We’ve all been there: too many years of staring at the same car in the garage, and realizing the kind of progress you intended to make just isn’t happening. The seller of this desirable 1980s sleeper sedan, otherwise known as an E28 BMW M5, has owned the car for 20 years and steadily made improvements in that time. However, it sounds like there is still too much left to do and he is throwing in the proverbial towel, with a planned move outside of the United States. It sometimes takes a life-changing event to help you pull the plug on a stillborn project, so now’s a great time to pick up one of the more affordable E28 M5s on the market. Find the BMW here on craigslist for $28,000.
The E28 is BMW’s bread-and-butter 1980s 5-Series sedan, a fast-appreciating “young timer” classic that is still relatively affordable in non-Motorsports trim. The 535is, a model I owned for a few years, is a great alternative to the M5. It has the same bodykit with the front and rear spoilers, along with the super supportive sport leather seats inside. However, the standard 5-Series doesn’t have one very important feature, and that’s the incredibly S38 engine built by BMW’s motorsports division. The seller has done the important work of substantially rebuilding the M5’s engine, which is somewhat inevitable for cars with higher mileage like this one, which clocks in at just over 193,000.
The M5 features the common interior color of Natur, otherwise known as tan or saddle; most all M5s of this era had this color leather, with a scant few coming with the elusive black leather interior. The leather surfaces extended to the center console, which was a luxury feature unique to the M5, and is often in tired condition if it hasn’t been routinely treated with leather conditioner. The seller’s car looks to be in good shape, especially considering the mileage, but he does admit that a previous owner caused some excessive wear to the bolster leather. Still, that’s a minor concern, especially since the other seating areas appear to exhibit no such damage. The car has been stored indoors, so hopefully the fragile dash remains crack-free.
The car is a northern vehicle so it has some rust in the typically vulnerable areas of the jack points. The seller also blames these areas of concern on the previous owner, which makes you wonder if it was neglected to some extent when he found it those 20 years ago, likely as a much cheaper car. The seller includes a detailed description of all the engine work that has been done, and it reads like a textbook definition of how to service the desirable S38 engine. Based on this and the long list of spare parts he’s including, it sure sounds like the right guy to buy a project M5 from. The price is right and you likely won’t do much better considering how high the prices have risen on restored or well-preserved examples.
I used to drool over these cars in the 90’s but they were always just out of reach for what I was looking for a fun daily. I ended up with a 88 535i e28 which was the last year. Even in that trim leather was used on the door cards and the seat backs. Mine had 64K on it when I bought it. I replaced the factory exhaust with a performance system from Stromung and installed euro headlights and bumpers. Internet was in its infancy back then but I was fortunate to have a good friend buy the bumpers from a UK breaker when he went over to visit his family. Replaced the TRX wheels with 16” basket weave wheels. Car looked and ran like a train. Had a couple years fun until I sold it for my next project. The e28 was the peak of BMW quality. Every model that followed lost some of the old school craftsmanship from the previous series. Now I look at BMW and I say that’s nice but Meh.
When I get to drive again, this is what I want.
This was my car. It sold in August of 2022 a mere month before I left the country for the foreseeable future. It was my favorite car ever. Some notes of clarification for the writeup here: the dash was mostly free of cracks, but there was one less then two inches extending from the center vent. The previous owner had his tires done at a shop that didn’t have lifts, and they used a floor jack, lifting the wrong place, crunching the weak sheet metal and breaking the weather seal, ultimately inviting rust. The car was in non-running condition when I sold it. I had gone through almost everything, saving pulling the motor to inspect the flywheel for last. The new owner did that first and found that the alignment dowel had been machined off – something I missed in my giddy haste to reassemble – and when he spun the flywheel 180 degrees, the engine fired up for the first time since 2005. Good write-up, and sleuthing to find the ad!