Why You Should Buy My Stately 2001 BMW 525i Wagon For Just $1,700. It’s Only Somewhat Broken!

It’s time to say goodbye to the car that helped me cement my love for BMW. This is also the car that got my wife into depreciated German luxury. Our stately 2001 BMW 525iAT has been a fun ride, but now we want to pass it on to someone else for the low, low price of $1,700.

Welcome to Autopian Classifieds, a new regular feature in which we highlight cars that our members have up for sale; today we’ll start with me (I’m a staffer, so that counts as a member, right?). A few of us here buy and sometimes sell too many cars. Usually, your favorite writers like David Tracy, Stephen Walter Gossin, or myself just fire these vehicles off onto Facebook Marketplace for the unwashed masses. Dealing with people on Facebook is a nightmare as you have to sift through weirdos, bigots, and seemingly endless flakers. Sometimes it gets so bad that you’d rather just keep the vehicle than deal with selling it.

We have an awesome community here, so why not give members the chance to own one another’s cars? Anyway, I’m first.

The Car

I’ll get straight to it. What you’re looking at here is a 2001 BMW 525iT (technically a 525iAT since it has an automatic transmission), which falls into the coveted E39 generation of the BMW 5 Series.

The basic specs:

Engine: 2.5-liter M54 straight-six, 184 horsepower and 175 lb-ft of torque.
Transmission: Five-speed automatic.
Layout: RWD.
Location: McHenry, Illinois.
Mileage: 147,000 miles and change.

I bought this stately black wagon from our secret designer, the Bishop, in late 2022. When I purchased the vehicle it had about 120,000 miles and a laundry list of issues. The vehicle’s tailgate latch sensor didn’t always work, and it had a check engine light as well as what BMW enthusiasts call the “trifecta lights,” or errors for traction control, ABS, and brake systems triggering three lights. It also had advanced rust on its tailgate and two rust holes at the rears of both rockers.

My original plan called for fixing the rust and enjoying the vehicle as it was. Unfortunately, after I bought the vehicle I learned that the body shops I knew of that performed affordable rust repair were no longer in the business of rust repair anymore. A shop recently gave us a $1,000 quote for fixing the rockers, and then it closed.

I gave the vehicle to my wife so she could enjoy it as a fun weekend car, the antidote to the boring driving experience that was her Toyota Prius daily driver at the time. That Prius was then loaned out to a friend, so Sheryl ended up driving the Beemer (yes, we know that some folks prefer Bimmer for BMW cars) as her daily.

Sheryl put a lot of work into the wagon. I diagnosed the “trifecta lights” as a bad ABS module. We had that replaced, which extinguished those warning lights for the first time in a decade. We also found the check engine light to be caused by bad catalytic converters, an easy fix. Finally, we were left with the airbag light, which I’m sure is being caused by a bad passenger seat mat sensor. We bought the bypass kit but haven’t installed it.

Other changes my wife put into the car include LED headlights, LED puddle lights, 17-inch BMW sport wheels, new brakes on all corners, new side mirror glass, European market wood trim, an Atoto CarPlay and Android Auto stereo, improved cupholders, a wireless phone charger, sequential LED turn indicators, window tint, and a bunch of other small changes. It also has cheap aftermarket coils and plugs that I recommend changing.

Sheryl then drove the car about 27,000 miles in less than a year. The vehicle’s previous driver was an elderly lady, and the vehicle didn’t seem to appreciate going from Sunday driver to road warrior. Oil consumption went through the roof, then the vehicle began misfiring and smoking badly.

Our mechanic figured out that the vehicle’s CCV system (BMW’s version of a PCV) had essentially disintegrated. Replacing the CCV resolved the oil consumption, smoke, and misfiring issues. However, after 3,000 miles or so, oil consumption is a little worse than it should be and the car is smoking a little bit. Our mechanic believes the vehicle’s crumbling vacuum lines might be the culprit. In addition to this, the exhaust flex pipe has rotted away. The alarm used to go off randomly, but we think we fixed that by disconnecting the under-hood sensor.

Sadly, Sheryl’s situation has changed and I’m trying to thin my fleet. For reasons unrelated to this listing, insurance on the BMW has gotten so expensive it’s like having a car payment. Don’t worry, my wife now has a Scion iQ as a cute daily, but the BMW has now crossed Sheryl’s threshold for being too expensive to be worth it. I don’t want the car back, either, so it’s time to let it go.

A lot of original stuff comes with the vehicle, including the original headlights, interior trim, stereo, “kidney” grilles, and coil packs. You also get a marvelously thick folder full of maintenance records.

So there you have it. This is a running and driving car for just $1,700. We’re still driving this car now and think it’ll go anywhere you ask it to take you. But you should fix those vacuum lines so you can experience the smoothness of that BMW straight-six. I’d also recommend replacing the flex pipe so the car doesn’t sound so loud.

If you’re interested, email us at classifieds@theautopian.com or contact me on Facebook. We have some wiggle room on the price, but not a lot.