting threads but if you look carefully the cars affected are generally tuned or bought without due care and attention.

My final stats were an ave mpg of about 22mpg, 4 tyres (roughly 25k miles a set), door handle (warranty), tyre valve (free). In the cars history it had a AC seal replaced. Apart from the handle and valve that’s 8 years. Wow.

Car supermarket had it inspected fully “mechanically and bodywork perfect” I have spent a bit of time wondering if I should have sat out a private sale. I didn’t really fancy a stream of chancers turning up for their M5 test.

I genuinely believe for those of you that keep them perfect these (and the F90) are last of breed. Whatever comes next will be hybrid, complicated and probably difficult to tune. The ‘rose tinted spectacles’ are already on; I’ve forgotten about the hoover soundtrack and traction issues already.