BMW 5 Series Buyer's Guide
Four tracked 5 Series sales, £7,128 to £23,063, median £17,018, with five more live as we write. The cars reaching auction now are the enthusiast eras, E28, E34 and E39, the generations that defined the sports saloon for two decades, and the spread shows a market already sorting them: ordinary cars at the bottom, the hot versions at the top, and the M5s occupying the ceiling.
What to pay
£7,128, our floor, buys the honest cooking models: the sixes that did the actual work, priced as usable classics rather than investments. Around £17,018, our median, the money is buying condition and specification together, the better engines, manual gearboxes, documented history. £20,000 to £23,063, at our ceiling, is where the M cars and the very best standard examples trade, and by broader market standards that remains restrained money for what an M5 is. Five live lots gives the buyer choice across the eras.
What goes wrong
Cooling system first: on the sixes and V8s of the E34 and E39 era, radiators, expansion tanks, water pumps and viscous fans are consumable items, and preventative replacement is far cheaper than the warped head that follows neglect. Treat the whole cooling circuit as a service item on any car without invoices for it. Rust is the second question, rear arches and jacking points especially on E28 and E34. Parts supply is excellent across all three generations, and the specialist network is one of the deepest in the classic BMW world.
Our view
The E39 is the modern-classic bargain of the three and the E28 the purist's hold; the E34 sits quietly between them and may be the value. Buy on cooling-system evidence and shell condition, in that order. A properly maintained six-cylinder 5 Series is a car that can be driven weekly for another twenty years, which is more than most things at this money can claim.
