OK so earlier this year I swapped my 535is for this 740, see this thread:
retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=want&action=display&thread=102932&page=1
At the time I had never had a V8 and my brain said take the younger, bigger more economical (no, really) and impressive car with less miles.
Now its a few months on, my heart longs for the noise and retro cool of an e34 535is and I've been offered another one for a good price but I've got a 2 week deadline so the 740 is for sale, quick!
Basically it's an impressive 740 with the 4.4 litre 286 hp engine. It's supposed to be 6.6 seconds to 60 and I can believe it although I seldom push it that hard, there's no need. For the record it pulls cleanly and changes gear smoothly as it should.
The last owner fitted shadow line trim, a set of KW adjustable coil overs (which are still immaculate) and sprayed it very nicely in BMW blue but with added metal flake which is rather sparkly!
He did go to the trouble of spraying all the door shuts and underside of the trunk too which shows the attention to detail.
I have a minor job list I've been working through the status of which is shown below:
1.1 Front wheel bearing - Replaced in August.
2.Broken silencer mounts - Replaced with BMW parts.
3. The serpentine belt judders a little if you load the steering when the car is stationery - The last owner replaced the belt but I suspect its a pattern part or a slack tensioner, I have a genuine BMW belt set (serpentine and A/C belts) in the trunk with a new tensioner waiting to be fitted.
4.The foot operated parking brake needs adjusting. - Tackled with new handbrake shoes 23/10/11
5. The CD multichanger doesn't work - I keep forgetting to pick one up from ebay. The one in the car seems to stick when loading the discs.
6. The last owner had the pixel display in the dash changed but not the board computer, there are a couple of pixels out, you can still read it but it annoys me so I was going to have a specialist fix it.
Other than that there is some very minor damage to the underside of the sills, I believe the last owner had the suspension set VERY low and paid the price somewhere with a little underside damage. The cats took the worst of it and he shelled out a pretty penny for 2 new cats and O2 sensors. The suspension is now set with a minor amount of drop, nice stance but it's not scared of speed humps or road kill.
I believe the tax lasts until abut Feb time and the MOT is March but I will check and confirm these details because I'm writing this in a rush.
The car has about 132,000 miles and a large folder of history to back this up, in fact I think it's a FSH but this is TBC.
Now for the MPG question. My route to work is 5 miles and I don't pussy foot around and believe it or not the car is averaging 22.7mpg on the computer. Take it on the motorway and it manages 30-35mpg dependent on cruising speed. This blows me away because my 535is managed 17 and 25 in the same situations.
Lastly price - if I fixed my job list I would expect this to fetch something around £1500 but I haven't and I'm looking for a quick sale so it's £1200 ONO............. Edit: make it £1100!
I would consider other swaps but it would have to involve a substantial amount of cash to me (like £600) for obvious reasons.
Better pictures and info on the way in a few days time. If this doesn't sell I'll just continue to roll around in it. It's a beautiful comfortable car but my slightly flawed 535 just had the edge for character.
Anyway, thanks for reading.
Rob
edit Forgot to add: I'm in Milton Keynes viewings and test drives welcome.
retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=want&action=display&thread=102932&page=1
At the time I had never had a V8 and my brain said take the younger, bigger more economical (no, really) and impressive car with less miles.
Now its a few months on, my heart longs for the noise and retro cool of an e34 535is and I've been offered another one for a good price but I've got a 2 week deadline so the 740 is for sale, quick!
Basically it's an impressive 740 with the 4.4 litre 286 hp engine. It's supposed to be 6.6 seconds to 60 and I can believe it although I seldom push it that hard, there's no need. For the record it pulls cleanly and changes gear smoothly as it should.
The last owner fitted shadow line trim, a set of KW adjustable coil overs (which are still immaculate) and sprayed it very nicely in BMW blue but with added metal flake which is rather sparkly!
He did go to the trouble of spraying all the door shuts and underside of the trunk too which shows the attention to detail.
I have a minor job list I've been working through the status of which is shown below:
1.
2.
3. The serpentine belt judders a little if you load the steering when the car is stationery - The last owner replaced the belt but I suspect its a pattern part or a slack tensioner, I have a genuine BMW belt set (serpentine and A/C belts) in the trunk with a new tensioner waiting to be fitted.
4.
5. The CD multichanger doesn't work - I keep forgetting to pick one up from ebay. The one in the car seems to stick when loading the discs.
6. The last owner had the pixel display in the dash changed but not the board computer, there are a couple of pixels out, you can still read it but it annoys me so I was going to have a specialist fix it.
Other than that there is some very minor damage to the underside of the sills, I believe the last owner had the suspension set VERY low and paid the price somewhere with a little underside damage. The cats took the worst of it and he shelled out a pretty penny for 2 new cats and O2 sensors. The suspension is now set with a minor amount of drop, nice stance but it's not scared of speed humps or road kill.
I believe the tax lasts until abut Feb time and the MOT is March but I will check and confirm these details because I'm writing this in a rush.
The car has about 132,000 miles and a large folder of history to back this up, in fact I think it's a FSH but this is TBC.
Now for the MPG question. My route to work is 5 miles and I don't pussy foot around and believe it or not the car is averaging 22.7mpg on the computer. Take it on the motorway and it manages 30-35mpg dependent on cruising speed. This blows me away because my 535is managed 17 and 25 in the same situations.
Lastly price - if I fixed my job list I would expect this to fetch something around £1500 but I haven't and I'm looking for a quick sale so it's £1200 ONO............. Edit: make it £1100!
I would consider other swaps but it would have to involve a substantial amount of cash to me (like £600) for obvious reasons.
Better pictures and info on the way in a few days time. If this doesn't sell I'll just continue to roll around in it. It's a beautiful comfortable car but my slightly flawed 535 just had the edge for character.
Anyway, thanks for reading.
Rob
edit Forgot to add: I'm in Milton Keynes viewings and test drives welcome.
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