Any idea on what the cost of a crate motor is? Just curious. A POS M96 motor is still 20,000 new, for context.

At least the M motor would be worth the trouble of taking it apart. 8 throttle bodies!!!!

What sarafil mentioned, the e46 that marches my e36:)

http://enthusiastauto.com/images/car.../P-4139-10.jpg

http://enthusiastauto.com/qsearch/?i...orm_display=51

The E39 M5 always intrigued me. The E46 M3 never did anything for me.

I’ve only ever liked the M cars with V8s.

Most are too high strung. And honestly I have zero interest in any BMW really newer than the V8 M3.

The E39 M5 is such a genius car with some minor engineering nitpicks. But so good.

The E39 M5 market.
 

$176k auction sale price for the E39 in the original post

Crazy. But if you think about it, did the owner really make all that much money for that massive gamble? Car could have been damaged, stolen, etc. and I doubt insurance would have paid anywhere nearly as much.

Put that $80k in an S&P 500 index fund and you beat the return (156% according to https://dqydj.com/sp-500-return-calculator/). To say nothing of the floor space, worrying and insurance spent all these years. Now there is the income tax to pay on the gain.

There was hardly any enjoyment either.

I keep thinking of buying a MB R129 in good condition. They seem to ave hit rock bottom. All MB SL's start to appreciate at some point.

My FIL still has his 2001 SL500 AMG package (30-40K miles). I find it extraordinarily boring.

Don't kill the dream!:(

I can totally see how. Heavy, not sporty, slow transmission, etc.

Still, that car was inspirational for me as a teen, so I have a special place for it. It's also a pretty car.

Damn your young when I was a teen my friends mom had the 560sl and I couldn’t stand the low uncomfortable seat, my dad at the time had a 560SEC ... now that was a bad ass car ... plus it was one of the first cars to hand you on an electric arm your seat belt and for some dumb reason it had 2 different horn sounds.

I really like those SLs also. I think Zach is right on his comments but don’t think those are the reasons I’d want one anyways. They are cheap enough that it could be an interesting part of a fleet of a few fun cars. Alas, no space for extra toys at this point... maybe down the road.



I agree. Buying a car to just park it and hope for appreciation seems like a risky proposition. There have been a few cars like this on BAT recently (some guy in Hawaii with E46 M3 and another guy with original MINI GP) and the math just doesn’t work on most cases. Maybe they have a ton of money and got personal enjoyment out of it but seems like they would have been better off driving the cars a bit and getting some use out of them.