e39 M5....also another cheap "supercar"

Keith wrote: Wasn't that the CTS having rear end problems, not the V?

As far as I know the CTS-Vs were the ones with the problem. I am not sure if the regular CTS had the same rear or not. If their are any high horsepower non-V cars they may have run into the same issues.

Check out the CTS-V section on ls1tech or cadillacforums.com if you are interested. Otherwise the car seems pretty bulletproof. People make a big deal about brake jobs being expensive and what not but if you do the work yourself you can change the front pads (Hawk) and rotors from the GM Performance catalog for under $400 if I remember correctly. Not too much for the size and braking performance. Apparently a set of Hawk should last about 4 track days.

bluevr6 wrote: Ok, a little advice Audi is within a week of 200k miles on orig 2.2 liter 20 valve turbo, clutch, trans, and rear end. I drive 50 miles round trip a day. $10k budget need 4 door full sized ish car to haul 2 kids daily Manual trans a must would like entertaining car. thoughts?

BMW 528 with sports package should fit the bill. Maxima might as well. Not too many options that are entertaining and manual :(

buddy had a cts-v.. nice car.. but had 2 transmissions and 3 rear ends to make a rear end noise go away in 30k miles.

Damn thats a fair amount of drive-line problems. I have heard of some transmission issues but most seem due to abuse rather than a problem with the transmission. It is your basic T56 unit.

Yea I highly doubt it was the transmission problem...most likely abuse from owner and no break in. Unless it was a faulty unit, but T-56 are pretty much bullet proof with a stock setup. The rear-end problem was mainly on the first two years of the CTS-V, I believe they fixed it later on.

MitchellC wrote: I'll take it in this color.

My sister in law has this car. I still remember being shocked at how fast it was the first time I drove it - with three passengers in the car, too.

OK, some dipwad backed into the S4 this evening. Gonna need a 4 door manual trans family hauler replacement.

Budget shrank to $6000.

Thoughts, suggestions, etc?

I have no idea where you're located, but how about this one? Doesn't get much more family hauler than that.

528i Touring

Shouldn't be too difficult to find a manual E39 528i around your price point, as long as you don't mind mileage in the 130-150k range. That's what I'd buy.

In these parts, $6k will get a clean 540i with manual trans and und 100k miles. That's what I would do.....

njansenv wrote: In these parts, $6k will get a clean 540i with manual trans and und 100k miles. That's what I would do.....

Where? I'm 20 minutes from you and I just seem to find the $12k ones.

bluevr6 wrote: OK, some dipwad backed into the S4 this evening. Gonna need a 4 door manual trans family hauler replacement. Budget shrank to $6000. Thoughts, suggestions, etc?

You can almost buy my 99 A4 Avant manual trans :)

www.autotrader.ca www.kijji.ca

Many 6-speed cars 97,98 in that price range in the recent past.
$12800 should get you a 2k3 with 100k miles (one in the trader now)

njansenv wrote: In these parts, $6k will get a clean 540i with manual trans and und 100k miles. That's what I would do.....

That seems awfully low - possible, but not the norm from what I've seen.

The reason I prefer the I6 over the V8 is simply that it's easier to work on, less costly both to fix and to run, and IMHO makes a lot more sense for a primary, daily-use car.

IIRC the 6cyl cars got rack and pinion while the 8's got recirculating ball.

That 528i touring with a manual transmission is pretty unusual - the vast majority of them came with automatics (as far as that goes, all 540i tourings in the US were automatics.) There was a black on black, manual transmission 528i touring with the Sport option for sale locally a while back; I should have jumped on it the minute I saw it, but I thought about it for a day and by then it was sold.

It seems pretty much the norm that older (97-99) examples of these cars won't sell at much over $9k here. Realize that our gas prices have typically been higher longer than for you Yanks. 528's and 3 series all tend to have better resale.

Don't get me wrong, ~$6k is a "low" price around here, but not uncommon. I've been looking for a while, and expect to spend $7-8k on a nice specimen with the sport/6 speed package.

I've been eyeing this one for a while.

http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-cars-BMW-1998-540i-BMW-W0QQAdIdZ78166769

Just as a data point, I paid 13,800 for my 2001 525i in Sep 2007. Manual, 98k miles, Sport Premium and Cold Weather packages, black over black. Dealer did about 800-1000 worth of pre-delivery service, so figure that into the price. Probably a little high, but I needed a car and manual I6 E39s are not easy to find, especially with the full set of packages.

I'm really considering selling one of my miatas and getting one of these. Does anyone have any real world gas mileage numbers? That is the main thing holding me back. Can I retard the timing and use 87 octane for boring daily driving use? The EPA says 14/21mpg on premium which would be a fair increase over the miata, but I'm hoping that they not actually that bad.

DirtyBird222 wrote: Yea I highly doubt it was the transmission problem...most likely abuse from owner and no break in. Unless it was a faulty unit, but T-56 are pretty much bullet proof with a stock setup. The rear-end problem was mainly on the first two years of the CTS-V, I believe they fixed it later on.

incorrect. my buddy dosen't abuse anything. won't even drive in anger at all.

Volvo S40. I had a friend that had a 2001 and its was a super nice car and had lots of get up and go.

David S. Wallens wrote: On a totally related note, a "follow-up" story on cool sport sedans is in the works. (Did one of you bug my office?)

Need anyone with a CTS-V to come and play?

I will be checking an M5 out tomorrow, if the deal is right who knows....

Speaking of cheap e39 M5's, how about this deal?

ebay M5 sold for $14k

>>On a totally related note, a "follow-up" story on cool sport sedans is in the works. (Did one of you bug my office?)

IMO the perfect sports sedan is the 97-98 E36 M3/4/5. rated 20/29 mpg. Lots of usable space. 3100 lbs. Easiest and cheapest M to repair/restore since most of the parts are off-the-rack parts bin pieces (I just replaced a transmission for $300 since they are all interchange). Lots of aftermarket support. Nible, responsive, fast , awsome brakes, and now inexpensive at $6k.

What about a 2000/2001 Audi A6 2.7T? It has the same twin turbo V6 drivetrain out of the S4s. You can find those with 6 speeds. You could probably find one around $8500 or so. Add some RS4 parts and you'll have yourself a full sized super car. Just a thought. (Or just a $600 chip will get it near the 320 hp range)