Family of Five
Silver linings and all that. For me the handy upside of the Covid cloud has been a fivefold reduction in my 25k-per-annum commute, meaning I could finally justify (mainly to my wife) running something a bit fruitier than a diesel Gm-era Saab. Previously a serial threedoor BMW owner, I’d harboured an unfulfilled desire for the E39 5 Series since they were new. With values bottomed and classicdom imminent, the timing felt right.
Except the market had other ideas. I didn’t think my requisites were particularly fussy – 530i, manual ’box, Sport guise, good history, and without moon mileage – yet despite having alerts set up on every selling platform, the pings just weren’t pinging. Early 2000s buyers clearly weren’t keen on speccing mildly dynamic six-cylinder Fives; or perhaps 2010s owners weren’t as good at looking after them.
In any case, a ping did finally ping – incidentally for one I’d been beaten to in 2019 by the owner now selling it – a facelift model with 107,900 miles, a nice chunky history file, and some tasteful (if reversible) upgrades. Topaz Blue isn’t my favourite E39 hue and it wore some blemishes, the worst of which was a dent in the bootlid, but it otherwise ticked my boxes. So a deal was struck with the Saab handily going in the opposite direction, and HV51 XLA was brought home to the family to join our ‘daily’ hatchback as a ‘weekly’ counterpart to be used on longer journeys.
A mid-week day off to look after already petrolheaded 21-month-old son Dylan seemed a perfect excuse to take such a trip. We set off on a cross-county mission to Caffeine & Machine in Stratford-uponavon, the relatively quiet route allowing me to give the car’s E60-sourced short-shifter a workout, and Dylan chance to echo the ‘Rummm’ of the creamy M54 six-cylinder from the back seat. An enjoyable day out (as all trips to C&M are), it also provided chance to start sketching out a to-do list of jobs I’ll look to complete during the long-term ownership I have planned for the car. The majority are minor, non-urgent and largely visual – such as the cloudy headlight lenses Dylan was keen to point out – with the only pressing nuisances being non-functional cruise control and the drive-by-wire throttle becoming unresponsive during braking, hampering any heel-and-toe action.
Some online investigation led me to suspect the MAF sensor – lo and behold, a quick check under the bonnet revealed it to be unplugged. My immediate assumption was that the previous owner had unscrupulously disconnected it to hide an expired component. Yet reconnecting it not only saw no check-engine ECU warning thrown (even after the few hundred miles I’ve done since), but also the return of my cruise control and ability to heel-toe, plus the added bonus of an extra 3mpg.
A good early win then. Let’s hope they keep coming as I work my way through that to-do list and add another few hundred shakedown miles. Rummm...