4.6is with only 12,000 miles!

[Jungerishere]

Or the owner was in prison all this time and recently released. He drove the car hard because it is his fun car which he missed very much when in prison. He realized from sitting so long that all of the seals have failed and he decided to sell.

Originally Posted by edogg

Agreed - I'd be cautious of a car with really low mileage like that. There are only 2 likely scenarios:

1) The owner made lots of short trips and had a short commute. Cars like to be warmed up and run for a bit. Maybe the guy lives 2 miles from work and the car never gets fully warmed before he shuts it off. That's hard on an engine...

2) This was the owner's "fun" car, which sits a lot. Cars don't like to sit. And the owner ran the snot out of it having fun.

That said, if the car has been well maintained with regular fluid changes based on time rather than mileage and hasn't been "run hard and put away wet", then this could be a great find.

[THE VEIN]

Originally Posted by Jungerishere

I agree that not driving the car isn’t good for the car but how much damage it causes due to not driving the car is bit exaggerated. Ferrari owners keep their Ferraris as garage queen for most of its life so most have very low miles but they don’t have issues with all the seals failing. And I wouldn’t hesitate on purchasing F40 or Enzo with only 2k miles if I had the money. I have few cars that spends most of it life in storage and have very low miles. None of them have single leak. Car is low mileage once...

31 miles in 10 years is not really my idea of a garage queen... his son has probably driving the car back and forth in the garage or up the driveway

[edogg]

Originally Posted by Jungerishere

I agree that not driving the car isn’t good for the car but how much damage it causes due to not driving the car is bit exaggerated. Ferrari owners keep their Ferraris as garage queen for most of its life so most have very low miles but they don’t have issues with all the seals failing. And I wouldn’t hesitate on purchasing F40 or Enzo with only 2k miles if I had the money. I have few cars that spends most of it life in storage and have very low miles. None of them have single leak. Car is low mileage once...

My dad is a street rodder and only takes his rods out when it's not raining, which in Seattle is about 3 months out of the year.

He recently had some serious engine troubles in his '39 which turned out to be from the engine sitting while the car was being built and also sitting in the garage when the car was completed. Various seals had failed and there was some surface rust in the cylinder walls. He wound up needing to rebuild a Chevy 350 which had just been rebuilt a couple years prior because of it.

So now, even in the winter, he fires up all his cars to let them idle to full temperature. Then revs the engines for a little bit so that they run a little more. It's not as good as driving, but better than just plain sitting.

[x5Alpine]

haha, I know I know, but I will always have a soft spot for the 4.6is. I love the M5 to death but the 4.6is will always be a special car to me.

[jimme53]

Originally Posted by x5Alpine

haha, I know I know, but I will always have a soft spot for the 4.6is. I love the M5 to death but the 4.6is will always be a special car to me.

No one could blame you. Estoril blue X5 are gorgeous.

[sunny5280]

$24K might be too high. Despite the fact it only has 12K miles it's still a 2003. There are some things going for it but in the end it's still a 2003. I had a low mileage (35K miles) 1999 328i. When I sold it in mid-2010 it didn't command nearly the premium I thought it would. Later model years, with considerably more mileage, were selling for higher than what I ended up selling my car for. In the end low mileage is great but it's still a twelve year old vehicle.

[TiAgX5]

Originally Posted by sunny5280

$24K might be too high. Despite the fact it only has 12K miles it's still a 2003. There are some things going for it but in the end it's still a 2003. I had a low mileage (35K miles) 1999 328i. When I sold it in mid-2010 it didn't command nearly the premium I thought it would. Later model years, with considerably more mileage, were selling for higher than what I ended up selling my car for. In the end low mileage is great but it's still a twelve year old vehicle.

This is the last year of a low production number performance BMW.

I've been looking at low mile, no accident, full history, manual trans, one owner '02 & '03 E39 M5s and 540 M Sports (same low production #s as the 4.6is). The asking prices are normally over twice the high book/best condition values.

The owners/dealers with these "best condition" vehicles know the right person is willing to pay more.

[Naz24]

Originally Posted by TiAgX5

This is the last year of a low production number performance BMW.

I've been looking at low mile, no accident, full history, manual trans, one owner '02 & '03 E39 M5s and 540 M Sports (same low production #s as the 4.6is). The asking prices are normally over twice the high book/best condition values.

The owners/dealers with these "best condition" vehicles know the right person is willing to pay more.

There's a dealer out in Ohio (enthusiast auto group) that has a plethora of low mileage M cars and very rare BMWs with insanely low mileage. They are mechanics too. All the cars are super clean, but WAY overpriced.

[TiAgX5]

I actually contacted Enthusiast Auto Group about an '03 540i M Sport manual they had online last year, they were asking around double high book, turned out it was already sold.

[sunny5280]

Originally Posted by TiAgX5

This is the last year of a low production number performance BMW.

I've been looking at low mile, no accident, full history, manual trans, one owner '02 & '03 E39 M5s and 540 M Sports (same low production #s as the 4.6is). The asking prices are normally over twice the high book/best condition values.

The owners/dealers with these "best condition" vehicles know the right person is willing to pay more.

I'm not saying the command some premium. But not as much as one would think. Sure...there may be a buyer willing to pay a large premium. If so that's great for both parties.