When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
This is probably not a typical forum post, but I wanted to make it anyway. If the mods remove this, so be it (I understand why haha). When I bought my beat, salvage title, 175k mile E55 for cheap about 2 years ago I was 19 years old. Everyone said it was a stupid purchase and, in hindsight, they were probably right. My parents halfway supported the decision since I was moved out at college and they wouldn't have to deal with any of it. I got the car and immediately there were a few things to fix. I quickly realized I did not want to pay a shop to do these repairs (**** myself when I got a quote for valve cover gaskets, something I thought was straight forward) so I turned to this forum for help on doing my own work. I started out with just a socket set and a tire iron, and have now amassed a somewhat embarrassingly large collection of tools. The car was great to me, always put a smile on my face, and I was punctual about maintenance so it never gave me any huge problems. The only time it ever "let me down" was when I was driving back from the grocery store one day and the car shut off at a stop light, wouldn't turn back on. Just kept cranking; pretty embarrassing as I'm sure you can imagine. Eventually it started and I made it home. Replaced the crankshaft position sensor, then it happened again. Turned out to be a burned out fuel pump relay (shout out bbirdwell). Decided during summer break I would take car of some things to do a big service. I did engine/trans mounts, trans fluid/filter, supercharger oil change, and a diff service. Cherry on top, found a great deal on a set of OEM W211 E63 wheels and threw them on. Everything was peachy, and I had it off the jack stands just in time to pick my parents up from the airport in Atlanta (they live across the country, rarely get to see them.) My first drive after this service was driving from my school in South Carolina to the Atlanta airport, and it worked flawlessly. Felt like a new car, probably due in large part to the mounts. Unfortunately, downtown Atlanta traffic reared it's head on I-85 North and I got cut off, had to slow down quickly from around 70 mph to 0 (lane next to me stopped, all other lanes travelling at normal highway speed. Someone tried to dart over into my lane from the stopped lane and were too late). The 8 piston brakes had me covered, I came to a stop without hitting them. The Ram 1500 behind me didn't have 8 piston brakes. Nobody hurt, but my baby was totaled. This was in July. Insurance was a drag and I finally got the payout from the other person's insurance about 3 weeks ago. Luckily for me, they gave me a very fair settlement for the car. So here's where the goodbye comes in: I choose a car that is similar but simultaneously very different. Throughout my ownership, I learned to enjoy fixing the car. It gave me a way to "decompress" so to speak. So I've ended up with a car that I will probably be fixing more often than my AMG. Yep, I've gone to the dark side and am now the owner of an E60 BMW M5. They've got loads of issues that are more serious than the E55 and I knew that already, but I'm loving every second of it. I've never been around any cars with more than 8 cylinders, so the V10 howl is all new to me. The SMG trans is a tough thing to learn but I'm getting better. I waited for a spec I wanted (Interlagos blue/silverstone) and pounced when I found a clean one even remotely close to me (this one was 4 hours away). This is getting really long so I'm going to wrap it up here. I want to thank all the members on this board who helped me along with my ownership and made it extremely enjoyable. I learned a lot and gained a hobby at the same time. I hope you all have many more trouble free miles with your cars and continue to be as helpful to new owners as you were to me. Enjoy these pictures of my old car, and one of the new one (even if you can't stand to look at it ) Side note, if anyone is looking for a set of OEM 211 E63 wheels with barely used Continental tires (<200 miles) shoot me a PM, I'll be listing them on the market place soon. They aren't perfect (curbed up even worse than how I got them, I have no idea how. Possibly the salvage yard), but they aren't terrible by any means. Tires are already mounted and the wheels are balanced. I'll put plenty of pictures up when I list them. Thank you for everything you guys have done for me, and goodbye for now.
Fresh wash
Visited some family up north, found some snow!
Rainy day, perfect picture opportunity
New wheels on! Sorry for the blurry picture. 26 hours before the wreck.
Waiting in the Atlanta airport cell phone parking lot. This was one of my best highway trip mpg's (I have a heavy foot). Less than one hour before the crash.
20 minutes after leaving the airport. Insurance declared total loss.
The new challenge. Interlagos blue over silverstone white leather. 06, SMG, 120k miles.
Thanks for letting us know what happened! All the best! And good luck with the BMW! They're troublesome machines! But they sure are enjoyable to drive when they work right! Awesome stereo on yours, a better steering rack (than the E55), better braking pedal feel (than the E55's brake-by-wire), and much worse reliability from the powertrain. Be safe out there!
09-30-2019, 04:03 PM
) Side note, if anyone is looking for a set of OEM 211 E63 wheels with barely used Continental tires (<200 miles) shoot me a PM, I'll be listing them on the market place soon. They aren't perfect (curbed up even worse than how I got them, I have no idea how. Possibly the salvage yard), but they aren't terrible by any means. Tires are already mounted and the wheels are balanced. I'll put plenty of pictures up when I list them. Thank you for everything you guys have done for me, and goodbye for now.
