Robbie said:Pretty sure my XJR does not have CATS.
I think some XJRs did, some didn't. I can't remember if it was optional or by year or if it was only the XJR 100 that got it.
Robbie said:Pretty sure my XJR does not have CATS.
I think some XJRs did, some didn't. I can't remember if it was optional or by year or if it was only the XJR 100 that got it.
I'm not sure if the US XJR got CATS, all the XJR's on the forums I see with it are euro or VDP. I'm pretty sure all the lwb supercharged VDP got CATS though.
Found it, only 2002 and 2003 x308 XJR could be ordered with CATS.
Potentially expensive air suspension is something I'd rather avoid (we already have a Range Rover with occasionally leaky air suspension), I think I'll give that VDP a miss...
Spent a little more time digging last night thanks to an unwelcome bout of insomnia and found a couple of low-mileage 5 series BMWs - both are 525s but I don't need a rocketship, especially as the car will spend an awful lot of time stuck in traffic in the Bay Area.
I generally prefer E34s over E39s looks wise (plus I've owned a couple of E34s in the past so I know my way around them), but even though it's almost twice my budget that E39 is tempting. Let's see if the owners of either can be bothered to get back to me.
$7k for an E39 525i is way too much. I've seen pretty clean 540s for a good bit less than that.
There's no doubt I can get a decent-ish E39 540i for about half the asking price of the 525, maybe even less. It'll have 2-3 times the miles on it, though. At least out here, there seems to be a massive divergence in prices when it comes to low mileage, 1-2 owner E34s and E39s. Just poking around CL between here and San Francisco suggests that the E39 is probably about a grand off (too high). Mind you, that's still a bit rich for me, which is why I'm more interested in the E34.
Why not a baby Lexus?
If you step up to the V8 ES series, you're actually in a car that has a potential to make serious HP.
In reply to Brett_Murphy :
That IS I'm mostly discounting because of the miles on it. We on this forum know that it should be fine, but it's going to be fairly hard to resell to a civilian in spring. If it was below $3k it'd potentially be worth the hassle, but it'd still be a hard sell.
In reply to Brett_Murphy :
No V8 ES. The ES is just a dolled up Camry.
Heard back from the seller of the E34 and spoke to his mechanic as well. Mechanic's comment was "you can find them for a grand or so cheaper, but you'll be hard pressed to find one in this condition at all".
I'll be going to look at it this afternoon.
Looks like I'll be picking up the E34 on Saturday.
Looks like a good choice to me. Here's to hoping everything works out!
BoxheadTim said:Looks like I'll be picking up the E34 on Saturday.
Sweet! its a beautiful car. I love the last3s, 5s, and 7s with round headlights.
Looks like I'm late to the game, I hope the BMW is good to go.
I was going to suggest Infiniti I30/I35. Should be able to get a really nice one for under $4K.
Nice BMW. If you are like most commuting Americans you will soon notice that there is no cup holder in these early designs. Funny though, there is tons of center console real estate available so you should be able to find some solution.
Congrats! Looking forward to pics
Pics will probably have to wait until Monday - I'm picking it up on the way to Thunderhill for a track day as I get to play chief instructor there. Unless we have picture uploads by then :) I won't be able to stick a picture on my webspace until Monday.
In reply to BoxheadTim :
Throw one up on Imgur and link it here. It works fine for uploads from a phone.
You're right about the ES, I was thinking of the GS, sorry.
However, I see the choice has been made. Good luck with the car, BoxheadTim!
I just realized that I completely forgot to update the thread now that I've picked up the car, so here it is in all its glory:
Drives pretty well, feels underpowered in typical BMW fashion - ie, the motor doesn't wake up until it gets to about 4k rpm. Gets surprisingly good fuel mileage, too - so far around 27mpg in very mixed driving.
Unfortunately it's already in the shop as I have zero wrench time at the moment - one of the power steering hoses started to split and by now it's losing a fair amount of fluid. While it's in there I'll also have the transmission fluid and filter changed, and a couple of other small issues address that are much easier if the car is on a lift.
One of the fun jobs was to get rid of the hard water spots that were all over the windows. The rear window probably had enough deposits on it to let less light through than your average CA legal tint, and when someone was driving behind me, their headlights would light up pretty much the whole windows. Anyway, I spent about four hours yesterday getting that stuff off all windows - ended up having to pre-treating it with 000 steel wool soaked in Barkeeper's friend before the DA polisher with a glass pad and glass polish would take the rest off...
In reply to BoxheadTim :
Beautiful color combo.
That's a nice, clean-looking 525i! Hard to find E34's in good condition nowadays.
Congrats on the car, it looks nice.
This thread made me go look for E34s. Can you believe there are two E34 tourings with manual trans currently for sale in Toronto. Both are very clean and relatively low mileage and LSDs. Huh.....
In reply to Aspen :
And you haven't gone to look at one of them?
There was actually an automatic 530i touring for sale in the Bay Area but that had a few too miles on it for comfort.
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