I’m most attached to the M5 he’s somehow managed to keep all this time. Only thing missing from being my ideal E39 is some Camel interior.Quote:
Originally Posted by ZHPizza
I’m most attached to the M5 he’s somehow managed to keep all this time. Only thing missing from being my ideal E39 is some Camel interior.Quote:
Originally Posted by ZHPizza
Roller coster it is. [emoji3]
I'm on the hunt but I struck out in Spain. 2 M5s in 2 days that were unfruitful.
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Mind you, not a bad place to be.
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That hitch looks goofy af back there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sreten
Oh boy. That color combo is pure sex.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sreten
I'm confused - are you not decided on which one you want to keep or are you just switching cars all the time for fun?
After seeing what's out there, I'll probably keep my current Le Mans M5 for awhile.
But yes, I love doing this for fun. I love to travel, buy, fix, sell - all of it. If I end up buying something else it will be a project that I can restore and eventually sell on.
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I'm back from Spain so time for a full report.
With the 8er gone I was itching for another project where I could get my hands dirty.
Found 2 potential candidates in Valencia, Spain and as always went on a new adventure with my girlfriend. We didn't have a vacation planned out yet and Spain fit the bill perfect.
Though, it was probably the worst part of the year to visit Valencia as it was hot as hell - on few occasions over 40°C with 70% humidity.
Few shots upon arrival.
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Valencia Cathedral
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First food stop - Tapas.
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My gf had to get her adrenalin going so we went on one those spinny-makes-you-wanna-puke-your-gut rides.
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The Central Market of Valencia.
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Getting a mean ham & cheese sandwich before meeting with the seller.
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I was warned by few German friends that are in the car business that Spanish cars are, well, junk. Nevertheless, I'm an addict with a tendency for a good adventure.
Now to the business end. The first M5 was in the city of Torrent - 20 min from Valencia.
Here we have a 04/2002 M5 slicktop finished in rare Bluewater metallic - 1 of 38 in this color for European market so pretty rare specimen.
This is a 2 owner car with 93k miles and it was in sellers custody since 2006. I received few potato pictures prior and even there the car looked like a turd, but I find Bluewater metallic to be absolutely stunning color and I had to see it since I was already there for the other car.
Before coming, I asked the guy if the car had any accidents and if the paint was original. He said: No accidents, original paint.
I'll let the pictures do the talking.
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I found that the car had a front right impact that was poorly repaired. But the scariest part was that the car was hit in the right B pillar and doors were misaligned with the rear door sticking out about 10 mm. I got a hint on the pictures that something was going on there but it wasn't pretty obvious and pictures that I received turned out to be old.
I've seen my fair share of shitty mistreated cars but this is next level. Everything that I touched felt like it was about to fall apart any second. The paint was like 50 shades of grey. To my surprise the engine still sounded sweet and had a nice pull, the guy is lucky that S62 are robust engines and can take a beating. This poor M5 is far too gone to be restored and the only thing I see it good for is to pick it for parts and put the engine and drivetrain in a nicer shell. This is by far the worst M5 I've seen so far.
I asked the guy why did he lie about accidents and telling me that the car was very nice, turns out for him these are not accidents, just little not noticeable things. He added and I quote: The car is really really nice. I didn't mistreat it. Having been left speechless, we swiftly moved along.
Seeing this pile of misery gives me hope for the Carbon black M5 I looked on the island in Italy. That thing was rough but miles better compared to this.
Back to the city. Valencia is the 3rd biggest city in Spain with great history and amazing sights to be seen.
Back in '69 there used to be a river going through the center of Valencia and with every rain it would flood the city. They decided to divert the river to stop that from happening and now the stream bed is turned in an beatiful huge park.
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Haven't had good Mexican in a while.
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Followed up with sorta healthy bacon omelet.
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Now, the next M5 that sounded more promising which was about an hour away from Valencia. I decided to rent this Fiat 500 rather than to take the train in this crazy heat.
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02/2002 M5 slicktop finished in Le Mans Blue over Caramel interior, a stunning combination I might add.
The car had 87k miles and the seller had it for a few years and claimed he bought it from a friend.
The car had few red flags on the pictures but I was willing to give it a chance since this color combo had me drooling.
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This M5 was much better than the previous horror on wheels but with its own set of problems. It would take a decent amount of work to bring it up to shape and it had 19" BBS RX 513 wheels and Eisenmann exhaust & X-pipe which made it stupid loud. It had a custom shifter, the suspension felt like it could be refreshed, the clutch pedal was on a hard side, the seats were twisting and some other flaws. It had few shadow codes in DME but nothing overly concerning. The engine sounded very healthy.
It was super hot that day and I was looking at the car in direct sunlight so I missed on few of my usual steps when inspecting the car.
The car has been partially repainted with the roof, trunk lid, left rear panel and left side doors being in original color. Obvious things were nasty Chinese headlights, China front bumper and hood from a pre-facelift 5 series. Another red flag was a gap on the steering wheel airbag and the front radiator support was from a different car so it was obvious that something was going on.
The seller was in a hurry and we wanted to hit the beach so we parted ways and said we'll text each other later.
We exchanged few texts regarding the price and asking him about the accident to which he said he had no idea. I cooled off after learning about the accident, but I made him a low bid which he eventually accepted (interior swap was already going through my head). After that, I told him I want to put the car on the lift and inspect it from underneath. The car was in an accident and I wanted to see the extent of the damage, frame damage would be a big no go. Few minutes after that he is telling me that he just talked to another interested buyer who was willing to pay him more and made an appointment with him, and he no longer wanted to sell the car.
I found that to be peculiar and had another look at the pictures I took and noticed these markings behind the bumper which are typically put there by dismantlers.
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I quickly googled those numbers and found a part out 523i on a junkyard 30 minutes from him from which all these parts came off. I normally always try to get a glimpse at the frame rails from the top, but with heat and being hurried I slipped and missed that step. Most likely the car took a pretty good hit in the front and he was aware of it and just playing it dumb. Anyway, at that point, I didn't even care anymore and decide just to enjoy rest our vacation.
Beautiful Gandia beach.
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Spanish roads are fun.
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The part of Valencia that left biggest impression on me was The City of Arts and Sciences built from 1996 to 2005.
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Bullfighting arena which we didn't find that interesting.
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Round 2 for Tapas.
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Whenever I do these trips, I try to get as much information as possible from the seller but it's usually a struggle and you just have to see the car in person and hope for the best. It's always a risk to travel but that's part of the fun, sometimes you get lucky like I did with the 45k miles TiAg M5 that started this thread or unlucky like with these two turds where you just want to launch the seller to the moon.
I had nice time off from work and the office and Spain is a phenomenal place for vacation, buying cars not so much as it turns out. :biggrin Now I'm even more appreciative to have a lovely M5 in the garage sitting pretty and ready to be taken out.
Also, been living in Germany for more than a year now and it's crazy knowing that I actually have better Spanish skills than I do Deutsch. :biggrin
Dude, you are the absolute king of updates.
I almost feel like I’ve looked at these cars with you, and now feel like I’ve been to some of these places. (HatTip.gif)
Stunning pics... I like the night shots. The food looks delicious! It's good that you can make a vacation out of all these trips, otherwise, I imagine it would be disappointing.
What a trip!!! Thank you for sharing your trips with massive amont of details.
Love it!
Sad, them a lot of sellers are lying about repaired cars. That Blue Water M5 must be stunning in person.
Good luck in your hunt!
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Thanks, Spenser! I'm really glad to hear that. Keeps me motivated to share my shenanigans. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by 704sw
Thanks, Robert! I upgraded to S9 plus which takes great shots. I should really invest in a good camera but then I don't feel like dragging it along.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sockethead
Exactly, I always try to make the best of it. I was a bit disappointed how it turned out with the Blue M5 but can't win them all. Despite the accident, it's still a nice car like you can see on the pictures, interior especcially, just the question is how big was the damage to begin with but I guess we'll never know.
Thank you, Rus! I'm happy to be able to share my adventures.Quote:
Originally Posted by RUS_ZHP
Unfortunately, this is too common in Europe. People always try to manipulate the mileage and hide accidents to give more value to their car. Labor in some countries is cheap so everything is worth fixing. There's no Carfax like in the States which can at least show you the mileage consistency. Actually, that's not entirely true since Spain is one of the countries that does have Carfax but nothing showed up regarding accidents.
Bluewater M5 was something else, I've never seen anything like it. I almost wanted it because it must be one of worst M5s in the world. Would be a great track car or something :biggrin