Doug - you were right! Just last week I watched and e39 M5 with 4k miles sell at auction for $125k! I, however, am waiting for delivery of my 2001 M5 that I got for $25k! It may have 190k miles but it's been cared for obsessively and the perfect daily driver for me. Can't wait to get it!
Cmon Dougie, you were a bit harsh on the e46 M3. That coupe is an absolute classic and a real 'M' car especially in CSL guise. It's certainly on my list ahead of the e39.
Both are one of the best BMWs ever made, but the E39 is just better imo. Better for a daily while still being able to hang onto the M3 on a track, way better looks, better reliability, more luxurious.
@@momoloco99rh why would u say that the E30 was the best? Can we stop being ifluenced by purism and stuff, a car its not necesarilly the best just cuz its the first one, the E30 was made with really bad materials and handling
@@TrazimDollare1982 forreal. i get flak for driving an 01 z3 3.0i from my friends who dont know cars very well. $2500 for a 225hp relatively simple motor in a well made roadster that cost about 10% of what a new civic runs is a pretty good deal. especially if you do basic maintenance yourself. granted, new cars come with warranties but you end up paying a 'much-worse-than-oem-bmw-parts' premium usually if you factor in depreciation.
Connor Westerfield Haha good one. I am I E46 M 3 owner and as much as I believe in turn signal us there I just no reason to use and sometimes because the car is so freaking quick in traffic. I called the point and shoot method whenever you see an opening you disappoint the car downshift and shoot it over to the opening. And much like the transporter in Star Trek, you have changed places.
The e39 540i was everything I ever wanted in a car: clean styling, right amount of power, six speed, great handling while being a great cruiser, wonderful seats, excellent sound system, etc, etc ad nausea. I could go on and on. That experience is impossible to replicate in a new Bimmer. It's why I'll never get another except for that same model.
I’ve got an e38 740i and feel the same way. Though some days I want an m5, I’ve got an e46 m3 already but I feel like the m5 has to be the best of both...:and I need that
They all look like BMW to me. I don't care if a brand changes their look. Thinking about it the E46 was a HUGE change from the E30 but people love both. The E92 generation is when it started changing a lot but they still look like BMW. Hell, the new 2 series looks like what a modern BMW should be in my opinion.
Hahahha so true, ya know whenever I use the turn signal in an e39 (I actually do on occasion) I think, damn this is a really fucking nice turn signal and it's a shame how little most owners probably use it. Great spring tension, a nice positive detent, and no annoying plastic click when it disengages.
@Doug Demuro you could do a video about proper driving, kind of like in that one recent video where you pointed out the slow driving car in the far left lane on the highway. Add turn signals (especially when police cars don't use them), proper use of bright head lights, following distance, entering highways at proper speed, overuse of brakes/brake lights, variable speed on long drives due to not using cruise control, semi trucks not staying in right lane when signs tell them to, semi trucks in passing lane up a hill.
Anthony Curanaj one thing the greek economical crisis is good for...car prices are low af..there's a ton of 2000-2008 bmw's (pre crisis) so they're not rear...M3 E46 go for 12-16k
Sold my 05 M3 6 speed with 108K miles for $19,500. Had it on the market for 6 days only. The guy didnt even haggle just payed cash. I probably could have got more...
I flew across the country to buy a '06 with competition package (interlagos blue as well) and 63k miles for $16500. I paid 2 grands to have it shipped to my door by truck. The prev' owner was the 2nd owner and was an older man in his late 60s. It had a bunch of dents and no service history but I paid cash without protesting in any way.
Just bought a 2011 comp pack M3 alpine white, paid 24k with only 50k miles. Perks of working at a dealership and getting cars at wholesale price. My GM also has a Laguna seca blue e46 6-speed he sold for 10k before their value went up. I’m glad I was able to buy my first M car which also happened to be my favorite.
Tehgziz Lauw I've rarely seen a BMW i8 driver using his/her blinkers. It's the other way around, a BMW 1 to 3-Series is relatively affordable and driven by "normal" people who don't think they're superior.
E39 styling and interior is the best BMW has ever conceived in my opinion. It has aged more gracefully than pretty much any mass production car I can think of.
Fair enough to each their own of course. I think the rear is nicely understated, but the sides and front are absolutely ideal in terms of proportions, so what it lacks in styling details actually plays to it's advantage as the car ages. When I was younger the e46 m3 was the dream, but the older I've gotten, the more my tastes have shifted to the e39 and I suspect that trend will continue.
I am a huge fan of beamers myself but..... E28's turn so many heads because many non car people think it looks muscly yet not ridiculous, and OC car people understand the draw. also the Rx-7 FD IMO has aged better than pretty much everything.
I agree, I think the E36, E39 and E46 have aged better than any other equivalent car of the same year in terms of styling. I had an E46 right up until last year and if BMWs weren't so ridiculously expensive in North America i'd probably get another one, in fact if I had to live with one car for the rest of my life it'd probably be an E46.
e46 looks pretty outdated imo. Just look at the interior and the body lines, its pretty boxy rather than have curves.. the e92 m3 held its looks over the past decade.
A buddy of mine bought a 25k mile E39 M5 for less then $26k 15 months ago from a Porsche dealer. I think the only people wanting prices to go up are used specialty car dealers so they can line their pockets with huge amounts of cash.
I sold my mint E39 540i couple years back for $14k when standard mileage cars were going for $8k. At the time I was seeing nice M5's in low 20's so definitely surprised to see them going up this much. After owning the car though I get it somewhat, its a quintessential car and if you never got to drive one before I can see paying a lot for the experience. I'm trying to picture the profile of someone willing to pay $100k for one however and I don't see it.
DIY Dan I don't see it either. I get it, they're the last of the true BMW analog driving experience, but I don't see anyone dropping the hammer at over 100k to get that experience. But then on second thought I think back to the air cooled Porsche 993s....
I think any "performance" car/sports car will shoot up. Car markets are ridiculous, you can get a early 90's MX5 for the same price as a 986 Boxster S, madness
Bob Spitt 5k for a decent NA is still quite a lot compared to a few years ago. Even a pristine NA in a rare color or something like that go up to 8-10k! Stupid high prices for a 20 plus year old little sports car.
Although the Boxster is a fantastic car to drive (probably better than an Miata), repair cost is way far off Miatas. This is another reason they could be appreciating.
I own an e46 m3 and everyone in the back of their mind wants a chick magnet but girls only see a black 2 door bmw with nice rims they basically don't care but guys at the meets are super stoked to see my m3 disappointingly it's a dick magnet but I still love my e46 M3
Mario man you got that right it's amazing the attention you get when you're driving around in the nice BMW with shiny wheels and your lower it. Chicks are all like I fucking you and shit where is if you run up in the in a Nissan or a Toyota they won't give you the time of day. Unless it's maybe a Skyline GTR or a Supra
Almost any BMW is a chick magnet but they don't know the difference between a 3 or 5 series, that's the reality. Stop hanging around car meets , that's not where girls are at lol.
hurricane IRMA about to blow my e28 m5 away.. fuck nah, daddy Doug said they are going up in value, I'm pulling this bitch inside my house. "move out the fucking way honey"
I just bought an old 2001 325i 2.5L straight 6, which is a totally different car, but it made me feel good about it. Its also my first car, is in fantastic condition, and was only $750. The only issue with the car was that the hood wouldn't open and the car would only run for a few seconds. Opened it in 3 minutes, got it running for $30, and got a hell of a steal.
Nice man, first car was an old 1litre Ford Fiesta that I had 2 years, now had a 320i 2004 e46 straight 6 for nearly 3 years and its such a nice drive, rapid compared to the fiesta haha, only cost £2000 too with 130k miles full service history, definitely want to upgrade to e46 m3 when I save up enough :D
Mattydub313 haha I bet, I actually just got a e92 335i last Saturday but already have problems😩 had limp mode 5-6 times until Tuesday when I had dsc failure twice within 5 minutes on 2 roundabouts, lost all power!! Restarted engine and got it home alright, taking it back to the garage Saturday as I have warranty on it, such a pain in the arse tho! Only had it 3 days before problems lol, not driven it since
GRat9717 Haha. The car analogy works out SO well. Do you want the Camry that is boring, plain, but utterly reliable and faithful? Or do you want the exotic that'll eat you up in maintenance and temperament, but will absolutely make your head spin when you take it out? That's where we need the "M car" of girls. A nice blend of both.
Oh yeah, I still love my e46 M3 even after 10 years. It's so fun and nimble compared to modern cars. The design is timeless. It gets more compliments now days than the first year I bought it.
I agree 100% that older bmw's are so much more simple and they look classic. My daily is the 2004 X5 and I have test drove the newer one, it took at least 5min of figuring the stupid screen to set the entertainment system going to how I wanted it. Also if anything happens the newer bmw has to many sensors that can brake later
The M5 bias with Doug is way too strong on this video. Some of the points made favoring the M5 over the M3 are very personal rather than having true substance to back them up.
I am so biased to the E46 M3 it's not even funny. Raved about it nonstop when they first came out. Doesn't help I own one now, heavily modded & slammed, in black (and blacked out). Not a ricer though, like Doug stereotypes (although rightly so, as I do recall seeing a lot of these modded to hell in all the wrong ways). The E46 M3, if properly modded (doesn't have to be super crazy, I have afe intake + SS catback + full suspension refresh w/ poly & performance parts), is still king in my book for BMW. Incredible power delivery & insane throttle response from that amazing S54 (no turbo lag!).. when you slam these with the right tires/wheels, camber/toe adjust, & the carbon fiber lip on the front, tail on the back, looks absolutely ridiculous. Sickness. Better than the newer BMWs imo by a longshot, extremely aggressive stance!
You're not wrong, but...! If you want to buy something brand-new and today, the M5 is harder to substitute. 4-door, V8, manual trans, compact(ish) size. The current market doesn't really have it. Chevrolet SS, that's it, and they are cancelling that car unfortunately. The M3, tho, is a 2-door sportscar and easier to approximate in today's market. Come to think of it, I don't know exactly what to compare the e39 M5 to except the SS/G8 combo. Full disclosure, I own an e39 M5, and I didn't cross shop anything else.
@@justingallagher4864 God, I absolutely ADORE the e39 M5. It is such a beautiful and timeless design both front AND rear. I currently have an e92 335i. Would love to own an e39 one day. Don't get me wrong I love the e46 as well. But something about this generations M5 just speaks to me on a different level. Regardless, this was such a golden era of BMW design.
Jason B I bet the analytics would be very interesting. We obviously wouldn't be the first to look at them. Obviously the dealers that are throwing loaners at him have already done some of that work. So graph Doug's videos on a timline with car prices/sales and I bet there are peaks each time. Maybe not for the F-650 though.
Mike Arredondo Yeah the same dude who lost money on the sell of his 918, huayra, 675lt mso(the car isn't sold at this point but he will lose money when it gets sold), 911 gt3rs 4.0 and so on...
My E39 M5 was awesome. Definitely the ultimate driving machine. But ~$0.60 / mile to own was pretty steep, and that was after a rising resale value. I highly suggest getting to experience one for at least a little while.
I loved my E39 M5, my biggest regret was selling it, I now have an M3 because it’s similar in size to my E39 and obviously more modern but to be honest i would have the M5 back any day, it’s a much better car!
My uncle has a beautiful M5 from the mid 90s and he kept it in pristine condition. It has less than 40k miles. During the winter it sits idle, but he is always careful to stabilize the fuel, check oil levels and the like. He has never had any major problem with it, and rarely took it to the shop. But this year he brought it to a dealership and told them to do a full diagnostic and fix any problems with it. It was running fine, he was just doing it as a precaution. When he got it back, the report sheet was 15 pages long and cost him $10,000.
CocoPlayer None of the problems were major, it was all tiny things. He has a lake house where he keeps it, and he only stays there for a few months a year. He uses it to get groceries, which is about 20 miles from the house, so when he does drive it he drives it a good amount, just never more than a thousand or two a year
Never ..never take any German care back to a dealer. A buddy took his Merc 320CE 124 series to an auth dealer. Result a £7000 shit list!. He sold the car.
I wouldn't worry about it. Only the super pristine low mileage examples will go up in value. You can still easily find both cars for under $15k with some more miles on them. Contrary to what people think, they don't explode at 100k miles.
The only reason the prices of this 2 cars are going up is because speculating dealers like enthusiast auto group, and the one Doug is promoting are buying every clean lower mileage for 20k and selling it for 50/60k!! and Doug seems to be on the payroll hyping the clean examples a lot. Go on cargurus and you can find countless versions in the low teens with low 100k miles. If you want to invest, get an e60 V10 M5 manual, and sit on it 5 years and see...
I'm pretty sure if you keep it long enough and not too high of mileage, you'll be sitting on gold. Any major issues with your car? I'm hoping to find a manual for a good price.
Yeah maybe. 77777k miles hit yesterday. Major issues would be the 'throttle actuators' which failed a year ago. Bearing change is pretty much a must. (still need to do it) You can find a manual around 20k to 30+. GL
Shut up Doug. I don't want to have to pay 45k for a clean blue on gray 6 speed e46 M3 because the market is cleaned out by garage queen hoarders. Shhhh still saving lol
FloridaRacingChannel the E36 M3 was released with The S50B30 with 282 hp, the LCI was stuffed with the S52B32 with 321 hp, those were real M motors, the NA version were sold with a modified M50/M52 names S50B30US/S52B32US accordingly with only 240 hp, the NA version barely made more power than the 328i which made 190 hp,
I'm just going to point out that these price points are a bit high, but that's mostly because it's coming from a dealership that specializes in vehicles like these. They're also probably more expensive in certain areas. I bought a pristine carbon black 05 m3 a month ago for 17k in the Seattle area.
Tool0GT92 Because it is the truth. I daily my E46 M3 and only had regular Maintenace issues. My first car was a Honda Accord and went through 2 transmissions and an engine with that. This has been the most reliable car I have ever owned.
Definitely agree with you on styling. I honestly think that both the E46 and E39 are some of the most beautiful cars out there and even make some of today's cars look dated when next to them.
still think the E60 is a much prettier, as well as modern looking car, and the V10 just adds to it, even if you have to accept some more electronics but the successors since are neither attractive to look nor true to their roots
The E39 is, in my humble opinion, the best looking car that BMW ever made. It's incredibly handsome, has no garish look-at -me vents/scoops/wing, and a perfectly laid out interior. The Bangle era came afterwards, which meant the styling went into the toilet and never recovered. During that time i switched to Audi and never looked back.
Yup, I've loved the E39 styling forever. Bought a 2002 e39 touring with the sport pack about 3 years ago and haven't looked back. Best looking wagon ever made in my opinion. Shame they never did an M5 touring cause I'd have one already haha.
I’ve driven both... I’d take the M5 all day. E46 is definitely a rough ride and if you’re over 6’2 you need to buy a slicktop to fit in it comfortably, and a slicktop 6spd E46 wont be cheap...let alone finding one. M5 ONLY came in stick, tall guys fit comfortably (im 6’4), the torque is ridiculous and car feels overall faster, all the amenities (alcantara headliner, leather everywhere etc) and it sounds so much better IMO.
I swear Doug's opinions on certain things contradict themselves from video to video. 5 videos ago he was in awe at how "simple" a single-dial climate control was. And now he's calling the 10+ buttons for the M5's climate control "simple and easy".
Why on earth would anyone want to be in such an old plebian car? The only people who like E39's are the broke bastards buying them off craigslist for 15k who cant afford a modern and much better BMW.
His videos are watched alot. It's just not the type of channel that gets people to sub. New videos will show up under recommended anyway if you ever watched one.
@Loke Carlsson He is a well respected auto journalist, his audience reaches far from regular youtube users who have accounts and subscribe to others, many people will watch this embedded elsewhere or may just watch and not subscribe or not have an account.
Completely agree with you when you said “This is from a time when luxury didn’t necessarily mean technology, but meant solid and crafted”. I wish we would get back to that. Nothing like owning a car where every time you sit in it, and shut the door you get that SO satisfying feeling of CRAFTSMANSHIP.
Just feel the need to mention that I feel like you underscored the M3 relative to the M5. Maybe scoring two cars at once isn't a good idea? It just doesn't make sense to me that the M5 would be a better weekend car than the M3, no matter how many coolness points you dock from the M3 for the modder culture surrounding it. ~shrugs~
I couldn’t agree more, you made so many good points. I really fear for the future of cars. Modern cars are becoming all about luxury and flashiness and tech while manuals are becoming extinct. Things are going down hill...I miss the good old days.
Ybok because you lack foresight. These cars might be old, but you can actually MAKE money off of owning them. And even if they don't shoot up in value, they won't depreciate nearly as much as any new BMW you can buy today. New isn't always better
The only reason why those cars could be so pristine sounds more as though the original owners were filthy rich and simply had them resting in the garage... As opposed to the majority of us who would've had 250k+ on those cars because.. Those are the ONLY cars we had, ONE car. Not a stockade of them.
I have a 2004 e46 M3 convertible. Everything is stock, and it has approx. 55,000 miles now. I hope it gains that kind of value because the Kelly bbv seems to be closer to $15,000 currently.
