ISUK

I was out on Sunday in Stamford, Lincs and spotted a 525i sport in silver grey. I nearly passed out as this is the first non carbon sport that I have seen "on the road". Does it belong to anyone on this board? I was beginning to think that BMW GB must only be accepting sport orders in carbon black.

There was a mystic blue 530i parked behind it with my sapphire black 530d across the street. It felt like an impromptu meet but without the owners in attendance

igor

ISUK,
How did you like silver grey in Sports. I wish I cud see it here in person or at least good pictures.

ISUK

The silver grey look really good with the sport pack. You see the difference in the front bumper design much more on a light colour car as the air intakes really stand out giving the car a very aggressive appearance. If I had gone ahead with my order for a 535d sport that is why I would have gone with titanium silver. Dark colours like carbon (no offence to anyone who has chosen this colour) tend to lose the visual impact of the front bumper as you can't easily distinguish the extra mesh grilles on a normal cloudy day.

ray951

I have a Titanium Silver 530d Sport and in the Mrach 2005 edition of Evo magazine they have a roadtest of a red 535d Sport, and I have never seen a red 5 series before.

Steve Gill

I saw a silver coloured 5 series sport model a few weeks ago in Scotland - mistook it for an M5 because like you I hadn't seen any other colour than carbon black!!

ISUK

I saw a silver 535d sport at Dunedin BMW in Edinburgh last November which had privacy glass. It looked stunning. I can't understand why there are so few non-carbon black sports on the road. I can only guess that many buyers thought they might be unique when they ordered this colour as it was new to the E60 and was featured in the sport brochure. It might be interesting to see if carbon loses favour as there starts to be more and more cars on the road in this colour.

Steve Gill

I unfortunately think you could be right.

MY2006 Individual wk10 production here I come! j/k

ISUK

It's a serious point for anyone about to order a sport model anyway if it's your own cash. When you come to sell in two or three years time there are going to be lots of carbon black cars on the market so some of the other colours may be more sought after. This has happened to me with my Sterling grey Z4. You have been warned

Steve Gill

Just theorising here, but could it be possible that the reverse becomes true? That it becomes harder to shift a non carbon black sport? It's clear that CB is the popular colour so the harder to shift colours like silver become devalued?

Enthusiasts like on this board would prefer their colour to be reasonably rare, but the buying public at large might have their hearts set on a carbon black 'one', and therefore discount other colours - especially if there's choice available. In other words, if there's a choice between 3 carbon blacks and one silver, the majority of buyers (assuming same trend as new 5 series buyers) are going to choose one of the 3 carbon blacks.

Or am I talking nonsense?

ISUK

I think the reverse applies to the used market. As the most popular "new" colour is the one that most used buyers will have seen for the 2 or 3 years before it filters onto the used market, they actually crave one of the less popular colours chosen by the original "new" buyer as this will make their used car more exclusive. If you look at the Z4 as a point in case just do a search on Autotrader and see how many sterling grey and black cars there are. This makes the Maldive Blue and Merlot Red more scarce used and therefore a little more desirable.

Dealers are therefore far more choosy about taking it "common" colours in as part exchanges (please don't take offence carbon owners as it applies to my Sterling Z4 as well). You tend to find them scrutinising the car's condition more to chip down the price they will offer you as another dealer up the road also has 2 or 3 used models in the same colour making them harder to retail on.