£38,200
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Transmission:
Manual
Condition:
Good Condition
Doors:
4
Body Type:
Saloon
Body Type:
Saloon
Description
For sale is my 1987 BMW M5, number 119 of 187 UK right hand drive models ever built with 170k on the clock and full service history. Ignore the German looking plates, it is a UK DVLA registration on German looking plates I put on for a show years ago and never took off. The car is finished in diamond black metallic with cream leather interior and styled with the genuine M-Tech body-kit. I have owned the car…
For sale is my 1987 BMW M5, number 119 of 187 UK right hand drive models ever built with 170k on the clock and full service history. Ignore the German looking plates, it is a UK DVLA registration on German looking plates I put on for a show years ago and never took off. The car is finished in diamond black metallic with cream leather interior and styled with the genuine M-Tech body-kit. I have owned the car for 19 years. I bought it with the intention to keep it indefinitely, but things change and we’re moving house right next to the sea and there’s no garage so it’s time to sell, I never thought I’d see the day and it breaks my heart a little! I was brought up working on BMWs, my dad had a very well-known BMW garage in Northamptonshire (Alan Cowland Spares, later became called Almik and then I took it over for a number of years under the name BM Werks). We had looked after the car for a short while before the owner offered it for sale to me, I obviously jumped at the chance! I undertook a partial refurbishment of the car soon after this and always intended to finish the job with a ‘nut and bolt’ full refurbishment, but I never got round to it. The car runs and drives well, and pretty much everything is working on it. It does need work though to bring it up to standard, most of this is bodywork related. It wouldn’t take much to get it to a usable MOT standard, but a car like this deserves more and it would be great to find an owner who wants to strip this and refurbish it back to its former glory! This is understandably a difficult car to price. UK right-hand-drive examples rarely come up for sale, as they are among the rarest M cars BMW ever produced. I have seen good, usable cars with similar mileage sell for £50,000 and above, while concourse, low-mileage examples have reached six figures. Please read my honest and detailed description, based on a full inspection of the car and the work I believe it needs. Ultimately, though, it really needs to be seen to be fully appreciated. I have no doubt that someone will be getting a very affordable M5 here! Engine: Original, all running well, no leaks, had complete top-end rebuild by BMW specialists with new timing chain, guides, tensioners and oil pump drive chain at 108000 miles. I have kept the car serviced and recently changed oil, filter, fuel filter and sparkplugs. During my ownership I regularly started and ran the car up to temperature to keep the engine good as it has been garaged in dry storage for the last 12 years. Cosmetically , the engine could do with some new nuts/bolts/jubilee clips and a lick of paint to the covers/manifold etc, just so that it is prettier to look at when opening the bonnet. Gearbox: Original 5-speed, no issues, no leaks, clutch and slave cylinder replaced less than 1000 miles ago. Differential: Original limited slip diff, no issues, no leaks. Braking system: The brake callipers have seized before, I have freed them up for now, but they need refurbishing all round (£345 for this service with SSL Autoparts), and refitting with new discs/pads/shoes. The ABS light is on (goes out and comes back on when starting engine which suggests a sensor fault – simple fix). I also noticed the o/s/r abs ring on the driveshaft has deteriorated – in any case when stripping out and restoring the rear axle you would change these anyway. The brake hoses were all replaced with stainless steel Goodridge many years ago, including most brake pipes being replaced with copper. Suspension: There is surface corrosion on all suspension parts, so they all need a shotblast and powder coat including front crossmember, rear axle and trailing arms, struts, springs, suspension arms and rollbars. Fuel system: Fuel lines need replacing due to corrosion, but there are no leaks. I recently changed the fuel pump and filter. I have had to replace the fuel pump twice over the last couple of years (with an original Bosch of course) and replaced it again very recently as it was whining loudly and losing power at higher revs. I changed it and it fixed both problems, but it is whining again. The supply voltage is perfect, but I took out the fuel sender and noticed the fuel sock/strainer has deteriorated and needs replacing, this is obviously why the pump is wearing out so fast because it is getting contaminated in the absence of the sender pre-filter. Cooling system: The radiator, fan coupling, water pump and thermostat have all been replaced during my ownership, alongside BMW lifetime coolant 87 and deionised water to avoid any major issues whilst I was regularly running it to keep the engine sweet. Exhaust system: All original, and all good, I recently removed and refitted with new brackets, rubbers, seals and nuts/bolts jointing from the manifold onwards. Electrics: All the lights, interior lights, wipers, washers, horn, electric windows and sunroof, central locking and other electrics are working, except for the rear doors which open but don’t lock so probably just needs actuators on both rear doors. The n/s/f window is very slow too so could be the motor or a sticky mechanism or runners. All the instruments work well, but the speedo gets stuck around the 10mph mark when reducing speed down. The service indicator was also removed from the instruments a long time ago. The OBC and check system all work well, though the timer light stays on the OBC when ignition off so ideally needs replacing as will slowly drain the battery (I have 3 extra OBC units as spares so you could build 1 good one at least from these). The battery is also new. Chassis: Straight, no previous accidents, some minor corrosion here and there. The worst bit is on the front of one of the chassis rails that has some full thickness corrosion to 1 small area that needs repairs to the metalwork (see photo). Otherwise, other than some surface corrosion needing blasting off and recoating it looks pretty good to me. Shortly after purchasing the car I did a great deal of restoration to the chassis, and it all looks good in these areas still. Wheels: Original 16inch BBS rims, all straight and balanced, no major corrosion, no curbing and no issues. Obviously they would benefit from a refurb of the old paint and new tyres. Bodywork: This is the main effort the car needs to restore with numerous areas of bubbling/minor corrosion. I have 2 second hand front wings (these still need some work but appear better than those currently on the car) and a passenger front door in the same colour which I will include in the sale. The sunroof panel itself has corrosion on the underneath so needs replacing. The engine bay has several areas of surface corrosion too. The front slam panel and corner trays on each front corner are the worst bits, with spots of full thickness corrosion, as well as an area of full thickness corrosion behind the driver’s side front strut that needs repairing (see photo). The back panel also has some full thickness corrosion on each corner (see photos). As you can see, it cleans up very well but would benefit from some expense and expertise on the bodywork to restore. Interior: Original cream electric leather seats. All parts of the electric seats work except the passenger headrest up/down function. The leather on the front seats is cracked and needs restoring but the seat cushioning below feels all good. The dashboard has small splits in several places, don’t they all, and needs repair (only £300 for the leather to recover yourself though). Please note, the speedometer was replaced showing 169,787 on the clock with another unit showing 154,657 on the clock. This is all documented on an invoice – the discrepancy therefore is 15,130 miles. It now shows 154,974 which is actually therefore 170,104. Service history: The car has the original handbook, folder and service book, and has a comprehensive service history with mostly main dealer and BMW specialists, including a large paper trail of invoices. 26/10/87 – 7,226 miles – Oil service – Main dealer 27/01/88 – 13,873 miles – Inspection 1 – Main dealer 30/03/88 – 19,447 – Oil service – Main dealer 10/06/88 – 26,288 – Inspection 2 – Main dealer 12/10/88 – 34,749 – Oil service – Main dealer 09/01/89 – 42,892 – Inspection 1 – Main dealer 07/04/89 – 50,626 – Oil service – Main dealer 20/06/89 – 57,811 – Inspection 2 – Main dealer 12/09/89 – 65,685 – Oil service – Main dealer 14/02/90 – no mileage recorded – Annual check – BMW specialists 17/11/90 – no mileage recorded – Oil service – BMW specialists 02/06/1991 – no mileage recorded – Inspection 1 – BMW specialists 10/12/91 – no mileage recorded – Oil service – BMW specialists 11/07/1992 – no mileage recorded – Inspection 2 – BMW specialists 03/03/93 – no mileage recorded – Oil service and annual check – BMW specialists 21/01/1994 – no mileage recorded – Oil service – BMW specialists 27/11/1994 – no mileage recorded – Inspection 1 – BMW specialists 10/11/1996 – 108,183 – Oil service and timing/oil pump chains – BMW specialists 18/06/1997 – 112,680 – Inspection 2 – BMW specialists 11/05/1998 – 121,085 – Oil service – BMW specialists 25/03/1999 – no mileage recorded – Oil service 08/08/1999 – 129,000 – Oil service, plugs, air filter 19/04/2000 – no mileage recorded – Oil service and fuel filter 08/02/2001 – 140,300 – Oil service – BMW specialists 22/1/2002 – 144,000 – Inspection 2 – BMW specialists 10/03/2003 – no mileage recorded – Oil service – BMW specialists 11/3/2004 – no mileage recorded – Oil service– BMW specialists 01/04/05 – no mileage recorded – Oil service and plugs 26/01/07 – 168,150 – Inspection 2 – BMW specialists 20/08/2010 – 154, 692 (169,822 actual mileage) – Inspection 2 – BMW specialists (Oil and filter changed every couple of years between 2010 and 2026 during which the engine was regularly started and ran whilst in storage) 17/07/2026 – 154,973 (170,103 actual mileage) – Oil service, fuel filter, spark plugs– BMW specialist Final words: Also included in the sale are various spare parts including switches, o/s/r tail light, headlights, all glass panels except the windscreen, and an original BMW roof rack which is super retro! I have more photos available on request so please get in touch to ask. Obviously, the vehicle will need to be taken away on a trailer. Payment is to be by bank transfer only please. I would highly recommend coming to see the car in person, in fact I wouldn’t expect any less from a serious buyer. Please don’t ask me what I want for the car, or make me any silly offers, I don’t have a price in mind as it is too hard to value as it is. I have set the starting price of the auction at a very reasonable figure, and the winner of the auction gets to take away this living legend, super rare, timeless classic. Good luck!
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£38,200
Model:
M5
Body Type:
Saloon
Transmission:
Manual
Condition:
Good Condition
Year:
1987
Mileage:
170,000 miles
Fuel Type:
Petrol
Doors:
4
Body Type:
Saloon
Offer ID #24404
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