The best car for £5000? I think so..would you?

Jez

Jez

Jez

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
33,073
Fox has pointed this unsold car to me, and i just cant stop thinking about it. Its unsold, and is worth around £5000. I want a fancy car for the summer, and this is just perfect.

Is it possible to get a better car for this kind of money (or even double this money!), i am thinking not, these E38's to me seem to represent the absolute best value for money you are likely to get in a car.

74_12_sb.JPG


Seems to be pretty much fully loaded, with a nice smooth 5.4L V12, would make a nice summer cruiser? Looks exactly like i'd want it to look too which means i'd have to do nothing to it other than tint the windows and stick on a private plate.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1995-BMW-750I...oryZ9837QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Anyone beat it for value for money? Aim of car is to be a nice relaxed summer posing/cruiser type thing. Only other car i can think of is a range rover but for this budget they are all a bit flakey.
 
STAY AWAY.

Unless you have the tools and the knowledge the E38 750i is an absolute money pit. The self-levelling suspension alone can be serious trouble and costs mega money to fix.

We've had an E32 750i in the household for a few years now and if I didn't know what I was doing it would have cost us thousands and thousands to keep running.

If you want an E38 get a 740i instead without self-levelling. Very reliable and much MUCH cheaper to service and repair.
 
Rilot said:
If you want an E38 get a 740i instead without self-levelling. Very reliable and much MUCH cheaper to service and repair.
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Is the self levelling suspension an option on all models or was it just a feature on 750's?

The fact that it was a 750 is almost a non issue, a 740i would be just as good for me, it was merely that that particular car was in the exact right specification for me. I just saw the bigger engine as a small bonus!

Is there anything else you would look out for specifically on a loaded 740i? You seem to know loads about everything to do with larger bmw's which i am very thankful for :)

Edit: Fox, that 540 is going to end up being rather more than 5k i suspect!
 
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[TW]Fox said:
Until Rilot says that 540i's are also moneypits :(
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My 540i was faultless until it hit about 120,000 miles. At which point things started to go wrong. Nothing major just the usual E38/E39 stuff such as the LCDs loosing some of their lines, air-con and heater not working as they should, and random electrical issues.

The E39 540i is an awesome car. Needs to be a 99 or newer with the double VANOS though.
 
Rilot said:
My 540i was faultless until it hit about 120,000 miles. At which point things started to go wrong. Nothing major just the usual E38/E39 stuff such as the LCDs loosing some of their lines, air-con and heater not working as they should, and random electrical issues.

The E39 540i is an awesome car. Needs to be a 99 or newer with the double VANOS though.
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Is it the sort of thing that you could live with or replace without massive expense (Massive expense being thousands a year on replacement bits).

The cars I am looking at are 80k+ miles, I'd prefer the value of a 100k+ car..

I'm assuming that all the issues are not 540i specific issues and would plague even a 520i?
 
Jez said:
Is there anything else you would look out for specifically on a loaded 740i? You seem to know loads about everything to do with larger bmw's which i am very thankful for :)
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There are a number of common problems with the E38s. Take your time a pick a good one as a tatty one with a few problems will cause you loads of head aches.

Things to check:

E38 general
- Lower control arms can wear. Manifests itself as judder under braking much like a warped disk.
- Check the tyre wear, bad camber at the rear will destroy tyres in 5 minutes.
- Avoid ANY car with either EDC (electronic damper control) or LAD (load adaptive damping AKA self levelling). This means all LWB versions. Both systems were great when new but are a nightmare to fix and go wrong frequently.
- Check the operation of the seat motors. They are expensive to replace and in some cases can need a new seat to fix.
- Dashboard LCDs should have no lines missing. To fix then you need to replace the entire binnacle.
- Watch out for a red LED next to the odometer readout. If it's on, WALK AWAY as the car has been clocked. It signifies a sync error between the display and the car's ECU.
- Any vibration under acceleration and you should walk away. This means the prop-shaft centre bearing is shot and replacement is a £1500 job. This only really affects 750is and 740is that have had a hard life. 730i and 735i aren't powerful enough to wreck the bearing.

750i specific
You should be able to balance a pound coin on it's edge on top of the engine with it running and without the coin falling off. If you can't there's something wrong with it and you should walk away.

740i and 735i specific
Engine is rubber mounted and will twist under hard acceleration. This constant movement can break the radiator which isn't cheap to replace.

Avoid any car older than 1996 as these had the old 4.0 and 3.0 M60 engines which had horrendous problems.
 
[TW]Fox said:
Is it the sort of thing that you could live with or replace without massive expense (Massive expense being thousands a year on replacement bits).

The cars I am looking at are 80k+ miles, I'd prefer the value of a 100k+ car..

I'm assuming that all the issues are not 540i specific issues and would plague even a 520i?
Click to expand...

The LCDs weren't a major issue but the aircon and heater problems absolutely were. Blower only worked on MAX and heater didn't work at all.
All BMWs will suffer from this at one point or another, it's to do with the bad IHKA and SWORD modules.

If you have a friendly specialist who really knows what they are doing, E39s can go on forever with relatively little expense. If you can only go to main dealers or back-street spanner monkeys they are a money pit at high mileages.
 
Thankyou for that :)

Bare in mind that the above example is a SWB model (i am not interested in extra rear legroom, therefore will not be looking at LWB models at all) will it necessarily have EDC or LAD?

Only other question would be how to check whether a car is fitted with either of the above, the rest of it seems fairly straight foward and easy to spot. Naturally with the value of these second hand i will be expecting an absolute minter with either FBMWSH or very close to full.

Again thanks for the pointers :)
 
Rilot, purely from a potential expense/running costs/hassle point of view and ignoring insurance would you pick 528/530/535 or 540 (Can apply this to 728/730/735/740 to help Jez as well as I'm sure they are similar answers)

:)
 
LAD and EDC were optional on all cars. Not that common on SWB models but I think it was standard on all 750is though.

EDC will have a set of buttons above the shift tunnel for ride height adjustment.
LAD is harder to spot. If it's working then get a mate to sit in the boot and then start the engine, the back end of the car should rise up. If it's broken you can't tell apart from the car will bounce around at the rear something terrible when you drive it.

LAD equipped cars have a much larger PAS fluid revervoir under the bonnet. The stock one is spherical and about the size of a grapefruit. The LAD equipped ones are cylindrical and about the size of a kitchen roll.
 
Grandad styling, but can look VERY nice in black with suitable alloys, Lexus LS400. Cost you about half as much too, very quick machines and bulletproof engines.

Only electrical problem I'm aware of is the lights for the needles going, cost about a grand to get fixed at a Lexus dealer, or about 300 quid out of one.

Lexus_LS400_1B.jpg



Or one of the Soarer coupes,

92_lexus_sc400_black.jpg


In 2.5 single/twin turbo or 4.0 Litre V8 flavours :D
 
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