Originally Posted by Salty B.

Today I drove it home after buying it. 2001 M54 5MT Oxford green, black leather. Cosmetics aren't great but mechanically everything has been done and it drives nice. 188Kmiles, no smoke/rattles/ticky from smooth and grunty M54. Been driving a 2014 F30 N55 6MT since new and hoooboy is this thing different, like the gearing made for a farm tractor (why am I in third @ 20mph?) but it handles much better than I expected. Two pages of replacement parts installed by seller who's a BMW lunatic.

So far, everything works. So far. Shakedown trip this weekend.

Needs a head unit with Carplay or at least bluetooth. It's got the DSP and CD changer in the back, but I don't own CDs anymore and I'm already tired of radio yapping. Suggestions? Don't care about CD/DVD compatibility. Already looked at https://www.bluebus.dev which would be OK, but the dash screen needs replacement anyway and I'd really like Carplay.

VIN starts with W which means Germany but I thought all E53s were built in Spartanburg. My F30 was built in Munich and both VINs start with WBA. Assorted VIN decoders say it was built in SC, not der vaterland.

New to this board. Hi. I'm also over on Bpost in the F30 forums.