The 1991 BMW M5 (E34) Was a 1990s Sport Sedan Icon

this is a 1991 BMW m5 and it is an iconic sports sedan the e30 4 was the second generation of the m5 and it was only sold in North America for three years 91 to 93 it was also the last hand-built M car and it helped set the tone for the BMW M models that followed and today I'm going to review it before I get started I should say that this a 34 m5 is currently live for sale right now on cars and bids which is my new online car auction website for modern enthusiast cars yes that's right this exact ether t4 m5 is live right now being auctioned the auction went up today and you can go check it out this car perfectly fits what we're looking for at cars and bids which is cool enthusiast cars from the modern era the 80s the 90s the 2000s and up so go check out the e34 m5 auction live right now go bid on it by clicking the link in the description below to go to cars and bids calm so let's talk a 34 m5 the original m5 the e28 came out here in North America for the 1988 model year and it was sort of a test case to see if the North American market was really interested in a high performance version of the BMW 5-series they were so this came out as the second-generation model in 1991 with BMW still cautiously proceeding in revealing its end performance cars to the North American market I say that because BMW built the e34 m5 for seven years but it was only offered here in North America for three and only as a sedan even though a wagon was offered in Europe and it was never available here with the larger engine that was offered in some markets this car was clearly still BMW testing the waters to see how well an EM car would be received in North America but it was still a pretty special vehicle a hand-built car with a 315 horsepower six-cylinder a mandatory manual transmission and a lot of other upgrades over the regular five series that made it the ultimate performance sedan of the early 1990s of course it also came with the price tag back when this car was new it had a sticker price of around 61 thousand dollars which translates to about a hundred and ten thousand dollars in today's money so today I'm going to review this ether tea for m5 and show you what you got when you spend a hundred and ten grand thirty years ago first I'm gonna take you on a tour of this car and show you all of its interesting quirks and features then I'm gonna get it out on the road and drive it and then I'll give it a dug score alright I'm gonna start the quirks and features of the e34 m5 with getting in and I want to talk about the key and this car was before the era of keyless remote entry for BMW but they did have one idea for how to make it easier to get in the car you look at the key and you can see there's a BMW logo which is actually a button and there's also a little light near the top of the key the way this was supposed to work was you would press the BMW logo and it would light up that light right next to your key and that way if you were approaching your car in a dark parking lot you would press the button the key would be illuminated so you could see exactly where you could stick it in and that would make it easier for you to get in your car not quite keyless entry but hey it was something and next up the first thing you notice when you climb inside this car is the phone this car has a car phone in between the front seats a BMW branded corded phone and I absolutely love it and I'm obsessed with it unfortunately this phone does not work no car phones from this era work anymore but it is still a wonderful relic and a cool conversation piece and a factory option that was included in this car back when it was new 30 years ago you must have felt pretty boss having a phone in your m5 back then and next up next to the phone in the center you have the window switches not all that unusual arranged pretty much how you would expect them the cool thing here is the lockout switch which is this subtle button placed between the two rear window switches if you press that yet locks out the rear windows so your rear passengers can't control them if your kids are being annoying with the windows back there I just like this subtle little integration of this button doesn't need a label and next up further forward in the center console you have the gear lever like I mentioned this car has a manual transmission and all ether t4m 5s had a manual you couldn't get one of these with an automatic they were for true driving enthusiasts only the cool thing I like about this gear lever is the fact that it lights up at night let me cut my hands around it and turn the headlights on and you can see the top part lights up so you can see the gear pattern even at night which I always thought was amazing attention to and a good example of how BMW really wanted the cars to be driver focused they thought that was important enough to show you even in the dark and next up moving further forward from the gear lever up to this panel on the center console is that the cupholders no no German cars from this era don't have cupholders but they do have ashtrays and cigarette lighters which is what that is I always found it funny that Germans from this era constantly made fun of Americans for wanting cupholders in their cars the thinking was oh those fat Americans always want access to a soft drink even while they're performing the sacred act of driving and yet German cars from this era always have a cigarette lighter and ashtray so that Germans can always have access to a cigarette even when they're performing the sacred act of driving seems a little hypocritical and speaking of the Germans moving up in the center console you have the climate controls these are pretty straightforward although I do like the fact that that controls for the airflow positioning are these dials that you can place precisely where you want in most cars it's just on or off but in this you can exactly set the amount of upper air and lower air and middle air that you want for the perfect airflow experience which I'm sure was appreciated by the precision minded Germans who built this car and next up moving up from there you have the stereo head unit this car still has its original BMW factory head unit which is really impressive that's actually made it to a CD changer which I'll show you in a minute obviously the functionality of this is limited compared to modern stereos with Bluetooth and carplay but you have a BMW logo on the cassette tape door you won't get that if you put a modern car play head unit in your ether t4 m5 this is the real deal but to me the coolest part of this entire centre control stack is over on the right where you have the beginnings of the BMW infotainment system you see all these little buttons in this little screen that's where it began with modern BMW centre control stacks you can browse Twitter and buy movie tickets and that all started right here this is sort of an advanced trip computer you can see your range you can see your average speed your average fuel economy your temperature it was the beginning of a configurable information display in the center and you can see how the modern infotainment system evolved from that this really is where it all started it seems very pedestrian by modern standards but this is the beginnings of infotainment in a car and next up moving above all the center stack controls you have the climate vents nothing unusual there two of them in the middle pretty standard but above those you have another giant vent so what is this thing well it's another climate vent this one for air that was designed to be blown straight up in the interior instead of right on you it's an absolutely massive climate vent but that's what it was there for increased air flow in the interior in a slightly different place than the rest of your climate control vents and speaking of unusual climate vents in this car another interesting quirk the vents over on the sides of the dashboard for the driver and passenger aren't on the dashboard at all you can see there on the doors actually and when you open up the door the vent opens with it both on the driver's side and over on the passenger side a few cars have used this over the years but it's unusual to see but the e34 m5 did it probably for packaging reasons on the dashboard they just didn't have enough room to stick the vents on there and make them look good and next up speaking of climate control this car has heated seats which are controlled by this little switch next to the seat itself two different stages of heated seat that was a pretty advanced feature for 1991 but you expected it in a luxury car of this ilk in terms of seat controls what you didn't expect was the thighs support check this out this little switch extends out the thigh support in the front of the seat to give taller drivers more support on long drives that is an impressive feature very few cars have that a lot of BMWs do but it's usually a manual lever that you pull in this car power operated thigh support only the finest German luxury a next step another interesting control in this car as the headlight controls which are quite strange over to the left of the gauge cluster you can see there's a big switch and then at the top of that is like a rectangular window and which ever item the window has in its window is where your headlights are positioned so you can see it's on 0 the headlights are off but if you move it up the window shows different headlight positions and then they're on it's a very unusual way to do it but that's what they did on the e30 4 5 Series and next up onto the gauge cluster itself you can see this is a pretty straightforward BMW gauge cluster from this era nothing unusual or especially odd in here although I will say at the bottom you do have this pixel display this was one of the earliest BMW models to have this and you could adjust what it showed you by pressing the end of the turn signal stock you push that and it would give you your range the temperature your average speed all of that sort of thing now this is still true in BMW models today you press the end of the signal stock and the gauge cluster changes to show you different displays and information and this is one of the cars where it started on you can again see some of the origins of still existing BMW interior design and speaking of BMW interior design I want to talk about the general look of this car's interior specifically this centre control stack which you can see is tilted a few degrees towards the driver that was a huge deal at the time basically every other car always had just a flat dashboard and everything was just as easily in reach of the passenger as the driver but BMW started pitching its cars as the ultimate driving machine and so they wanted to provide a more driver focused interior like a cockpit and that was the result the centre stack tilted a few degrees so it faced the driver instead of the general interior obviously now that's become a common feature in modern sports car and performance car interior design these driver focused cockpit cabins but this was one of the very first cars that did it and it created a huge splash when they did that passengers would be a little cut off from all of the switches and controls in the middle also worth mentioning in here is the interior quality is absolutely fantastic everything looks beautiful in here the seats the dashboard no cracking plastics or leathers truly impressive for a 30 year old car this is how it would have looked if you had been a rich CEO with an eye on performance picking one of these up new off the showroom floor back in 91 and that would have been cool although in full disclosure and is worth noting for the cars and bins crowd that these Sun Visor lights have burned out so if you get this car you will not be able to look at yourself as brightly as possible and next up moving on to the back seat of the e34 m5 where you can see that rear seat room is decent but not exactly huge it definitely doesn't have the interior room of a midsize sedan like we would think about them today but that makes sense because this car is the exact same length as a new 3-series down to the tenth of an inch they are identical so this formerly midsize sedan is now considered a compact everything is growing and that's why this car feels a little cramped for a 5 Series now other interesting quirks back here one is that once again you have a cigarette lighter back here and individual ashtrays on the rear doors one on the passenger side and one over on the driver side so that your kids can smoke another classic example cupholders was a ridiculous idea by the unhealthy distracted driving Americans but putting a cigarette lighter in ashtrays in the back seats with your kids that was a reasonable thing to do in early 90s Germany other notable items back here one is this giant centre armrest he put this thing down it's like 4 inches high and it gives you a nice little place to comfortably rest your arm but by far the most interesting thing back here is the fact that the seat belts come out of the center not the edges of the seat like you're used to they come out of the middle and you buckle them into this strange seat belt buckle that's integrated into the seat and colored to it's an odd thing back here reaching into the middle for the seatbelt and then putting it into that weird fixed buckle definitely different from what I'm used to and next up I want to talk styling because I love how this car looks just the general design of the e30 4 5 Series I've always loved I think it's clean and simple and elegant and not fussy or over-the-top at all but I also love how subtle the m5 is over the regular 5 Series you have an m5 badge up front you have an m5 badge and back in the rest are just a few little subtle details that basically nobody else would ever notice it is such a departure from modern m and AMG cars that scream what they are back then you had to look very closely to see what it was you were getting beaten by and next up we move on to the trunk in the e34 m5 which contains some hidden treasures open it up and the first interesting thing you notice is on the inside of the trunk lid where you have this plastic compartment you unscrew the top part pull it down and there's a toolkit in here full of all the tools you could need to operate your m5 on the roadside but that's not the most interesting thing in this toolkit what I like best in here is this little diagram of a car which is actually an e 28 BMW 5-series and frankly a pretty good diagram of one now I've mentioned that diagram and other reviews I've done of BMWs from this era what I haven't mentioned is over to the right where you have a BMW cloth look at this a BMW branded cloth this is how you know a car has been beautifully preserved because the manufacturer branded cloth has been saved for three decades in the tool kit pretty cool and kind of gross anyway other interesting stuff in this trunk one is the six disc CD changer which is mounted back here you open up this little door then press the eject button and then the CD magazine ejects you pull it out and put in your CDs one by one this was actually pretty common for early CD changers the crazy thing here is that this car has a CD changer at all in 91 must have been a huge deal probably one of the earliest cars with this feature and speaking of the electronics next to this CD changer you can see there's a little label that says pre-wired for BMW cellular phone this of course relates to the phone I showed you inside this is probably where the wires go but it's just interesting to see this label this isn't one you see very often in any modern automobile ever two other notable items in the trunk one is over to the right you have this little storage cubby which I am sure is precisely sized to fit the bottle of motor oil that is recommended by BMW for this vehicle such a German thing and I have no doubt they made it perfect another good example of German attention to detail is this little arrow you can see when you're standing behind the trunk what exactly is that for well behind that arrow you have the trunk handle you reach and grab it and you can close the trunk so that arrow is letting you know how to close the trunk most effectively and efficiently I would expect nothing less from a well-built German sedan and next up I want to talk wheels this car has the throwing star wheels as BMW enthusiasts call them they are by far the most popular and the most attractive wheel that was offer on this car but they were not the most interesting that honor goes to the turbine wheels which look like this you can see they're a little odd they were three pieced wheels with kind of a turbine design on the inside that were intending to send air towards the brakes while the car drove along in order to cool the brakes it was a neat idea but the problem is they just looked terrible like small wheels with whitewall tires not a very attractive look for an aggressive German performance sedan but it was an innovative idea to help cool the brakes in the days before modern technology gave us more options there nonetheless I've always preferred the look of the throwing stars and finally we move under the hood which is interesting in itself because its front hinged you can see when it's open it kind of gives the a more special look but anyway let's talk engine 3.6 litre straight-six 315 horsepower the result was 0 to 60 in about 6.3 seconds now those numbers aren't particularly impressive by modern standards and in fact later in this cars production run BMW bumped this up to a 3.8 liter engine with 335 horsepower but that was never offered in North America still by the standards of its time this was pretty good this was an era before everybody had a performance sedan there was no cts-v there was no e 55 AMG this was one of the only games in town and it was pretty impressive back then just the fact that BMW did it at all and you had this manual transmission end car in North America was pretty cool now as for the engine itself I love how this looks you have BMW m power prominently written to make sure everyone knew it wasn't a regular BMW you also have the M logo over on the other side that's just cool and it still looks cool thirty years later as for the car well this is a rare one like I mentioned this was the last hand-built BMW M car and they didn't hand build too many only 12200 for the entire world over the 7 year production run and less than 1,700 of those came to North America this is one of those 1700 s so you go drive in an e30 4 m5 you're not likely to encounter another one anytime soon or ever and so those are the quirks and features of the e30 for BMW m5 now it's time to get it out on the road and see how it drives alright drive in the e34 m5 now before I get into the drive-through her background on this car the e34 m5 has kind of found itself for many years and sort of the not is appreciated era of the m5 the e28 always well-known they're the first ones they were all black here in North America one model year pretty rare they're very special the e39 m5s at this legend grow rug that is sort of the last manual v8 analogue blah blah blah the so good-looking and simple ether t fours with their six cylinders they just didn't quite have the same clout until about the last two or three years and now this car is starting to develop sorts of recognition and an audience for the same reason that a lot of collectible cars like this do which is not because it's fast not because it handles better than a modern car but because it's rare and it's special and what I think a 34 m5 that's what I think obviously a new one is way faster way better in every way but when I see a t-34 m5 on the street that's a head turn point mattad take a picture send it to your friends kind of car and the new one is miles away from being that and at some point when you get into a world where even a camry is doing 0 to 60 and five point something think the fastest starts to matter less and having something special matters more and I think that's why these car stars on the rise of course there's more to it than just that this is also an analog color absolutely a beautiful car I've always felt the e30 for probably the best-looking 5 Series even though most people think it's the e39 it's close but I like the boxy or look at the for you also have manual transmission no screens none of that stuff and the entropy is really fun to drive now service 60 and 63 and a 315 horsepower engine not huge numbers but it's a fun usable car and it feels pretty possible I enjoyed the new m3 for Ti and I talked about how I liked it sighs well this is the exact same size except you have a naturally aspirated engine with decent powerup fries you got a manual transmission you just have a more enjoyable car less regulations less stuff to separate you from the road it definitely doesn't feel slow but I wouldn't say that it feels especially fast on the order described it as period-correct mean I think that's such a great way to put it it was fast at the time no you won't have your socks knocked off if you get in this by modern standards but you know there's also something to be said for you get a 90s car you go 90s car speed and for people who are into this kind of stuff 60s cars 70s cars they're used to making that trail I really do love the interior in this car this one is especially nicely cat it's interesting I've been looking for an e30 4 and 5 to review for quite some time it's very difficult to find one in Nice shape I think that's also contributing to the values rising of these cars people bought them to drive they drove them and they move them on to the next owners so many of these have six owners of two hundred thousand miles but this one is a hundred and seventy two thousand miles but it's clearly been maintained tremendously well and the current owners of BMW enthusiasts who's kept up and kind of put it back into a nicer shape than anything and so that's the 1991 III for BMW m5 I've always loved this car and I've especially loved how it looks I think this is probably the best-looking five series yes even better than the iconic e39 now granted this car doesn't have the e39 m5s v8 up front but it's still a special car looks great drives well and it's a good example of some of the beginnings of BMW amma and now it's time to give the e34 m5 a dug score starting with the weekend categories and styling I love how this looks I think the e30 4 is absolutely beautiful for us dan for a 90s car that gets a 7 out of 10 acceleration to 0 to 60 in 6.3 seconds and it gets a 3 out of 10 handling is fine and it gets a 5 out of 10 fun factor is ok it's fun and then it's an M car with reasonably sharp handling and sort of good acceleration but it's not wildly thrilling and it gets a 5 out of 10 finally cool factor and these are pretty cool especially for an M car which has become commonplace in the car enthusiast world not this M car though you never see these and it's exciting and it gets a six out of ten for a total weekend score of 26 out of 50 next up are the daily categories and features this car is well equipped for the time period but pretty mediocre by modern standards and it gets a three out of ten Comfort is average and it gets a five out of ten quality is okay these are reasonably reliable and reasonably nice inside but not ultra amazing quality and it gets a six out of ten practicality is normal for a car like this and it gets a 5 out of 10 finally value in this car does well I think these are still undervalued given the rarity in the special status as an early M car but they are starting to gain recognition and come up in value so it gets a 7 out of 10 for a total daily score of 26 out of 50 added up and the dugs score is 52 out of 100 which places it here against some other 90's performance car Zen BMW M cars the e34 m5 ties the Mercedes 500 II which is probably its closest competitor but they come to the score in different ways the m5 has a higher weekend score the 500 e has a higher daily score no surprise overall the e34 m5 is a fun car but mostly it's a special car which is why it's been attracting more interest in recent years you [Music]

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 958,146

Rating: 4.8984914 out of 5

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Id: ZB4mJb7d5nc

Length: 26min 27sec (1587 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 02 2020