Get Yourself a BMW E39 540i for as Little as $5,000 Published: 19 Nov 2014, 14:42 UTC • By: Gabriel Nica 26 photos ...

The 540i has a regular sized spare tire and a single-exit exhaust. The M5, with its larger five liter V8 tuned for performance, can get around 25 miles per gallon on the highway, if pushed.

It’s the case of this BMW E39 540i that was transformed by an overenthusiastic owner into something that Freddie Krueger might drive in your worst nightmare. Not only did he fix up the 5er with ...

BMW says that during the development of the E39 generation M5 sport sedan, the carmaker considered a V-6 and a turbocharged ...

It’s the 1996-2003 BMW E39 540i manual, and it remains both surprisingly affordable and not all-that-difficult to find. It might be one of the best bargains in the collector car world at the moment.

Anybody who owns an E39 540i knows that these will one day need to be replace d as they have a reputation of failing at around 100,000 miles due to their low-rent plastic composition.

The car has 96,000 miles on it and comes with the 4.9-liter S62 V8 that came in the E39 M5. The car has plenty of other changes that transform it from a 540i into a true M5 replica.

The E39 540i Sport is one such example of an unassuming stealth missile that packed a 286-horsepower V-8 and a six-speed manual transmission. Yet, it looked like any other 5 Series.