Canada545

I was hoping to place my order for a new 2005 545ia at the end of January (for delivery in the spring) ...

My question to the group is, with all the documented issues with the 2004 545i (active steerling, clutch, rf tires, software issues, etc) should I still order the 2005 version of the 545 or don't waste my money and wait 1 or 2 more years until BMW has the "big ticket" issues resolved ...

I don't want to spend $95K Cdn on a new car thats a lemon ...

Or do you think the 2005 will be 2x the car that the 2004 is today ...

heezy545i

I have a 2004 545i and in 9 months and over 10,000 miles, I've brought the car into the dealer just once. Buy now, really no use in waiting.

Hormazd

Active Steering- Works like a charm. Later SW Versions have tightened it.
6000 Miles and no problem with my clutch. You are getting the step so no issues there.
RF Tires. No noise yet. They are hard, but I do have the sports package so I expect that much.

SW issues. Very minor, and on the positive side, you can always get an upgrade. My 04 car is as feature rich as a new 05.

The members of this forum all (with few exeptions) love their cars. We meet here to discuss issues which for most E60 owners are not issues. For every one of us here there are 20-30 E60 owners driving there cars daily and they don't care that the RFs feel a little hard, or that the RDS on the radio doesn't show, or that the steering wheel feels a little light at 145mph. They don't dyno test their cars or compare the stereo to some $50K home system, or stress themselves out because the headlights come on during the day too early. Now they won't mod their cars either, they just drive them and are happy. We are different and we are anal about our babies.

Every brand out there, including what you drive now and Toyota have their share of lemons. But the E60 as a model is NOT a lemon!
It may lag behind the Japanese in electronics, but it is a revolutionary drivers car.

With the exception of some alledged modifications to the steering column, my 2004 car is exactly the same as an 05 car. You may wait till 07 but I doubt if there will be less discussion on this board. Does that mean that no issues were resolved. I doubt it. I am not quite sure what you mean by "big ticket"

garehaan

Well said, absolutely agree and nothing to add!

IrishEyes

Hi,

I don't think there is any doubt that the E60 is a well designed and engineered car. As with all things created by humans, there will be one ot two niggles or dislikes but that goes with everything.

When I ordered my E60 I went for the 17" wheels/tyres because I reckoned the 18" and run-flats might have been too coarse. Besides, I saved myself over ?2000. Even with the 17" I had some doubts.

So, when the car was delivered to the dealership, I contacted the tyre shop they deal with and, as there was only delivery mileage on the car, the guys there were prepared to treat them as new and accept the rf's as trade-in against new non rf's.

He cartainly wasn't giving me full allowance on the rf's ( they are a more expensive tyre than the standard) and it was still costing to swap but it was considerably cheaper than having to buy 4 new real tyres. However, I didn't take up the offer because I'm a low annual mileage person and was anticipating changing the car next year. It didn't make economic sense in that case.

However, if I do buy an E60 or an E90 next year, I WILL swap the tyres and I would recommend this to others thinking of buying a car with rf's. Especially with the bigger rims. And especially, from reading some of the postings, the rf's get noisy after a few thousand miles. See if your dealer/tyre shop will take trade-ins.

Jimbo

Wait for the 2005 or 2006 530 with the added hp and more problems sorted out.
If you do a search for "problems" on the forum, you'll find out why you should wait as long as possible.

Canada545

I'm looking at ordering the 545 anyhow, not the 530 ... hope the 2005 have the majority of problems worked out ...

Canada545

Active Steering- Works like a charm. Later SW Versions have tightened it.
6000 Miles and no problem with my clutch. You are getting the step so no issues there.
RF Tires. No noise yet. They are hard, but I do have the sports package so I expect that much.

SW issues. Very minor, and on the positive side, you can always get an upgrade. My 04 car is as feature rich as a new 05.

The members of this forum all (with few exeptions) love their cars. We meet here to discuss issues which for most E60 owners are not issues. For every one of us here there are 20-30 E60 owners driving there cars daily and they don't care that the RFs feel a little hard, or that the RDS on the radio doesn't show, or that the steering wheel feels a little light at 145mph. They don't dyno test their cars or compare the stereo to some $50K home system, or stress themselves out because the headlights come on during the day too early. Now they won't mod their cars either, they just drive them and are happy. We are different and we are anal about our babies.

Every brand out there, including what you drive now and Toyota have their share of lemons. But the E60 as a model is NOT a lemon!
It may lag behind the Japanese in electronics, but it is a revolutionary drivers car.

With the exception of some alledged modifications to the steering column, my 2004 car is exactly the same as an 05 car. You may wait till 07 but I doubt if there will be less discussion on this board. Does that mean that no issues were resolved. I doubt it. I am not quite sure what you mean by "big ticket"
[/quote]
The "big ticket" issues I'm referring to are the non-software things, such as people having their steerling rack replaced with under 5000km on the car, etc

Jimbo

Be sure to check out your dealer service and support quality.
Here's a linkto a poll I created to rate dealers. It's sad that 46% are rated "okay" and lower.

pharding

I have a May 04 Build 545. Zero problems. The only time that I went back to the dealership was for the Bluetooth upgrade. The build quality has been excellent for me. The car is great to drive. There is not any reason to wait. I would get it now before the next price increase.