Benjamin M. Monroe Blog: VIDEO: Tyler Hoovie bought an E60 BW M5

Thursday, December 13, 2018

VIDEO: Tyler Hoovie bought an E60 BW M5

It’s evident by now that Tyler Hoovie is a glutton for pain. He’s a masochist. He must be, right? There’s no other explanation as to why he would keep buying such expensive and disastrously broken exotic cars. His latest purchase is a 2007 E60-generation BMW M5 and he bought the very cheapest running* one in America.

There’s an asterisk next to “running” because it’s only a running example of an M5 if you consider its ability to idle without exploding into a sparkly red firework show “running”. It doesn’t actually drive well at all and could barely make it the few miles from the location of his intro shoot to his mechanic. It was actually quite painful to watch, as if the car was a wounded animal, limping to safety.

If you’re unfamiliar, the E60-gen BMW M5 is one of the brand’s most unreliable cars in its history. When it works, it’s a masterpiece, with a 500 hp naturally-aspirated V10 that revs past 8,000 rpm and makes the most delicious of car noises. However, those moments are seldom when the car has anything close to what might be considered high mileage.

That’s because the E60 BMW M5 was one of the most complicated BMWs ever made at the time. It came at a time when the brand was sort of shifting from just the “Ultimate Driving Machine” to part driver’s car company and part tech company. So when it debuted, it was far more complicated than the E39-gen M5 it replaced and more difficult to work on than most BMW fans were used to.

Due to its extreme complexity and the general high-stress life it typically lives, the E60 BMW M5 is not a car we’d recommend buying unless it was in pristine condition and had considerable routine maintenance. Yet Hoovie bought one for only $6,500, which is less than the engine itself is worth, and he got a mountain of problems included in the price.

When he finally takes it to his “wizard”, the mounting dollar amount for its needed repairs is almost nauseating. I’d feel bad for him if he didn’t probably like it so much.

In reality, it’s a genuinely funny video that shows off how much of a nightmare those cars are to own. And yes, he did buy it for incredibly cheap, as that’s nowhere near the price of what a nice E60 M5 costs. Still, if I bought a $6,500 beater project and told my wife about it, I’d be sleeping in a shed.