Hey guys,
I am out oon Martha's Vineyard today,and I spied a decent looking green 525i wagon for sale. I don't have any details on it other than it has tan leather interior,and an automatic transmission. I called the sellers cell phone number,and left a message,and am waiting to hear back. The car has some really slick looking BMW alloys on it as well. The body isn't perfect,and has a little rust on the bottom of the pass side rear door,but with a good paint job it could be presentable. Are these cars worth anything? I have no idea what year it is,but it has 4 round headlights on the grille. Amazingly the keys were in the ignition(well we are on an island),and the car was unlocked,but I didn't open it up to ccheck it out further. I have a couple of pics,but they will have to wait til I get home. Any help would be appreciated.
Its an E34, they are good cars, except for the automatics. If its an auto, RUN! They are usually spotted for $2500-3500 here in Georgia, but they dont really have rust down here...
E34 wagons only came in automatic flavor. They're decent cars, the self leveling suspension can be expensive to repair, sunroof problems, crap fuel mileage.
With rust it's worth somewhere between $500 - $2500 depending on the mechanical and interior condition.
Fellow Tunachucker teammate has one with over 250,000 miles on it, the little fiddly bits are slowly breaking on it but mechanically it seems pretty sound. His is rust-free (southern car) and he claims its probably worth about $1000. They make long trips in it all the time, about 27 to 28 mpg highway.
While I'd love a BMW wagon, I'd probably pass on any car that lived on an island.
Especially an island where it snows.
You see some seriously rare cars on this particular island though. Almost every trip I see a few VW Things,multiple Defender 90's,FJ55's,and loads of old Land Rovers. Almost starnage to see some many rare cars on a rock with no traffic lights,or fast food joints.
as far as parts goes if it has an m50 then the engine and especially the oil pan is useful. an s50/m50 engine swap for an e30 needs an e34 525i m50 pan and oil pickup as the e36 sump is in the wrong end.
otherwise theyre nice driving cars and have really good access in the engine bay so they arent usually difficult to work on. the auto is pretty dull though.
