Tyres are 500 quid a set. Servicing is every year or 10-15kish miles depending on usage and will cost you £150, then £200, then £150, then £300, then £150, etc. The cooling systems are crap and will explode, replacement of the lot runs to about £600. Insurance is Group 17-20. Fuel economy on the V8's is circa 20mpg, less in town, not much more on a run. The 728i is more economical but is utterly pointless. The autoboxes can go at higher mileage and a recon will run to £1500. The V8 can be expensive to sort issues with. The engines are heavy so suspension wear is common - front upper and lower control arm bushings will go, £250 a side to replace (And there are 2 arms on each side), etc etc. The pixels in the dashboard will eventually all die rendering the display unreadable. £500 to get a new cluster or some people can fix them for £100.
It's not 'wow this is expensive' but compared to the usual sort of car people consider buying for £3-4k they are.
The thing is, they were £60k new and as such have running costs you'd expect from such a car. As they get older, you can reduce some of this cost by not using a main dealer, but the saving is cancelled out by the fact that as it gets older, the chances of stuff going wrong increases, etc etc.
A £4k E38 is a car you buy if you are looking for a £6k car, not a £4k car. With enough cash in reserve and the attitude that you KNOW it will break and you dont mind if it does, they are great cars. But if you spend your car budget on it and expect it to run and run without bills you may be dissapointed.
Obviously there are exceptions to every rule and there are 7's out there which require virtually no work, but they are not common.
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