E38 730i

Theophany · 15 May 2013 at 11:43

I'm going to look at an M reg example tomorrow - £200 from my grandfather. I've known the car for 10 years. It needs a respray, bit of bodywork and a thorough service. 130k miles, auto, stock. Looking at taking it on as a bit of fun, a pet project, but potentially replacing my 2.2 Civic Type S.

Should I get sectioned if I go ahead with this?

paradigm · 15 May 2013 at 11:49

For £200, I'll buy it right now!

I love the E38.

Definitely buy it!

JRS · 15 May 2013 at 11:51

You can hardly go wrong for that money. Get it bought!

Theophany · 15 May 2013 at 11:51

It is a proper old ****** of a car, but it's a labour of love. I have so many fond memories of the car - my dad owned it previously and he then had a face lifted 740i which went to wrack and ruin with another owner.

Am I being a bit bleary eyed and daft? I think I need a reality check with it. :/

wingman · 15 May 2013 at 11:53

Interesting, get up some pics!

wingman · 15 May 2013 at 11:54

Theophany said:
It is a proper old ****** of a car, but it's a labour of love. I have so many fond memories of the car - my dad owned it previously and he then had a face lifted 740i which went to wrack and ruin with another owner.

Am I being a bit bleary eyed and daft? I think I need a reality check with it. :/

At £200? Surely it's worth the risk? If "risk" is even a word that can be used with £200.

That's a couple of fill ups at the petrol station!

JRS · 15 May 2013 at 11:55

How much bodywork does it actually need doing? And is it cosmetic, or is there anything structural that's gone frilly? Still think it's got to be worth £200 even if it needs quite a lot of work.

Theophany · 15 May 2013 at 11:59

There's a dent in the boot lid, by the badge. Otherwise, it's tip top structurally. Totally accident free.

The paint is an absolute state, it's a lovely shade of blue but the gloss has come off and the paint has a patchy look where the base layer of blue is exposed. Ideally it's a respray job, but I suppose I could get away with a vinyl wrap without having to worry about the paint being damaged by poor workmanship (that's pragmatism btw, not complacency).

The only other issue is that the petrol tank has a ding in it, I think a berk grease monkey jacked it up in the wrong place, so the tank reading is out of whack. Servicing for the last few years has been done by a local garage, so there's history but the car hasn't seen a BMW (franchised or indie) for a long old while. My first port of call would, as previously stated, a proper service.

Janesy B · 15 May 2013 at 11:59

As long as you accept that you will need to spend thousands on it to get it 'right'....

Del Lardo · 15 May 2013 at 12:03

My father had a 'N' reg one from 98-04 IIRC, seem to recall that the engine sounded lovely as it was a 3.0 V8 and I was obsessed with the damping of the cup holders.

The aircon had stopped working and was an expensive fix when he got rid at 120k (which is a common problem IIRC) and the various dot matrix displays had started to fail which again was another common problem. Still for £200 it's worth a punt even if it's just for fun.

Theophany · 15 May 2013 at 12:03

Janesy B said:
As long as you accept that you will need to spend thousands on it to get it 'right'....

That's what I figured.

It's also going to be worthless by the time I'm done with it. There is no return on investment, it's a 'run into the ground' job.

paradigm · 15 May 2013 at 12:13

Is the paint not recoverable by a decent machine polish?

Theophany · 15 May 2013 at 12:15

Possibly, but it looks patchy because there are parts where the gloss is still on. I'll try and get some pics up to see what you all think.

Janesy B · 15 May 2013 at 12:18

Sounds like the lacquer has failed.

JRS · 15 May 2013 at 12:19

Theophany said:
The paint is an absolute state, it's a lovely shade of blue but the gloss has come off and the paint has a patchy look where the base layer of blue is exposed.

Oh, so it's just the lacquer peeling? Not terribly hard for a halfway decent paintshop to sort.

Theophany said:
The only other issue is that the petrol tank has a ding in it, I think a berk grease monkey jacked it up in the wrong place, so the tank reading is out of whack.

Live with it, the tank is a proper pain to remove on the E38!

[TW]Fox · 15 May 2013 at 12:31

Ordinarily you'd be mad to buy a 730i - they were the worst E38's (ie, super thirsty yet slow) and this one is pretty old. But for £200? With the history? Go for it, its not as if you are going to be relying on it doing 12k a year or something.

Joe T · 15 May 2013 at 12:39

Worth buying for £200, but not worth sinking much money into it after that. As you've said, it will still be worth sod all...!

Scania · 15 May 2013 at 12:57

Joe T said:
Worth buying for £200, but not worth sinking much money into it after that. As you've said, it will still be worth sod all...!

Same could be said if he paid 5 times the price tbh, any M plate e38 isn't going to be an investment.

On the other hand, if it costs him another £800 say putting it more or less right, it's one hell of a £1k runaround!

For the £200 asking price, it would be worth running into the ground if nothing else.

I miss my e38!!!

Theophany · 15 May 2013 at 13:00

JRS said:
Oh, so it's just the lacquer peeling? Not terribly hard for a halfway decent paintshop to sort.

Live with it, the tank is a proper pain to remove on the E38!

That's what I figured, in fairness the fuel tank ding happened probably about 8-9 years ago and it's never been more than a minor irritance.

[TW]Fox;24283649 said:
Ordinarily you'd be mad to buy a 730i - they were the worst E38's (ie, super thirsty yet slow) and this one is pretty old. But for £200? With the history? Go for it, its not as if you are going to be relying on it doing 12k a year or something.

That's the thing, I'd be looking to unload the diesel Honda (finance and all) as I shall be doing less mileage from this point onwards. This month I've done about 4k in business miles alone. The £200 outlay is only £30 more expensive than the monthly payments I make on the Civic.

E: this is not going as I planned. I'd hoped you'd all tell me to get my head fixed and stop being such a prat.

semi-pro waster · 15 May 2013 at 13:01

If you were to buy it and it turns out that it needs lots more work than you expected would you not be able to make back pretty much all of your money (or more) from breaking it?