BMW guys....I need a bit of advice.

[Fausto]

In a nutshell: I have an opportunity to purchase a 1994 BMW 530i with 75k on the dial that has been absolutely babied. All scheduled services performed by the dealership, not driven in winter, washed/waxed constantly, talked nicely to, read bedtime stories, etc (it belongs to my Dad....he's a stickler for keeping cars up).

Questions:

1) What kind of "issues" could I possibly expect with this car? It has thus far never been in the shop aside from scheduled maintenance. AFAIK, beemers are quite sound mechanincally speaking, but what about electronic gremlins and other peripheral stuff? I'd be a nice car to have, but not if it's going to be in the shop 90% of the time.

2) IF something were to crap out, what kind of repair costs am I looking at? I'm certainly expecting it to be more than my Altima, but how much more?

Anything else I should know? I'm not too concerned about insurance since I have a clean record, I'm 31, married and don't live within city limits (read: not subject to ridiculous premiums).

Thanks in advance,

Fausto

 

Read this

 

[iamwiz82]

it has a ton of TSBs.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: Roger
Read this

great minds think alike

 

great minds think alike

So true,So true

 

[Fausto]

Okay, I see lots of general bulletins, but nothing along the lines of "car will explode if you do such and such". Is it going to be a POS, or are these just nitpicky things?

 

In general they are pretty good vehicles if you stay on top of the repairs.
The labor and parts for this vehicle can be very expensive.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: Roger
In general they are pretty good vehicles if you stay on top of the repairs.
The labor and parts for this vehicle can be very expensive.

Okay, that's about what I expected. I can handle keeping up with the maintenance, I just didn't want something that was going to be living in the shop.

Thanks again,
Fausto

 

[iamwiz82]

be wary of the Nikasil.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
be wary of the Nikasil.

Yeah, I was just reading up on that. I'll have to have my pop crawl under the car and check the number on the block. I really don't want to cough up the loot for a short block out of my own pocket. :Q

 

[Fausto]

Bump for any other opinions/info that might be lurking out there in the ATOT/Borg Collective.

 

[geekender]

Good choice Fausto. I just ditched my gas-hogging 1991 bronco in favor of a new Jetta Diesel (aka poor man's BMW).

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: geekender
Good choice Fausto. I just ditched my gas-hogging 1991 bronco in favor of a new Jetta Diesel (aka poor man's BMW).

This will be a slight decrease in mileage from the wife's Sentra, but it actually gets amazingly good mileage on the road for a V8. My dad just drove it to MI and back and averaged 27mpg. I get right at 30 in my Altima.

Just checked with my insurance rep and thanks to our clean records our yearly auto premium would only go up about $400. Gotta love not living in Atlanta city limits ....it'd be three to four times the current amount if that were the case.

 

[lizium]

Well... see the old 5-series (the one you are getting) are not favored amongst BMW enthusiasts, but its still a great car. You can expect that baby to hit 200,000+ miles, i've seen it, those engines are built forever.