The Daily Vroom

Good morning Vroomers!

I appreciate all the messages yesterday checking in on me, given the unusual silence in your daily inbox. The Daily Vroom has become such a consistent part of your morning routine that even a single missed day sparks concern.

I'm currently traveling, juggling time zones and back-to-back meetings that have kept me away from my usual morning writing ritual. While travel can disrupt routines, it also brings incredible opportunities to connect with automotive enthusiasts and industry professionals.

Right now, I'm gathering some fascinating insights about automotive trends that I can't wait to share with you in the coming weeks. From conversations with collectors to market insights from dealers, there's a wealth of information brewing that will add some exciting perspectives to our daily discussions.

Rest assured, I'm always thinking about cars, markets, and the stories behind them - even when I'm far from my usual desk.

Stay tuned, and thanks for your patience and support.

Table of Contents

• MARKET Leaderboard

• Yesterday's Top 5 Sales

• Sale of the Day

• How much is an M5 worth?

MARKET LEADERBOARD

💰 The figures shared below don’t count any other sales such as car seats, memorabilia etc… All online auction sites are analyzed to put this leaderboard together.

I only include websites that have sold 5+ vehicles in the chart below.

This was the second day in a row that Cars & Bids sold nearly all their listings, kudos to them.

For those tracking alternative platforms in the market, Hagerty has outperformed Hemmings this week, selling over three times the number of cars!

YESTERDAY’S TOP 5 SALES

The top 3 sales yesterday were on three different platforms, which I always love.

I have to highlight two of those sales, the stunning Packard and the beautiful BMW.

Either of these cars could’ve taken sale of the day—but for very different reasons. On one hand, you had the handcrafted, decades-long dream of a Packard enthusiast realized in the 1934 Super Eight Boattail Speedster conversion. A rebodied labor of love, rich with bespoke touches, and built to jaw-dropping effect. It was rolling sculpture—dripping with detail—but polarizing to purists, and ultimately just shy of reserve before closing at $222,500 via post-auction deal. (auction ended at $220k).

On the other hand, the 1993 BMW 850CSi was pure pedigree: a Euro-spec V12, 6-speed unicorn in Tobago Blue with just 34k km. It stirred the modern collector crowd (and me!) into a frenzy and landed cleanly at $211,000—no caveats, no asterisks.

One was art, the other engineering. Both were showstoppers.

Want to dive deeper into any of these listings? Just click on the car to take you directly to the listing.

Sale of the Day

Guilty. I’m a total sucker for these. Low-production, high-effort, factory-built unicorns that disappear into garages and only resurface when it’s too late to get in cheap. This 997 Carrera S Club Coupe checks every single box—and then rewrites the checklist.

One of 50 built for the Porsche Club of America’s 50th anniversary. Porsche could’ve phoned this in. They didn’t. Instead, they gave it an exclusive color—Azurro California, a metallic throwback to 1955 356s that looks electric under the sun and moody in the shade. They bolted on the X51 Power Kit—GT3-grade internals, 381 hp, carbon fiber bits, sportier cams, better exhaust. Then they added the Sport Chrono, a short shifter, full leather, 19-inch SportDesigns, a numbered badge, and PCA-specific sills. That’s not a package—that’s a love letter.

Mileage - 59k. Condition - fully sorted with $20K in recent service. No mods, no nonsense. Just a 6-speed, a flat-six, and one of the cleanest special-edition 911s from the water-cooled era.

$90,000 was the hammer—and I’d argue that’s still a deal. These haven’t run yet. Most of the 50 are buried in collections. The rest are probably modded or wrecked. This one’s still pure.

Why do I fall for stuff like this? Because Porsche didn’t have to build it. Because they wanted to. Because every so often, they remember their roots and make something for the diehards—not the speculators. And that gets me every time.

How Much Is an M5 Worth?

I’ve always had a soft spot for the E39 M5. Manual, V8, timeless design. It’s the kind of car you don’t outgrow—just one you grow into. But as prices continue to drift, and more of these cars hit the block, the question isn’t is it a great car? It’s what’s a great one actually worth?

That’s what we’re digging into today.

I pulled every 2001 M5 online auction from 2024—doesn’t matter if it was a catalog-quality time capsule or a tired driver with a salvage title. The spread? $900 on the low end, $75,000 at the top.

Now obviously, a lot goes into that delta. Color, history, mods, location, photos… even how well the listing was written. But today, we’re isolating just one variable: mileage. Why? Because it’s universal. You don’t need a PPI to compare odometers.

M5 Pricing by Mileage Tier

We broke the data into four tiers:

• Tier 1 – Under 40k miles

• Tier 2 – 40k–80k miles

• Tier 3 – 80k–120k miles

• Tier 4 – Over 120k miles

Here’s how each group performed in 2024:

Mileage drives value. Tier 1 cars averaged $69k. Tier 4, Just under $18k. The spread is wide—and predictable. A clean 80k-mile car doesn’t just cost less than a 20k-mile example... it lives in a different market.

When They Sold

Next, we looked at when these cars hit the market. Here’s the share of each mileage tier by quarter:

Fewer clean examples are hitting the market. Tier 1 M5s barely showed up in Q3 and Q4. Whether that’s owners holding out, or just waiting for spring, the takeaway is clear: clean cars are drying up.

Takeaways

• Mileage alone can explain a lot of the price spread. From $900 to $75k, it’s all about where that needle lands.

• Tier 2 is the sweet spot. Still presentable. Still fun. Still priced like a car, not a museum piece.

• Tier 1 cars are disappearing. If you’ve got one, sit tight. If you want one… you’re not alone.

Obviously as I said from the outset, there is more than just mileage at play. At a later date we’ll layer in color, condition, originality and other factors in a follow-up. Maybe even stack the M5 against an E46 M3 or 996 Carrera. But for now, this is a clean baseline. Mileage matters.

Want a breakdown like this for your favorite model? Hit reply.