Junkyard Gem: 2001 BMW 530i
The Junkyard Gems series got a little heavy on machinery from 1970s Detroit and 1980s Japan in recent years, so I made an effort to document more discarded European cars of the current century. I wanted to write about the BMW E39 5-Series and shared a crashed lurid-pink-and-pungent-blue 528i with an automatic transmission last year, but it seemed only fair to find a nicer E39 with the larger straight-six and the correct number of pedals. Here is such a car: a 2001 BMW 530i in more recognizable condition, found in a Colorado self-service yard recently.
A crash ended its driving career, hard enough to fire the driver-side airbag but gentle enough to spare most of the body panels.
In 2001, Americans could get a new 5-Series as a four-door sedan or as a station wagon. There were four engine choices, starting with the 2.5-liter I6 with 184 horsepower in the 525i and working all the way up to the monstrous 394-horsepower V8 in the M5. The 530i got a 3.0-liter I6 and the 540i had a 4.4-liter V8.
While you could get the 525i and 540i in longroof form, the 530i was sedan-only on our shores (Europeans could buy a 530i wagon that year).
This engine made 225 horsepower, quite a leap over the 193 horses in the 2000 528i that this car replaced.
While the overwhelming majority of American BMW buyers were insisting on automatic transmissions by the dawn of our current century, this car has the base five-speed manual. If you wanted a six-speed manual in a 2001 BMW, you had to spend $69,400 for the M5 (about $117,425 in 2022 dollars). The five-speed automatic with Steptronic shifting added $1,275 ($2,155 today) to the price of the 530i.
The E39 got a facelift for 2001, though it wasn’t a radical change from the year before.
The MSRP on this car was $39,400, which comes to about $66,666 after inflation.
The interior in this car looks to have been in decent shape before the crash, but 20 years of depreciation and a type of transmission most Americans can’t or won’t drive meant that the body damage and popped airbag weren’t worth fixing.
BMW wanted these ringed headlights to be known as “Angel Eyes.”
BMW hired Madonna and her film-director husband to make this entertaining TV commercial for the 2001 M5. It’s unclear how Clive Owen manages to reach back and pop the rear door open and eject Madonna while doing an E-brake 180, but sometimes we cinema fans must suspend our disbelief.
Related video:
