E39

>rwd
>manual available
>straight 6 available
Best german sedan of all time

I have this car, it's good, but the steering is stiff like most 90s cars (I have a 2001)

Nigger you forgot there's also a V8 available

I6>V8

>shittier weight distribution
>heavier in many cases
>less power
>worse sound (although I still think it sounds great, just not as good as a V8)
The only advantages it has are smoothness and ease of maintenance, otherwise a V8 is better in every way

>worse steering
>heavier
>barely faster than the 6-cyl model

>shittier weight distribution

In what world?

530i m sport was my first car and it was so much fun to drive.
>rides comfortablily at 130mph
>god tier interior
>planted handling w/ steering so accurate you could thread a needle
The parts and maintence were raping my wallet though and I had to get rid of it last year due to an engine missfire. If your looking for one go low miles because they can become serious money pits.

What about a 520i with a manual?

Not any cheaper to maintain, it'll still rape your wallet, only cheaper insurance and registration. If you're going to buy an old E39, I wouldn't bother with anything less than an 523i.

Bavaria is NOT Germany, Ami.

No, its Cuckistan

owned 3 of em already.
lovely cars

W8>I6

Lol

What kind of maintenance are we talking about?
Just standard oilchange and sparkplugs?
Or is there something secret that needs changing?

BMW has no fucking clue how to make a V8

The M60B40, M62B44 are both agony to work on. At least the S62 had zip to justify the horrible designs and maintenance.

>t. European auto mechanic in burgerstan and BMW lunatic

Ford falcon

>rwd
>manual available
>straight 6 available
>straight 6 turbo available

e39 vs e87

This.
An E39 is also my first own car and I really love that thing for the reasons mentioned above.
Mine is still in great shape, despite the age. The thing is, they almost always have at least one small problem, but the engines usually outroun the rest of the car easily.

But
>tfw scratched small spot on bottom of front bumber while entering some retarded elevated parking space today

stock, the m62 is good but not great, with a blower on it it's excellent
stock, the m54 is very good but low on power for the weight of the car, with a blower it's much better but not as good as a blown m62

My dream is to swap an S54 into an E39

Stiff steering usually means better feedback as to what the tires are doing. Every car that I've had with light steering feels sloppy and its hard tell what you're doing at any moment.

In this case he's right you can get more power out of I6 in the 530i than you can with the 540i mainly becuase of space and being able to stuff a decent FI setup in there.

>520i
Prepare to have regrets

E39 is really nice but idk why you would buy the 5 series when the 3 series also has rwd manual straight six with less weight and size.

>S54
>not S65 V8

The 5er has heaps of little creature comforts and extra arm/leg room, they're much more comfortable and the trunk is much larger

V6>V10>V12>I4>I6>V8>meme engines

Too bad it's german

I loved my e39 530i, fuck the 540i fucking unreliable pigfat pos, and doesn’t sound as good as the I6 while drinking more fuel.

why on earth are inline 6 and v8 so far down your list
what is your reasoning

>v6 better than literally anything else

Apples to oranges m8.

The 1 series is a much more sporty city car, the E39 5 is a much better highway and family car.

This is bait

>540i weighs 250 more lbs
>implying it has better weight distribution
>implying it is lighter
>implying it’s slightly higher power matters when it’s significantly heavier
>implying MUH V8 is worth having a way, way, less reliable car that’s harder to fix
Diagnosis: retardation

>trying to justify a base model over the v8
SHIGGYDIGGY LMAOOO

my father owns a 540 wagon, it is an absolute blast to drive and ride in. incredibly comfortable car

Yes

Hi fellow E39 drivers.

I recently got a 523i, I love it, but there's some things that bothers me, i.e, the airbag light stays constantly on since a month, and the temperture needle tends to flirt with the red zone, before going back to it's normal place when I give the engine a good rev, can it be the calorstat as I was told? And how much am I in for?

Also I heard that you could put E10 in such cars, but I really doubt that it would like it, any advice?

You've got an M52B25TU in that machine, if you've got weird overheating issues you may very well just have some air bubbles in the thing.

Look for a weird cross shaped screw next to the radiator bottle that says ENFLOTUNG or similar. This is your radiator bleed screw! Make sure you top off your coolant and then bleed the air bubbles out of the system using that screw. Pelican Parts should have a full right up on how to bleed the system. You should also be flushing your coolant once a year, and bad coolant isn't as efficient so also try that. Failing that, throw parts at it. Be sure to blast the HVAC heater while you do this.

Airbags are a cunt. You will need to scan the car with a tool capable of reading the airbag computer for the exact code. Don't fuck around with this, don't throw parts at it. If your car has a 20 pin round diagnostic port under the hood, you will need to scan from that to reach the airbag computer. Otherwise, scan from the OBDII port under/on the dash depending on your year. Order a cheapo 50 dollar BMW GT1 simulator kit for maximum functionality for DIY, or get the codes read at a shop. You may also qualify for the death airbag recall so look into that.

>t. that same mechanicfag from the post talking about how much he hates the M60B40 despite owning a car with one

There is a very clean 520i near me. I might buy it, then dump a 2.5 lump in it if I get bored with the 2.0 in it

Don't bother, the 2.5 is pretty gutless in this as well most of the time

What the guy below you said.

Also, with the overheating, as great as these cars are, their weak point would be the cooling system, if it's got some miles on it you most likely should replace the water pump, since the OEM pumps come with plastic propellers that get brittle over time and even break. Get one with a steel / aluminum propeller, it's like 30$ on ebay, and if your car is heating up while idling or standing still, check the fan clutch, turn the car off, and spin the fan on the front of the engine by hand, if it spins freely, the clutch needs to be replaced, it should have traction and stop in like a second or so if the clutch is working

Just sold my 530i M-Sport a few months back! That thing handled like it was on fucking rails, most fun car i've ever owned, but it too was raping my wallet, sad thing is i was sure i was gonna keep it so i spent probably 15000$ on it, big time maintenance, had most of the car repainted because it had rust spots, loads of new shit, but there were always these little things going wrong that really pissed me off. Sold it and got a 2010 320D, doesn't handle nearly as well and i miss the comfy heavy steering of the E39, but with an ECU remap i'll get 20 more horsepower and 200 nm more than the 530i was (250hp/500nm), and i'm thinking with a good set of coilovers, wheels and good, sticky tyres it should handle really well, along with getting under 5l/100km in country driving (50+ MPG)

Great car, but not nearly as fun as the E39, the sport suspension really made a difference in that car, had a 523i before which was decent but the M sport was next level. And they just look so fucking good.

pic related, my old car

good job you triggered the ameirfats

530i does 0-60 in about 7 seconds
540i in about 5.5
huge difference.

Never had a car with a bigger engine than 2.0
So I'm positively sure that it'll feel faster than any of the other big fwd sedans I've had

Why is it that amerifats love their vee-ates so much?

yeah nah
>factory 3.7 lsd
>factory t56
>factory ls1 (canned in uk but who cares their cucked

Going to that effort tho just put the 3.0 in, no real structural difference but much more power and torque, economies of scale

which year 520i is it? 2000+ 520i's had the 2.2 liter with 170hp which isn't THAT bad
pre-2000 520i had the 2.0 liter with 150 horsepower which is terrible

I think it's a midwest or south thing, or maybe a niche enthusiast thing like flat sixes. I never heard about it until Veeky Forums. Up here the "me manly man" automotive stuff is wrenching, trucks, offroading, and bikes. Four bangers welcome.

>opel
lol
enjoy your barge like handling and opel quality
lsd is nice though

It's the 2.2 model

they handle fine cunt wen ya put coilovers and wide fronts on gonna get some whiteline swaybars

That's a factory claim.
And of course they would say that the more expensive car is faster than the model just below it. When in reality they are more similar than stated.

Same thing they're doing with the M2 and M4

Then you might as well buy the e39 and throw a turbo on it.
It will run circles around the broken down Opel

I've owned a 530i and driven a few 540i's, how can you claim that they are really this similar? 540i is very much noticably faster, it's got almost 70 more hp (they say they're 280-290hp but in reality the engines are around 300hp) and they have almost 50% more torque than the 3.0

Don't get me wrong, the 530i is a great car with a good engine, but the 540i really is that much more powerful

factory claim or not the acceleration difference is pretty big, 540i is on another performance level.
540i also does the 1/4 mile in approx 14.3, 530i in about 15.7 seconds
540i comes underrated from factory it has about 300hp in real life

facken elllllll cunt

welp you just said everything i posted lol

kiss me now

bimmer fags gay

Thanks for the complete answers guys, I will look into that, I was planing to buy a code reader anyway.

Also I forgot to mention but concerning the airbag, the malfunction occured after a heavy rain, so maybe it's linked since the trunk took some water due to a faulty rubber.

>GM

patrician tier post

Succ muh willy

>dragracing

implying the base model 5 series are good for track driving.
its not about dragracing btw, just trying to give an insight on how much faster the 540i is over the 530.

Why are you guys arguing about handling on a pigfat luxury saloon? Get a 3 series if you care about handling

Unless it is an M3 it ain't worth a damn.
Don't be one of those people buying a poverty spec 3-series. Then act like you're hot shit

...

e92

is this a car you've made up? because the omega never came with a v8

if its not m or stripped out and on coils its slow as shit

this. They are still good tho.
They make excellent race car bases althought mostly because they cost absolutely nothing and parts are available.

>Best german sedan of all time

THE best German sedan isn`t even technically German

its nice. but no match for the M5.

>the cummie-collecting bimmerfags will never experience true AWD
What was that about the best German sedan?

>audi
literally who?

I fucking adore Audi's
But what were they thinking when they made their luxury branded cars based on fwd platforms?
They would be infinitely better if they made all their cars rwd, with optional quattro awd.
Them being fwd will always mean that they aren't true competitors to Mercedes and BMW

this, i pity the Audi sport division, they are forced to build competing sports cars out of FF volkswagen platforms, must be a nightmare from an engineering perspective.

Audi gets memed a lot for using VW parts, but it is literally owned by the Porsche family, and has won Le Mans 13 times more than BMW.

so are you implying audi is porsche tier?
it's not just about using parts its about using literal platforms and engines, transmissions etc.
audi left lemans and BMW is only joining lemans with the M8 btw.

Thinking about getting a cheap 2010 750Li 3.3L V8 with 130k miles on it.
Is there anything I should worry about, and are the larger sedans that bad for pigfat, despite the 400+hp?

>3.3l
lol
the maintenance will destroy you
the best 2010 7 series are the diesels

do NOT go near the f01 750
even the v12 is better

What maintenance costs make it so horrible?

The 540i handles noticeably worse tho

>noticeably
nope

It is really quite noticeable, the difference between the rack and pinion and recirculating ball is huge

A quattro audi is actually quite easy to convert to rwd.
Just pull the front shafts and pull the diff-lock button in the mid-console

Even ameribarges can take corners better.

>diff-lock button
it hasnt been a thing in audis since the 90's

Why would you buy anything else?

where's all the fuckin tourings at.
i mean, look at all this space

forgot, that pic is the e34
this is the e39 touring's cargo

Hnnng

e34 is a smaller car but with more space wtf?

crash test engineering in action

>crash test

More likely design and aero. Newer and newer cars have more sloping rear ends, while older ones were pretty much boxes.