The 7 series are appealing. And i got offered an 01 740i in trade for the miata. 180k.
I like the looks.
Whats the deal? I tried google, but theres sharks in them waters.
Plan: Comfortable daily with Italian hit man style. Because im a italian guy......
And its already black with 20% tint.
What do i need to know, look at, look out for, etc?
Thinking of going the road sofa route? No help with Bimmers, but give it a good once over. Parts for them will be pricey.
Looked at parts prices. Those are all over the map. Amazing differences.
But definitely more expensive than gmt400 parts.
And definitely road sofa. But not a caddy or Lincoln. Bad experiences there. But that was eastern Tennessee and sub $300 cars.
Early ones had serious engine issues. 4.4 had timing chain problems. Trans is average reliability. All the other BMW issues. Plan on changing entire cooling system and all other fluids and filters upon purchase.
From what I know about them, the later VANOS (99 - 01) 740s do have timing chain issues, but that's a fix it once and be done. They've got more power and burn less gas the earlier V8s. Other than that, they need to be maintained, but they're not unreliable.
Find out if there's a maintenance history. If not, assume you're going to be paying for whatever should have been done, which will not be cheap. That and the presence or absence of rust are the most important factors in any older BMW purchase.
Nevermind. Guy said 180k on new engine. 350k on chassis.
No. Just no.
Well dats dat. Next........
I loved my E38, but wanted something more fun. For a big girl, she could definitely dance. Great highway bomber. I did a weekend Detroit-DC-Detroit with average speed near 80 mph and gas mileage about 22 mpg. They are generally robust but suffer pretty much all of the E 39 issues, so:
- cooling system is consumable
- cup holders will be broken
- pixels will be out
- if timing chain guide replacement isn't documented, it will be in a future driveabeater thread (FWIW, that job is tedious but not difficult)
- change the ATF and filter
again, I loved mine, and would probably rock one again.
Someone please teach me how to embed video here...
In reply to AngryCorvair :
Then click on the icon to the left of the smiley face.
I have two currently, both are 01 short wheel base cars. One is a regular 740i the other is a sport model, the sporty shorty is 10x the drivers car the regular one is. Differences include 3.15 rear vs 2.83, higher stall torque converter, tiptronic trans, m parallel wheels, shadow line trim, stiffer shocks and springs, lower rise height, stiffer sway bar and etc etc etc.
Chain guides are a 4000+ dollar job at a shop but not super difficult to do at home just time consuming. Do vanos at the same time and the cars will run forever.
I plan on going six speed manual and keeping it otherwise stock. Besides the eissenmann exhaust it already has.
Buy one.
My coworker is looking for an e38 740i or li (not black) to be a daily. He wants a sport model or a 01+ because the body colored lips and skirts. I think he's looking to spend 4k or less.
Love the short wheel E38 look; sadly all the ones by me are the long wheel and way too beat up. The guy who swapped the 427 LSX in the E39 wagon sold it for (among other reasons) to fund his E38 build; believe he was tossing in a S62,
But as already mentioned, suffers from typical BMW v8 issues, along with usual BMW issues. Part prices aren't horrible if you don't buy OEM and use Rock Auto/eBay for the majority of everything. I've been fixing up a very neglected E61 slowly but surely and refused to spend more than need be.
Also, even though this is GRM, it helps to work on the car yourself. Much cheaper than even taking it to an indepnedant.
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