What are the odds? The five-series has become sort of my hobbyhorse here at CC, but really, statistically, when tomorrow morning you open your front door to drive your 24 year old Toyota to the station to pick up your sister-in-law, what are the odds of an E34/5S, an M5 touring parked right in front of your house? I have been spotting cars for 27 years and counting. This is my first E34 touring. 1 of 891 produced. It made me wish I had played the lottery that week.
Of course I remained skeptical at first. Could have been just the E34/5S wheels bolted to a regular E34 wagon. Could have been just the rear fender of an M5. Could have been just the six speed manual from an 540i. But then I looked at the speedometer. It indicated 300 kph. And at the tach, which indicated a 6800 rpm redline. And really, who is going to bother to put all these items in place, to create a fake M5 touring? It is still a possibility, but the chance is slim.
What strikes me the most about this example is the poor cosmetic condition on the outside. Sure, if you are the guy who parks his M5 touring in a street like mine where the average car is worth like 3000 bucks, a place where you don’t even bother counting the number of new dents after parking your car… This is what makes this car even rarer than it is already.
This is not a concourse M5 touring, not even a climatized garaged example. No, the owner of this car even had a note in his window, advising the reader to call his cell before calling a tow truck. The note was all bleached out from the sun. He takes his horse out to town. This guy does what an M5 is made for. Drive it. And I love it.
One of my favorite 5-Series, sadly Canada never got E34 ///M5 Evo (3.6), just the original 3.4.
BMW Speed Wagon. Great find Hannes!
Thanks Johannes!
Maybe the wagon I want most of all. The E34 is possibly the best looking BMW, it’s so timeless. It’s just so downplayed, that is particularly cool on an M5.
Agreed. The E34 is peak BMW. No surprises as the guy that designed the NSU Ro80 was involved
My fave new wagon shape. A question; years ago I heard or read that BMW used the wider kidney grilles on the V8 models. Correct?
They did on the NZ-new E34s Don, so maybe in Australia too. Don’t know about the rest of the world though.
Thanks Scott. I’ve seen its use on the E32 7-series as well. Much, much, much prefer the narrower kidneys.
True for Europe as well. That’s the easy way to tell an I6 530 or 730 from a V8 ditto.
Yes, BMW introduced the wider kidney grille to denote the new V8 motors in 1992 and to differentiate the 530i and 540i from their plebeian four and six cylinder motors.
For the 1994 update, the wider kidney grille replaced the narrow kidney grille. The change is to reflect the new design language of stretching the kidney grilles to the headlamps, starting with E36 3-Series.
Mercedes-Benz used the same trick of fitting the larger round headlamps for four-cylinder motors and rectangular headlamps for six-cylinder version. For 1982, Mercedes-Benz consolidated to rectangular headlamps regardless of cylinder numbers.
These BMW wagons were pretty sleek and sporty looking. I grew up with wagons and always found the long roof to be quite attractive. I would have loved to have a big Buick or Mercury Colony Park model but my Wife really dislikes them. So no wagons for me. You’ve got to pick your battles. I went with old Cadillacs and Rivieras. So maybe I won anyway.
However a couple of years ago I bought a ’97 Explorer for my daughter to haul stuff with. Just your standard rear wheel drive, four door SUV, with the 5,0 liter V8. I love driving it as it’s so useful and easier to load and drive than my truck. That V8 sounds so good. I guess that I DID get my wagon. I just won’t call it that in front of my Wife!
Interesting model and as Bimmer said we didn’t get them out here. In fact, its very difficult to find a 5 Series wagon in western Canada. When our 530i was written off I came across a similar year 540i (?) wagon but the owner wanted way too much money. Too bad, similar colour to our sedan including interior trim.
Its been over 8 years since my last trip to Germany. Lots of interesting cars in that country.
I owned one of these 10 years ago. A 1992 Avusblue with white/silver leather and 140k miles. Had it for a couple of years, but only put 10000 miles on it. Pretty quick car with nice styling and exhaust-sound.
I like E34, but the M5 Touring does often have electric gremlins, wooly steering, a little bit too Heavy and it uses a lot of gas and oil.
Nowadays they are way overprized. I sold mine for 12k $ 10 years ago…