BMW M5 (E34)
Why 6.0: The last hand-built M5 with the motorsport straight-six. E28 money pulled this generation upward, but the owner base still leans drivers-with-toolboxes over collectors-with-covers.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
The S38 breathes through individual throttle bodies, so it barks on the induction side in a way no plenum-fed six manages, and stays metallic past 7,000. But BMW muffled the exhaust to suit the business-saloon brief. Just under the S54 for that.
6-cylinder · naturally aspirated · 7,200 rpm redline · rated 7.9 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €18k (2000) → €55k (2026), trending up · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
Built before ISOFIX existed, so there are no anchor points at all. A child seat here is a seatbelt installation, and the belt geometry of the period was not designed with one in mind.
Derived from production years and seating layout, not a per-car source. ISOFIX was standardised as ISO 13216 in 1997, required on new EU model types from 2011 and on all new EU cars from 2014.
The long version
The S38 straight-six is hand-assembled and maintained accordingly — timing chains, cooling systems, and electronics that reward an owner willing to learn the car rather than outsource it, which has kept this generation in the hands of people who would rather turn a wrench than write a check for storage. Values climbing in the E28's wake have started drawing speculative interest, but the base of committed drivers has not thinned out much yet. It is the last M5 built before BMW started building M5s at volume, and the ownership base still treats it like a project worth finishing.