Hagerty Article - An '03 530i is the best daily driver

[effduration]

Happy to see this. Rob Siegel (BMW CCA Roundel's Hack Mechanic) nearly swore off the E39 after a rough ownership experience with a '99 528iT. He saw the light and tried again with an '03 530i and loves it.

https://www.hagerty.com/articles-vid...t-daily-driver

[JimLev]

Usually Rob buys elcheapo s-boxes. I've met him 3-4 times, usually at the Museum of Transportation in Brookline, or at the dealer. Nice guy.

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I thought this was his "best" car.
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[Qsilver7]

Good read!

[StephenVA]

Thanks for posting.

As always he is in it for low cost ownership in a frozen waste land to drive year round. At 180K it was cheap enough to do just that. Glad he has join all of us in our love of all things E39 instead of those rust bucket 2002 that is a constant conversation within BMWCCA.

[blackknight530i]

Too bad Hagerty wouldn't insure my 03 530i, even though it's now a 03 M5.

[JimLev]

Too bad Hagerty wouldn't insure my 03 530i, even though it's now a 03 M5.

I spoke to Hagerty about insuring my '33. Can only drive it to club/car show stuff, etc and less than 3K miles a year.
No daily running around.
They want more than I'm paying AAA for my 540 that I have no restrictions on.

[jp5Touring]

Talked to him this summer at The Vintage and Octoberfest. Good guy,great writer. I have most his books.
If you like older classic BMW stuff his books are great.

[sleuth255]

That article perfectly describes the car. It's the most awesome daily driver I've ever had for the last 15 years. My cooling system is original also.

[dannyzabolotny]

The author made a wise choice going with the 5-speed manual, as the 5HP19 automatics can be quite troublesome in the 6-cylinder E39's, especially as the miles get higher.

[Aubergine]

I had a great talk with Rob at The Vintage this year. His experiences with Louie inspired my own E39 cross country journey and we commiserated about E39 cooling system woes. Great to have him in the BMW CCA and posting about our now vintage E39s.

[sleuth255]

lol... vintage E39s. I must be getting older... I will say this however: its a different group of people who say "nice car!" at the car wash now vs. when it was new...

[e39hamann]

Rob's an entertaining guy for sure, he was the guest speaker at the Delaware Valley BMW CCA banquet earlier this year and has some awesome stories.

[balidawg]

The author made a wise choice going with the 5-speed manual, as the 5HP19 automatics can be quite troublesome in the 6-cylinder E39's, especially as the miles get higher.

Agree that the ZF trans is less reliable than the GM trans, but I much prefer the responsiveness of the ZF over the GM in both the E39 and E46. Also regular full ATF exchanges really help preserve those slushboxes.

[geargrinder]

Odd that his '99 M52TU car was such a terrible POS. Although. Not sure how much of a POS it was really... He complains about the air bags going flat... that's a couple hours job, max, and you barely have to get under the car for it. Funny to see a guy who will roll with a long list of massive problems in a 2002 or an E9 as no big deal complain about a relatively short list of problems on a newer car... Oh, what, the CCV went bad in cold weather on an M5x motor? You don't say. Who woulda guessed.

He also has an error in calling the 530i "Polaris"... typical vintage-dude using the wrong color codes... Obv that car is gonna show up as TiAg on the build sheet.

Glad he likes it, but of course I'm sure he'll sell it and be on to something else soon enough. That's his style, and its a miracle (and maybe a testament) that he's still got this thing after 3 years...