In our eyes, high-mileage cars are nothing to be afraid of. Of course, that’s true only if we talk about regularly serviced and properly maintained cars, like the 320,000-mile BMW M5 E39 from the video above. I know the clip says the car has 409,000 miles on the clock but it’s important to note that the engine was replaced by BMW for high oil consumption issues in 2003. Still, 320,000 miles is quite an impressive number especially for a performance saloon.
On paper, a stock M5 E39 delivers 394 horsepower at the crank from its 4.9-litre V8 under the bonnet. A quick dyno check should show whether the high-mileage M5 had lost any power and to put the numbers into perspective, the folks over from LegitStreetCars compare it with a “garage queen” M5 E39 with just 78,000 miles on the clock.
The E39 was great!
“The dyno battle everyone in the world has been waiting for! Daily driven, battle-tested 409,000 Mile E39 M5 VS a garage queen, E39 M5 with only 78,000 miles.”
The 13-minute video provides interesting details about tuning and maintaining the performance saloon (make sure to watch it from A to Z) but let’s get straight to the point. The dyno shows the high-mileage M5 generates 282 wheel horsepower with mass airflow sensors connected and stock tune versus 207.2 whp (154,5 wkW) for the newer M5. That’s a bit weird but the numbers look as expected with the sensors disconnected and adaptations reset – 292.7 whp versus 309.6 whp.
Another high-mileage hero:
The final dyno run compares the two cars with mass airflow sensors disconnected and Alpha-N tune software. And the numbers don’t lie – the M5 with fewer miles generates 346.7 whp versus 326.6 whp for the high-mileage hero. Still, a pretty impressive result, right?
Source: LegitStreetCars