1987 m5
 

How much are these worth? What's the range? The one I found has no 4th gear but otherwise a nice car.

Great rig. Pretty sure M5 was 88' only though.

$15,000 to $40,000; an 87 would be a euro car. Great cars.

If he managed to damage the transmission, there's other stuff wrong with the car.

Prices are all over the place....want a perfect one..$93,000

1988 BMW M5 Manual Sedan for sale at Enthusiast Auto

Want a decent runner...$15k
Strong Runner: 1988 BMW M5 | Bring a Trailer

There very well could be. I found it while looking for 911 parts. He has a set of new (20 year old) Mahle 2.0 911E P/Cs if anyone needs them.

This guy has 40+ vintage BMWs and 2 floors of parts. After looking at his few pieces of Porsche stuff, looked at some 3.0s and 2002s. Next to a 71 3.0 that intrigued me as a drivable restoration was the M5 which presented well, he just said it needs 4th gear and wanted $12K for it. We didn't talk about it but I'm sure with some questioning, more details would emerge.

When I last did a trans on one (around 2002) it was 6k then...parts are really rare.

If the interior was good, 10-12k is fair. Great cars, my all time fave.

The key to the discussion here is, is it an '87? If it is, as stated above it's a Euro car. Those are very desirable, better looking and came in colors other than black.

Maybe the seller is a purist and was using the year of manufacture.
Prices had been stagnet until a couple of years ago and now they're all over the place but the days of a $10k car in decent condition are gone. When my Hagerty policy came up for renewal in December, I increased the agreed value from $20k to $28k.

Obligatory gratuitous pic of my car:

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...n-2011-063.jpg

That!!

US E28 M5s are really nice cars and 1988 only. The euro cars ('85-'88) are all the US cars were but more (colors, factory headers...) and less (non-US diving board bumpers...).

edit: SoCal911T, you just made my I'm jealous list...in fact, today you are public enemy #1. :)

Reminds me of this thing sitting and rotting not too far from here. He wants $5k for it. It has a salvage title. Not sure why. It has a "hurricane evacuation zone" sticker in the windshield, maybe that has something to do with it. It's a shame how it's stored though. The car actually looks like it would clean up. No rust either.

http://i909.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps66651e39.jpg
http://i909.photobucket.com/albums/a...pse592b06c.jpg

The guy has 40+ cars so I wouldn't doubt that it could be a euro, in fact the 71 3.0CS I looked at was a euro car.

I'll find out more.

The interior was very nice BTW.

Is the car black with tan interior? All US 88's were black, most had tan interiors.

A dead give away on the Euro cars is the bumpers. Beyond that, note on the picture above, outer headlights are larger than the inners.

The bumpers would be a giveaway and if it was Euro it would have the M88 engine vs the S38 for the US market. You can tell by the valve cover, the Euro car has "M Power" on it and the US car has "BMW M Power".

the car is black/tan, I didn't look at the bumpers, don't remember the engine other than marveling at the intake. I'll call him.

I was wrong, it's an 88 US car. Can another transmission be used while this one is rebuilt?

I'd bet a standard 535i trans would work. Gearing might be different though.

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=59684

Thanks, great information.

So does anyone think I should consider this car? Any idea on a fair price? Also, it's not just 4th, it's 2nd and 4th and the owner thinks it's a shift fork problem.

Car has 155K on it, 55K on new chains.

Well it is obvious that you like pain. Now the question becomes do you like whips and chains as well?