Used Car of the Day: 2002 BMW M5

by Tim Healey

Published: January 6th, 2025

Today's UCOTD is a 2002 BMW M5.

This E39 has a six-speed manual transmission and about 174,000 miles on it. The seller says that it's in good shape, inside and out, with minimal wear. He also says that the mods are limited to LoJack, lighting, a USB setup for a dash cam, Bluetooth, hardlined Valentine 1 radar detector, dash-mounted cell-phone holder, and an aftermarket TPMS.

The owner has done a lot of maintenance and repair work to keep this thing running well -- there's a long list at the original post that would take up too much space to list here. There are some minor issues, including a sunroof lift problem.

If you're interested in this ride, it's available in California for $23,000. Click here to see more.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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6 of 13 comments

Grandmaster T on Jan 07, 2025

Says he drives like a grandma, but goes through an awful lot of tires. Hmmmmmm.

2 Reply
- See 1 previous
- Jeff on Jan 07, 2025
  
  Maybe he is referring to the "little old lady from Pasadena." Keep smokin those tires.
  
  1
- Lloyd Bonified on Jan 07, 2025
  
  She hits curbs all the time and it is never in alignment perhaps.
  
  1
- Orange260z on Feb 13, 2025
  
  Well, it's a powerful RWD car.
  The first set on his list (Toyo RA1) are autocross tires, so very limited life.
  I assume he had an issue with the Hankooks and replaced them with the Nittos 20K later, on the other hand 20K miles is quite a lot for UHP/MP summer tires of that era.
  
  According to his list he ran the Nitto Invos from 108K miles to over 156K miles - that's a remarkably long life, wouldn't be surprised if they were replaced in between.
  I used to replace rear tires on my 944 (SP8000) , IS300 (Bridgestone Potenza UHP summers), Boxster (Continental SC2, Bridgestone SO2 PP), and 997.2 (Michelin PS2) every 10K miles or less. The big leap forward in summer tire life was the Michelin PSS in 2011 and then the Continental ECS 2017.
  
  Like
EBFlexing on ur mom on Jan 07, 2025

One of the best looking cars of all time.

1 Reply
- See 1 previous
- Lloyd Bonified on Jan 07, 2025
  
  Agree, but also one I'd just assume admire in someone else's driveway.
  
  Like
- Jeff on Jan 07, 2025
  
  Agree best to admire this car from afar.
  
  Like

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