I know how you lot love these kinds of threads, so thought I'd ask for some help.

I'm looking for a BMW 5 series (E39) estate for use as a temporary tow car, but I'm struggling to find them.

The requirements as follows:

Tow bar (obviously)

Straight six engine, the bigger the better and both petrol and diesels. Not 520.

Under £2000 (maybe a little more)

Go

Have you looked on Autotrader,?

http://autotrader.co.uk

Look at £3000-4000 and then go making cheeky offers, He who dares wins.

 

Where are you, North Wales, North West ?

Yes, its a similar story with Autotrader.

I'm in Cheshire but don't mind travelling (100 miles) really

A fine choice, my Dad ran three E39 Tourers. Still want one now!

Will have a look round for you.

How about this one.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2001-Y-BMW-525-TDS-SE-Estate-5-Series-Diesel-Automatic-Auto-/121261075632?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item1c3bb92cb0

Have you also got a distance cap, on how far you'll travel?

Probably around 100 miles, but if it's the right car, I'll go pretty much anywhere...

Cheers, Ruffday, hadn't spotted that one.

I'm going to try and have a look at this one at some point. Though it is more than I'd like to pay, it looks well worth it

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-530D-SE-TOURING-AUTO-SILVER-2003-STUNNING-/380815922372?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item58aa65d4c4

Didn't look to be too many on 'Trader, within a 100 miles of me, which might not be that far from you

 

The eBay example had done some miles, but they seem to wear them really well. As long as it's been regularly serviced of course

I'm going to try and have a look at this one at some point. Though it is more than I'd like to pay, it looks well worth it

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-530D-SE-TOURING-AUTO-SILVER-2003-STUNNING-/380815922372?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item58aa65d4c4

 

Get a bit off the asking, and that's blinding I think. Facelift model, good spec and always looks good in silver, although the auto 530d does end up a bit high on tax. I'd expect that to be £280 /yr - not sure if that's a consideration for you?

 

Great engine though, so smooth....

Tax isn't too much of a concern as I'll only be keeping the car till when my VRS arrives in Juneish.

Would an auto or manual be preferable for towing?

Cheers Wardy

I know people that use both, think they still have their E39s anyway! Can't really comment on the towing aspect as it's not something I've ever done.

 

We always had the manuals and I always think it's such a shame to forego one of the best manual 'boxes in the business

 

The auto works well with the larger engines and tends to be the transmission of choice from the 2.5 upwards really, so you're likely to see the majority of 530s (diesel or petrol) in auto form.

Cheers Wardy:)

I spent this morning driving round a load of dealers in Stoke and found nothing.

I'm going to view the silver one this weekend with the view of bringing it back with me

Best of luck, looks like a great find that one. Tourings drive better than the saloons too, in my humble opinion. Just ask about the suspension because if memory serves all E39 have self levelling rear suspension.

Well, we went today, thinking I'd be driving it home, but this "stunning" and "lovely" car with "NO RUST,DENTS OR SCRATCHES" and an interior with "no wear" was the largest POS I've seen in a long time. There was damage on every single panel, the rear bumper needed a total respray, the brake pedal sank to the floor, the lights didn't work and the towbar electrics didn't work.

Well that was a wasted day :/

I've now decided to broaden the search to include other cars as BMWs with a towbar are thin on the ground, so ideas are welcome. Range Rover P38 and Volvo V70 are up at the top of the list atm

Well, we went today, thinking I'd be driving it home, but this "stunning" and "lovely" car with "NO RUST,DENTS OR SCRATCHES" and an interior with "no wear" was the largest POS I've seen in a long time. There was damage on every single panel, the rear bumper needed a total respray, the brake pedal sank to the floor, the lights didn't work and the towbar electrics didn't work.

Well that was a wasted day :/

I've now decided to broaden the search to include other cars as BMWs with a towbar are thin on the ground, so ideas are welcome. Range Rover P38 and Volvo V70 are up at the top of the list atm

 

 

I wouldn't bother with a P38 unless you want to spend a lot of time and money on it.

I would love one myself but having run Discovery's for a few years and spending a lot of time on the land rover forums it looks like most are moneypits.  

What a shame. I'd keep the search up, I think your E39 Touring search is spot on. Just that with older cars, there's more work involved finding good ones. Par for the course I'm afraid.

 

The V70 is also a good shout, we used to have some of those too including a T5, but then my Dad went back to Tourings again. The Volvo is a great motorway car, but the handling and driveability isn't a patch on the E39.

Just a thought - does it absolutely need to be an estate?

Unfortunately yes, as it has to carry a spare set of wheels and tyres, a tool kit and all the other racing gear. And if it turns out to be reliable, I'll sell the Superb early to save on the costs of that, so this will have to be the main family car for a while

With the now broader search, I've decided to increase the budget, as it doesn't matter what I spend if I get it back in a few months come sale time.

I've seen a Touareg V10 diesel with a towbar for under £6k

There's also a nice red P38 that we'll probably go and have a look at. I've had a couple of range rovers and all have been reliable - I think they're fine as long as you don't spend less than £2k on one. Ones below that are generally a bit fishy

Cheers Wardy

Ah right - yep with you. Might have seen a nice condition E39 saloon for you, that was all

 

Towing with a V10 Touareg will be interesting for fuel consumption!

 

With a increased budget, I still think I'd look at a facelift (2002 onwards) 530d Touring - manual box for me, as it's so nice to use and MPG and tax are better.

I went to have a look at a silver 525d today as it was only 9 miles away. It looks promising, but had a similar issue to the other one, in that the brake pedal has a very long travel. The brakes seemed to be fine on the test drive though.

This can't be a common thing on E39s, can it? Other than the brakes (it'll need discs too) there's not much putting me off this one. The owner moves abroad on Tuesday, so should mean there's a bit of room for haggling

Something at the back of mind is saying something about master brake cylinders. Don't quote me on that though! Have you tried one of the Beemer forums?

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

I had a look but I didn't find much. Only that they can be a pain to bleed properly. This could be the cause but the disks are so thin, they look original, so I'd say the brakes have never really been messed with