Soldato
For a £200 car that needs a respray i'd be inclined to get a gun and a cheap compressor and have a go myself 
E38 730i
- Thread starter Theophany
- Start date
Caporegime
This thread makes me want an E38 sport of some type 
Caporegime
Quite agree with what you say, yes, the later ones are technically better, but looks wise, the e38 has them beaten, especially in Sport or Alpina guise.
The 728 is fine, I loved mine and do miss it, yes next time I'd opt for a 740 or 750 (almost pointless compared to the 740, but hey, it's a V12 and I'd like to tick that motoring box one day) the 728 is adequate for most though IMO, and reasonable on fuel given its size and weight.
As long as like the OP you appreciate they can cost a lot to run, they are still fine cars.
I'd love to own another but my wife says she dislikes them , which is quite odd as I showed her an Alpina B12 on pistonheads recently and she really liked it???!
Women!
This was the car, somewhat optimistically priced - €35,000!!! - kind of puts the price of the OP's 730 in stark perspective!
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/bmw/alpina/1999-bmw-alpina-b12-6-0-lhd/1291696
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Caporegime
"Somewhat" 
I'd not be paying over £4-5k for an E38 regardless of guise now. It'd have to be a facelift though.
I'd not be paying over £4-5k for an E38 regardless of guise now. It'd have to be a facelift though.
Caporegime
"Somewhat"
I'd not be paying over £4-5k for an E38 regardless of guise now. It'd have to be a facelift though.
I know, what's €35k? Roughly £29k? They must be on crack!!
I appreciate its an extremely rare Alpina but its a ludicrous price.
£4k -£5k should bag an absolute beauty - albeit not an Alpina - try to find one though....
Was this red a colour from BMW or would it have been resprayed?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1995-BMW-730I-AUTO-RARE-HELL-ROT-RED-/111073901915#ht_1102wt_1170
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1995-BMW-730I-AUTO-RARE-HELL-ROT-RED-/111073901915#ht_1102wt_1170
Man of Honour
Remembered a relative still has one of these in black. I remember as kids when we went round the windows had a button that tinted the glass - How come other cars don't have this feature any more?
Or was I hallucinating this?
Or was I hallucinating this?
Man of Honour
No.This was a button that once pressed tinted the windows, press it again and they returned to normal. That's what I remember anyway..
Man of Honour
Could have been!
So I went round this morning to have a quick look at the car and within a few minutes decided I couldn't bring myself to go through the hassle with it.
The engine on the car is still tip-top. Starts first time every time and these engines are known to reach the lofty heights of 300k miles. That's pretty much all that the car really has left in it's favour though. The paintwork is essentially scrap - the lacquer is shot and there are countless dings in the bodywork. Cosmetically, the car's knackered and will require either a lot of work or the laziness of a vinyl wrap and I don't think I could live with myself if I didn't get it done properly (see: lolmoney).
Inside the electronics are hit and miss. The electric seats still work (full leather upholstery, though it is looking, as you would expect, very tired) but electric windows, the stereo, the trip computer are all hit and miss. Some work, some don't and realistically it's going to be a total rewire at the bare minimum as well as ripping out the tape deck (lol) for a double din and possibly looking into a new trip computer.
My honest layman's appraisal is that the engine is about the only thing really worth salvaging on the car. For the amount of work that will be required, my gut is telling me to walk away. It's a crying shame because I do love the car and for £200 I'd still be getting a mechanically functional V8 luxury saloon. That being said, the inevitable cost of bringing the car back to a reasonable standard in tandem with the added expense of insuring, taxing and fuelling an uneconomical 8-pot lump make me wince. The thought of buying the car was a bit of a whim anyway, so whilst I'm not overly disappointed with my sudden moment of clarity, it would've been nice to just be stupid and buy it.
So I'm going to look at a an E46 330ci convertible and an E39 M5 tomorrow to see if I could be tempted into buying one of those instead.
*ducks*
NB: forgot to take pics, just imagine an E38 730i in dark blue that looks like it's taken an acid bath.
The engine on the car is still tip-top. Starts first time every time and these engines are known to reach the lofty heights of 300k miles. That's pretty much all that the car really has left in it's favour though. The paintwork is essentially scrap - the lacquer is shot and there are countless dings in the bodywork. Cosmetically, the car's knackered and will require either a lot of work or the laziness of a vinyl wrap and I don't think I could live with myself if I didn't get it done properly (see: lolmoney).
Inside the electronics are hit and miss. The electric seats still work (full leather upholstery, though it is looking, as you would expect, very tired) but electric windows, the stereo, the trip computer are all hit and miss. Some work, some don't and realistically it's going to be a total rewire at the bare minimum as well as ripping out the tape deck (lol) for a double din and possibly looking into a new trip computer.
My honest layman's appraisal is that the engine is about the only thing really worth salvaging on the car. For the amount of work that will be required, my gut is telling me to walk away. It's a crying shame because I do love the car and for £200 I'd still be getting a mechanically functional V8 luxury saloon. That being said, the inevitable cost of bringing the car back to a reasonable standard in tandem with the added expense of insuring, taxing and fuelling an uneconomical 8-pot lump make me wince. The thought of buying the car was a bit of a whim anyway, so whilst I'm not overly disappointed with my sudden moment of clarity, it would've been nice to just be stupid and buy it.
So I'm going to look at a an E46 330ci convertible and an E39 M5 tomorrow to see if I could be tempted into buying one of those instead.
*ducks*
NB: forgot to take pics, just imagine an E38 730i in dark blue that looks like it's taken an acid bath.
NB: forgot to take pics, just imagine an E38 730i in dark blue that looks like it's taken an acid bath.
one for penski to lower?
For sure. Some corkers in this thread that have been lowered for that quintessential low-end drug dealer look: srsly.
Well that was disappointing OP, epic thread just threw out of the window!
Only kidding, completely understand the lack of motivation behind it. If the bodywork was acceptable it would have been a good buy for the small amount of funds required to purchase it, but it sounds as if it will bring more tears than joy.
A real shame, would've been cool to see how many more miles could've been squeezed out of it.
Only kidding, completely understand the lack of motivation behind it. If the bodywork was acceptable it would have been a good buy for the small amount of funds required to purchase it, but it sounds as if it will bring more tears than joy.
A real shame, would've been cool to see how many more miles could've been squeezed out of it.
Well that was disappointing OP, epic thread just threw out of the window!
Only kidding, completely understand the lack of motivation behind it. If the bodywork was acceptable it would have been a good buy for the small amount of funds required to purchase it, but it sounds as if it will bring more tears than joy.
A real shame, would've been cool to see how many more miles could've been squeezed out of it.
I'll let you know how this thread could have ended:
1. Buy car
2. Rave about it for three weeks
3. Spend lots of money during three weeks making it look good again
4. Engine goes 'bang' during a spirited drive
5. I moan, whine and bleat about it ITT
6. Everybody says it was bound to happen, tough cookies
7. I get suspended for insulting somebody telling me it was bound to happen
On a serious note, I reckon the car could quite conceivably go for another 50k miles with regular servicing. Thing is, I could quite easily be wrong and it would be curtains for the car if I was; the irritation of which would be compounded if I replaced my Honda with it (which I had intended to do).
