1day Acuvue me a car for £6k ish
- Thread starter Piggymon
- Start date
Piggymon said:She does look lovely !
The insurance was a nice surprise as well , was expecting it to be in the £700 mark rather than £500
It's an Auto which I don't mind at all ... I'm kinda growing out of revving the nuts outta things
Its a barge, they are uber cheap to insure! I can insure a 5.4L V12 7-series for £1300 and i am 20
One thing i really love about barges is their performance vs insurance costs.http://www.ukcar.co.uk/interiors/4708.jpg
Thats the other reason i love barges.
Scuzi said:
Dexy is just over 10 years old , I have no issues with older cars .. age is but a number !
Was thinking about a 99/00 one anyway
I'm gonna pop and have a look at that one I posted earlier as soon as I can
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Scuzi said:
No, it really isn't. There isn't much in it.
Anyway, it is now time to educated Piggy in the way of things 5 Series.
The 520i is a car with a bad rep it doesn't deserve. It is not like most entry level BMW's.
Provided you get a 520i SE with the later 2.2 Straight Six engine, you get 170bhp and 0-60 in 8.5 seconds. This will not set the world on fire but it is performance thats better than 2.0 Mondeos and Passats.
Becuase the 520i is the 'forgotton' 5 Series, if you like (Most people just buy the bigger engined models) you can often pick them up quite cheap. Go for an SE and you'll get digital dual zone climate control, multi airbags etc etc. Go for a facelift 520i SE and you'll get front and rear parking sensors, rain sensors, auto lights, etc etc as well as the usual 6 airbags, electric windows, etc.
Leather was NOT standard.
The Automatic gearbox is Steptronic - you'll be familiar with this sort of system from your FTO. Generally very reliable BUT eyewateringly expensive to fix if it goes wrong.
Great cars. Be careful, however. Just becuase you can buy one for Mondeo money does not mean it will cost Mondeo money to run. It's a 6 cylinder engine, so although you might get 33-35mpg on the Motorway, you'll be getting much less around town. If stuff goes wrong, it can be expensive to fix, and servicing is likely to cost more than something like a Mondeo.
But if you can accept this, can afford this and are prepared for this, they are simply one of the finest cars you can buy. The BMW 5 Series was 'What Car' Executive car of the year in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. One year could have been a fluke but 7 years in a row? That takes an exceptional car.
I can't wait to own one and will envy you until I get mine
And, unlike the Passat, they ARE a proper prestige car, and are noticeably more comfortable than something like a Mondeo. Anyone who says a Passat is 'a hell of a lot more comfortable' has the most odd pereception of anyone I have met. It is true that the Passat is marginally smoother becuase it's softer, but there is no 'hell of a lot' in it, you'd need to drive both back to back to notice the difference for a start.
[TW]Fox said:
I'm telling you that it is from experience. I've owned a Passat and have had a Mk3 Mondeo for a day along with a couple of other test drives totalling a couple of hundred miles. I have driven both back to back and the Passat IS a lot smoother. It's especially noticeable on rougher roads (of which there are many in Ireland). There isn't much of a difference on motorways as is the case with almost every car in the category but for A and B roads the Passat is noticeably smoother. Have you driven a Mk3 Mondeo and a Passat B5.5 for any extensive periods to be able to compare or did you pull that opinion from an Autocar review?
Regardless of that I'd still have the 5 series. It's in a higher class than either and even though it may be slightly older and a bit more expensive to fix, it will be a much better car for motorway cruising.
Piggymon said:Top post Foxy !
Thanks mate , really helpfull
No worries
The car was facelifted in October 2000. The first facelift cars are X reg.
Main changes are cosmetic - the car received new front and rear lights - the front lights are the really nice looking 'Angel Eyes', and new front and rear bumpers, with colour coded rubbing strips on the SE.
There were also engine changes - the 2.2 was uprated from 150bhp to 170bhp, the 523i was dropped and replaced with the 192bhp 525i, the 528i was dropped and replaced with the 231bhp 530i. The 525d was introduced.
It's reasonably easy to update the look of a prefacelift car to that of a facelift car - budget approximately £400-£500 to change the lights, unless you want to do the bumpers as well which is more.
Don't discount the larger engined models if you can afford the insurance. From what I can see the fuel economy on all 3 of the 6 cylinder models (Thats 520, 523 and 528 pre facelift and 520, 525 and 530 after facelift) is very similar.
This is my Dads facelift car, its a totally standard 530d SE but the 520i SE looks identical:
Should show you the key differences compared to the one you posted.
As for that specific example..
Aside from the fact it has the worst alloys ever (I have NO Idea why BMW insisted on fitting those wheels to so many Fives, they are horrid) it looks pretty nice. Whilst it's not hugely overpriced it's no bargain either, probably becuase its low mileage and low mileage Fives are rare. People didn't buy these cars to pop to bingo once a week. 523i is 170bhp.
Just been doing some reading on Parkers.com
I'm very impressed at the specs, I honestly didn't think I could get as much car as that with the amount of money we are looking at spending
I don't want to spend too much but at the same time I don't want to buy crap .. I want to buy a car which will last us a good few years and the 5 seems to be it ... the others I had been thinking of just don't really compare either in looks or specs
Wonder if the garage is open tomorrow ?
I'm very impressed at the specs, I honestly didn't think I could get as much car as that with the amount of money we are looking at spending
I don't want to spend too much but at the same time I don't want to buy crap .. I want to buy a car which will last us a good few years and the 5 seems to be it ... the others I had been thinking of just don't really compare either in looks or specs
Wonder if the garage is open tomorrow ?
