as u guys can see im brand new to the forum. ive been reading all the posts in here and have gained loads of knowledge. i was planning on buying a 2004 525i this month and was curious to know a few things...

1) will the new 2005 5 series really be available as of 7/21/04 ?

2) will there be any major changes from the 2004 model?

3) should i purchase my 525i this month, or wait for the 2005 model?

4) will the 525i really be dropped from the 2005 line up?

5) when i do go ahead and negotiate the purchase of my 525i, is there anything i should be aware of and/or request from the dealer? (i.e. software issues, price range i should pay, recalls, etc.)

thanks alot, any and all input is very much appreciated.

btw...i'll just be getting the premium package and halogens headlights...everything else will be standard.

You bring up a good question. What will happen to the 525? I know the engine upgrade annoucement was for the 3.0 i6 but I'd imagine BMW will upgrade the 2.5 i6 the same way.

I'm guessing the new engines will appear either from the start of the 2005 model year or be phased in during March 2005 production and on.

The 2005 5 series builds start next month, August. They'll showup at the dealers in mid-september.

I don't suspect any changes other than the i6 engines either now or in March. Hopefully BMW can get Bluetooth working plus any other issues corrected.

If I was you i'd seriously consider waiting for the 2005 model year but keep in mind that you're probably not going to get any discounts on the 05's until a few months pass. If you're happy with the 525 as it is now you could get an '04 at a good discounted rate when the 05's come in.

Actually most plant transitions won't roll in fully until the 1st week of Sept (possibly last week of August) . August is normally a slack month in Germany and very few companies expect to do anything major during that time. The plant engineering team will be online re-tooling for MY05 production... typically though you don't see any major effort to produce current MY or new MY's. Just my experience from having to support BMW AG for my company in Munich for 3 years....

Dealers won't even get MY05 allocation until later in July.

If you are in Europe it is possible to get a MY05 by mid September. In the US it's tight. Normally October is when you will see a MY05 (unless the transition starts early)

I would agree with Lomag that if you can wait for the 05, you should. I'm waiting for sure...

September is the summer break in Bavaria, so the plant is slowing down a bit, since the most employees (the ones with kids) are off. That's also when they start the next MY. So the MY05 cars will be available somewhen in October.