Used 2001 BMW E39 530 530i - cars & trucks - by owner - vehicle... for sale in Hopkinton, MA

2001 BMW 530 530i E39, 167k, $4500. Runs beautifully. Fast. Handles perfectly. Brakes are smooth as glass. A real pleasure to drive. 6 cylinder, naturally aspirated (no turbo to fail) and still 228HP, 5 speed automatic, leather, sun roof, fog lights, AM/FM/HD/CD/DVD/Bluetooth radio. Radio can be configured with a back up camera, but I didn't do that.

EVERYTHING WORKS. Really. No check engine light (aka 'service engine soon' in BMW-speak). Heat is hot and A/C is cold.

This car is in great shape. Read through this entire listing as it will educate you regarding the issues with BMWs and why this car is a great deal…

I bought this from one of those ‘donate your car’ places in March 2017 with 157k. It was in very good cosmetic shape, but it was very tired. You could turn the wheel left or right 20 degrees and the car kept going straight. The front suspension was completely shot. The rear was also in pretty bad shape. I knew it needed some work, but I had no idea just how much…

I have put nearly $5,000 in parts alone into this car. I did nearly all the work myself. I was crazy enough to spend this much on parts… it would have been absolutely insane to pay someone else to do all this…

Here is what I have repaired on this car in the last 3 years and 10k miles:

Wiper blades, spark plugs, plug coils (several), coolant flush, radiator hoses, ambient air temp sensor, front control arms, thrust arms, inner and outer tie rods and bellows, wheel bearings (all four), front struts, rear struts and springs, strut bumpers, brake pads, rotors, flexible brake lines at the wheels, front sway bushings and links, rear sway bushings and links, emergency brake shoes, reset airbag controller (called “MRS3”), battery, battery vent hoses, rear speakers, differential lube flush, brake fluid flush, front and rear brake pad wear sensors, 4 new tires, 4 wheel alignment, cabin air filters, engine flush, wheel well liners (2), jack pads, rear ball joints and ‘integral links’, rear control arms, anti-lock brake controller, fog light bulbs, O2 sensor, windshield washer hoses, “intensive” windshield washer pump and hoses, fan and AC belts, clean idle control valve, coolant flush, thermostat, outside temp sensor, PCV valve and hoses, door sill covers, lube steering shaft U joint, purge valve, intake manifold gasket, injector seals, valve cover gasket, CCV valve, secondary air valve vacuum lines, intake boots (upper and lower), rear brake lines (replaced the original steel lines with longer-lasting copper)...

I replaced the stock radio with a Kenwood unit that includes hands free phone (and I wired in a microphone), Bluetooth, Aux In, and HD Radio. And if you plug your android phone into the USB jack I installed on the dash, it does some more stuff, but I haven't played with it. But it's not "Android Auto" if you're familiar with that.

The reason THIS car is a good deal is because I replaced sooooooooo much stuff already that fails on these cars. I spent waaaaaaaaaaaay too much on it than makes sense, but it's a hobby to fix these things, and I sure learned a lot.

Beware of any BMW with more than 100k on it, as there are lots of things that start breaking at that point. BMW makes a lot of parts out of plastic that really should have been made out of metal. The plastic gets brittle over time and many parts, like hose connections on the coolant lines, the CCV valves, and lots of breather hoses and vacuum lines, will fail suddenly. I’ve already replaced sooooooooooooo much stuff, I think THIS car is a good bet for another 100k.

What has yet to be done on this car - the B pillar driver's side (next to your left shoulder) needs to have the fabric replaced. I replaced the fabric on the A (front windshield) and C (rear windshield) pillars, but haven't gotten to the B pillars. I'll give you the fabric. The handle that you pull to pop the hood is loose. It works fine, but it would be nice to replace it.

That's it.

So if it's so great, why am I selling this car? This is a 2001 E39 (aka 530i). I had no plans to sell, but I recently ran across and bought a 2001 E39 M5. Very similar, but the "M" edition, which means they stuffed a 400HP V8 in place of the 228HP inline 6. This car is fast (zero to 60 in 7 seconds). The M5 is crazy (zero to 60 in under 5).

This car was almost $50k when it was new. You can have it at more than a 90% discount :) .