Work, Wine and Wheels

I bought a 2001 530 back in September. BMW made the E39 5 Series from 1997 through 2003. It is a fantastic mix of comfort and performance, and in the opinion of many the last “classic” body style before the 5 Series design went in a very different, modernistic direction. Here’s how Edmunds described the car in 2001 when it named the 530 the “Best Midsize Sedan Over $30,000:” “Can the company that creates ultimate driving machines offer supreme luxury and a compliant ride while creating a vehicle that goes, stops and turns with the best sporting sedans on the market? The answer is yes.” http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/mostwanted/2001/60914/article.html

I took my time, since demand is strong for well kept E39s and I wanted a manual transmission, which is much scarcer than automatic. Also wanted the sports package, which came with enhanced suspension, tires and a few other goodies.

My car had low miles but the previous owner was not a car guy, some things had been neglected. Dings, no fluids had been changed except oil, rims all curbed up and never cleaned, that sort of thing. I’ve been bringing the car back up to code as time and budget allows.

Latest project was new rims and tires. The car has the original rubber on it when I bought, so first thing I did was have the rims reconditioned to make presentable. It worked well, but they were never coming all the way back. So I put snow tires on them to get through winter. (Of course, after I did so DC had a very mild one with almost no snow).

For the past two months I’ve been looking forward to putting new rims and performance tires back on the car. The options out there are almost endless, and it took me a while to decide on which way to go. It’s like a lot of things these days — it’s easy to go way overboard. This car is for street use only so I was looking for a good price to quality balance. No need for $250 tires and forged rims that can easily run $800-900 per.

I eventually decided to go with 18 inch Monet New Age rims with Sumitomo HTR Z III tires, 245×40 all around. These tires got a great review from Tirerack and are priced well below comparable summer tires:http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=93

It took me a while to find a rim I liked for the car. I wanted something a little different but not too out there, from a company that had been around a while. Monet has a wide variety, including a replica that looked almost identical to my stock wheels, which I like a lot. I decided to go with what they call the New Age rim:

It’s already been a new age of handling with the snows off the car. Now I’m set on this front until around Thanksgiving. But the project continues…

This month my M3 turns nine. She was built in April 1999, one of the last E36 M3s (BMW speak for the 3 series body style from 1992-1999) ever built. The design of the M3 version goes back to 1994, yet she’s still more fun to drive than 99% of the cars out there today. Only 39K miles, and I’ve done some tasteful mods that make her even better today than day one.

Today it’s all about horsepower — heck even the new Honda Civic (!!) can be had with 268 HP. The E36 M3 is much more about the entire package — handling, acceleration, feeling connected to the road. It came with 240 HP standard, so it wasn’t all about power. I’ve done a few things to goose that number a bit — software download, cold air intake and Dinan exhaust — but those add maybe 20 HP max.

Unless you’re buying only for the brand, part of the fun of owning a BMW is getting hip to some seriously arcane info. For example — in the 1990’s BMW made two versions of M3’s, one for the United States and one for the rest of the world. The non-US version had a different motor that produced more HP, as well as a few other variations like clear white lenses, elliptical headlights and floating brake rotors. (those differences can be easily addressed after-market) But the Euro version produced many of those additional horses very high in the RPM range, because it was designed for the autobahn. The US version has much better low end torque and acceleration, reflecting how Americans drive.

Still, this gives some people reason to criticize the US version, even — I’m ashamed to say — some who own them. This I’ve never understood — if you don’t love the car, if you’d rather drive something different, sell it to someone else!

Am I biased as hell on this issue — you bet! But I’ll close with two respected third parties. Edmunds.com called the 1999 (of course!) M3 the best sports coupe under $55,000. I especially like this line — “If you’ve got a pulse and even an ounce of automotive enthusiasm, you’ll know what we’re talking about:”

http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/mostwanted/1999/60991/article.html

And here’s Bimmer Magazine’s take from the June 2005 issue — text not available 0nline:

“Some enthusiasts will always criticize the North American E36 M3 for lacking the more exotic and powerful Euro-spec engine, but that is simply nonsense. While there is certainly a noticeable difference in power once you rev both engines past their power peaks (particularly the 321 HP model), the 240 HP M3 is torquier at the bottom end, smoother at the top end and requires less regular maintenance. This makes it a sublime daily driver that gives up little in comfort or civility to a 325i or 328i, yet provides many more thrills on a twisty canyon road or racetrack.”

Not too much news on the car front lately. And that’s not a bad thing — when you own two BMWs long out of warranty, no news is good news. There’s no escaping the fact that these cars require preventative maintenance, an alien concept to many drivers today who have no interest in owning a car for longer than two or three years. 

Unfortunately the previous owner of the 2001 530 was not a car guy at all, and while the mileage was low and I think the car was driven lightly it was also neglected in some ways. I had all the fluids changed soon after purchase, and new alternator and battery. Couple of weeks ago the car failed the VA state inspection due to thin front brake pads. Naturally my first reaction was irritation — c’mon man just extort the recently jacked up fee and give me my new sticker! — but then I thought the pads were no doubt original so properly were thin. And I hated how dusty the OEM pads were anyway, the wheels got dirty after a single day of driving.

So I went with PBX Deluxe pads. Excellent all around and very little brake dust. With a deadline of two weeks to reinspect and being really busy at work, I had Gary at Martin Motorsports put them on. But I’ve got my spring project lined up — I’m going to tackle the rears pads myself. We’ll see how that goes in a couple of months.

Paul Valliere, a guy I know solely through an Internet forum dedicated to M3 owners, just had a feature story done on his car by Bimmer Magazine. He has one of only 45 Euro version E36 M3’s imported into Canada in late 1994, and from the look of the pics it still doesn’t have a blemish.

Cool example of intersecting print and online communities, all the details here 

In September of last year I bought a 2001 530, in good shape but in need of some TLC. The previous owner was a nice guy but not a car guy, so little upkeep and no preventative work had been done. I had a pre-purchase inspection done that found nothing major, the car only had 48K miles and I knew it had been driven lightly. So I pulled the trigger, and after some cosmetic work like getting rid of some dings and reconditioning the wheels she was looking good: 

One of the least fun things about owning a used BMW is when they flash the “check engine soon” code. You don’t know what the problem is, and dealers charge you (of course) just to tell you the issue, never mind fix it. That’s why a good indie mechanic is vital for the non-wealthy BMW owner. I’ve had a couple of good ones, and currently mine is Gary Martin of Martin Motorsports.

I had already brought the car into Gary a couple of months ago for a total fluid change — brake, transmission, differential and oil. He read the code as a misfire, brought on by too much ethanol in 93 octane fuel. For reasons hard for this new blogger to follow, ethanol percentage is higher in 93 fuel than 89, and the extra alcohol causes tiny misfires in the cylinders. One tank of 89 later, no light! If only all car stories ended like this…