As you will see from the picture gallery, the upgrades have in no way reduced the value of the car, as there is nothing that cannot be reversed. More than that, the mods haven’t gone overboard, with the add-ons adding to the sporty side of the car. That the reliability of the car hasn’t been compromised is icing on the cake, and this makes this particular E39 M5 one of best daily drivers you could have.

See pics of the car here.

Anyone who lovingly cares for their E39 M5s knows how much broken parts for these cars cost, although most owners are probably guilty of getting carried away at times by the performance on tap with this car. Although newer versions of the M5 have more power and can lap circuits much faster than the E39 M5, this variant has remained a favorite because of the sense of balance it imparts to the driver. Even now, with more powerful cars superseding its performance, the E39 M5 still manages to make its owners smile just by looking at it or when flooring the throttle.

While grousing about Hondas and imports in general, our guy managed to take a few shots of his E39 M5. His car looks very aggressive, and anyone who knows what an BMW M5 is knows that even a stock one can back up the aggressive stance that an owner may decide to impart to his car. One must say though that this look is not exactly conservative, looking more like a street fighter than a brawny executive sedan. But that’s the beauty of the E39 M5. A decade on, it can be as aggressive or sedate as you want it to look and it won’t look as dated as its contemporaries look now.

See E39 M5 pics here.

This artist came up with a rendering of a radical E39 M5 that just for the sake of it, was transformed into a Touring model. You have to visit the link to see the transformation. The rendering was done for a competition, with a stock E39 M5 image being the starting point for the rendering. You may not really entirely like the way the vehicle was rendered because it almost looks ricey. But the way this artist transformed the original image, and adding the rear section to make a Touring, is nothing short of amazing. For the skill and effort alone, this work deserves to be seen.

See it here. Thread on the official one is here.

The rest of the thread contains comments that would make an E39 M5 blush. GTIs are nice cars but you can see the respect these guys have for the M5. It looks like given the chance, some of these guys would give up their pocket rockets and spring for the big M5 in an instant. A particularly funny story is when one VW driver is at a stoplight with an M5 and what he calls a moron ricer. Ricer revs his engine, M5 revs back and ricer tucks his tail. The end.

More appreciative comments can be seen here.

Admittedly, the engine revs to less than 6,000 rpm, and there’s no glorious engine note whatsoever, but as a powerplant for the street, doesn’t a 400 horsepower diesel that returns 37 mpg beat a raucous V8 that seems to be best friends with gas stations along your route? And how about torque that’s available a few thousand rpms lower than the S62’s? To be sure, the S62 found in the E39 M5 would trump the M Performance diesels at the track. But isn’t the 5-series M meant to be rapid transport for the enthusiast executive? Given those parameters, the new M diesels are worthy of a serious look instead of outright dismissal.

Source for this post here.

The automatic in the 540 is also discussed, and how it supposedly can’t handle the power and torque of the S62. But as one commenter rightly points out, Dinan has a kit that successfully boosts the power of the 540 to more than 400 hp, and can be used on BMW’s automatics. While it’s going to be difficult to make an auto work with the M5, knowing that you can use a 6-speed tranny off an E39 540 is a nifty bit of information, because you can look for this component at a wrecker or parts dealer as a 540 transmission, instead of asking for an E39 M5 transmission, which would likely drive the price up.

See the discussion here.

The race starts from a rollout to 65 km/h, after which the drivers floor the throttles on their respective cars. The M5 at first jumps in front of the 3-series Bimmer, probably due to the M5’s torquey V8 and also due to the turbo lag in the 328′s setup. But when the 328 gets on boost, well, you just have to see for yourself.

This 2003 E39 M5 has been fited with Supersprint headers, a custom x-pipe and Flowmaster mufflers. Of interest is a custom rear valance with a center exit system for the exhaust pipes. It removes the telltale quad pipes that tell onlookers that what they’re looking at is no ordinary 5-series BMW. Too bad the lighting wasn’t good enough to show clearly how it looks.

The rest of this car’s setup includes Work VS-XX 20-inch wheels, Bilstein PSS9 coilovers and an Evolve-R Alpha-N tune for the ECU. There’s sure to be other stuff that also is in the car. The first part of video shows how fierce the acceleration of a well-tuned E39 M5 can be, and a decade after its introduction, shows how potent a car an E39 M5 still is.

But compared to his current M3 which is newer, the M5 is a generation old, which means that there aren’t many very good examples left. Even then, maintenance will be a pain, simply because there would be many more worn and older parts compared to the current car this BMW enthusiast has. And it’s not really practical in this climate of expensive fuel to use an E39 M5 as a daily driver. As a family car, sure, it can do double duty as a family car one weekend and a canyon carver the next. One solution to consider would be to sell the M3, get the M5 and then get a beater daily driver which would cost pennies to run and maintain. Sure, you’d be driving a crap car during workdays, but imagine the thrill and enjoyment of getting into a beast of a car to drive your stress and sorrows away.

See M3 vs. E39 M5 discussion here.