10k: Black Beauty: 1988 BMW M5 E28
The BMW M5 was released to the public in 1988 and performed like a sports car, not just in straight-line speed, but also in the curves, and was legitimately the world’s first 4-door sports car. The guys who put together fantastic short films over at Petrolicious recently released a video about an original owner 1988 BMW M5 and it is worth the watch. Now that your E28 M5 appetite is whetted, consider picking up this 1988 BMW M5 for $8,500 in Hagerstown, MD.
In the US the E28 M5 was only offered for one year and only offered in one color, jet black. It came the way you see here and the only consumer selectable option was heated seats. Everything else: the central locks, computer, leather door panels, power windows, full trunk carpet, air conditioning and shadow-line trim were standard.
Standard for the M5, but uncommonly good, was the big six under the hood, a dual-overhead-cam 3.5 liter S38B35 pumping out 256 horsepower back when the 5.7 liter V8 in the Corvette only made 245 hp. BMW only built 2000 of them for worldwide consumption before going back into their engineering cubicles to design the next German loony wagon, so they qualify as rare cars as well.
Final thoughts: this seems to be a really good asking price for an E28 M5 and the ad isn’t exactly brand new, so there may be more than meets the eye. As always, it is best to contact the seller, do your homework, do an inspection, and hire an expert if you are incapable yourself.
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Y'all keep finding these and posting them and, I swear, every time you do this it is specifically to torture me somehow. These M5s just do THAT thing for me, even though I've never driven one. Ironically enough, its the prices being so low that give me such pause; almost like, "okay, now how much is it REALLY going to take to get this car into reliable DD rotation?" I need to just buy stuff like this M5 and the Volvos and the cheap, cool, older American iron stuff y'all feature and flip them after driving them for a few months. That's the only way this diffuse carpox rash will ever be scratched…
I would argue that the Mercedes 450 sel 6.9 was the world's first 4 door sports car.
Perhaps the 6.9 was the first 4-dr muscle car, but "sports car" implies being able to handle as well. In that respect, the M5 has it beat.
I love the website, and the cars you find and post.
If you could do anything, a little more work on the automotive history would help. M5 as first four-door sports car? Back before world war two, Alfa Romeo, Bentley, Jaguar, Rover, Bugatti, as well as plenty of others would sell you a saloon built on sports car chassis. Some of them were bespoke and to order, others were produced and sold to the general public. Post WWII, cars like the Alfa Romeo 1900ti… the list is just really really long.
"Never buy a car with a trailer hitch." -My Dad
The trailer hitch could be for towing a little "tire trailer" to the racetrack for BMW CCA events.