Any of you own an E38? Or have opinions on them?

[Dick Schneiders]

I have an opportunity to purchase a 1999 740i locally and need to know if they are as good as our E34's? I have been reading posts on the E38 boards, but didn't recognize any of the names and didn't want to barge in and ask them if they thought the E38 was as good as an E34. :-)

I have always liked the dark blue and dark green BMW's and this 740i is a beautiful dark green. It has the winter package, with the heated seats etc. which should appease my wife. Any time I approach her about a car, her first question is if it has heated seats>

This car has 90,000 miles and seems to be in excellent condition. They are asking $17,000 (it is a local high end used car dealer), but I think I can get them to come down a bit.

Any and all opinions appreciated.

Thanks,

Dick Schneiders

[Phil Sanderson]

I've always liked the E38 because they are a great looking design. They are a continuation of the design line from the E34 and the last in that line. I think any E38 looks particularly good with ///M Parallel wheels.

regards
Phil

[DaCan23]

I have an opportunity to purchase a 1999 740i locally and need to know if they are as good as our E34's? I have been reading posts on the E38 boards, but didn't recognize any of the names and didn't want to barge in and ask them if they thought the E38 was as good as an E34. :-)

I have always liked the dark blue and dark green BMW's and this 740i is a beautiful dark green. It has the winter package, with the heated seats etc. which should appease my wife. Any time I approach her about a car, her first question is if it has heated seats>

This car has 90,000 miles and seems to be in excellent condition. They are asking $17,000 (it is a local high end used car dealer), but I think I can get them to come down a bit.

Any and all opinions appreciated.

Thanks,

Dick Schneiders

[winfred]

they look nice drive nice and are ungodly fast for a 4200lb car, agravating/expensive problems, everything seems to be a ordeal with the e38, disentagrating cat's with no obdII friendly aftermarket alternative, crappy pcv plate on back of intake and leak prone intake gaskets all lead to some weird injection problems. if you get one look into preventing the grounding problem in the c-pillar lights, one of our customers cars had this problem and the wrong fuse was repeatedly installed (by another shop) and burned up about $4k worth of body wiring harness. they have a couple annoyingly designed ball joint problems also, the front center steering link has a stupid way of mounting the tie rods to the link that wears out quickly, and the rear suspension lower ball joints are a total bitch to change and don't allways last too long

[TimGinCentralNJ]

...when I was looking at an E38 a couple years ago. Answered pretty much all my questions at the time.

Hope they're of some help to you.

Rgds,
Tim

http://www.e38.org/
http://www.seattle7s.com/tips.htm
http://bimmer.roadfly.org/7series/messages/archive/msgsy2001w42/34529.html


I have an opportunity to purchase a 1999 740i locally and need to know if they are as good as our E34's? I have been reading posts on the E38 boards, but didn't recognize any of the names and didn't want to barge in and ask them if they thought the E38 was as good as an E34. :-)

I have always liked the dark blue and dark green BMW's and this 740i is a beautiful dark green. It has the winter package, with the heated seats etc. which should appease my wife. Any time I approach her about a car, her first question is if it has heated seats>

This car has 90,000 miles and seems to be in excellent condition. They are asking $17,000 (it is a local high end used car dealer), but I think I can get them to come down a bit.

Any and all opinions appreciated.

Thanks,

Dick Schneiders

[Mr Project]

A local CCA member just bought a '99 740i Sport with 92k for 13.5k from the dealer. I think 17k is really, really high. There are a lot of good deals out there on E38s....nothing depreciates like a 7 series/S class/Saab. :D :D

[Dick Schneiders]

are they not keeping up with actual market trends?

I have been watching eBay for these cars for awhile and the prices have been around what the one I am looking at is listed, and some are considerably more.

The car I am looking at is not the Sport version, which is rarer, but that really was only about a $2,500 option when the car was new. This one does have the $1,800 premium audio system with trunk cd changer and the $1,200 cold weather package (heated seats, steering wheel, headlight washers, etc.). It also looks in mint condition and comes with an extended warranty.

Yes, I probably can get a better deal, but I live in a small city and the opportunity to find these types of cars locally is minimal.

If you can find me another '99 740i Sport with low miles for $13.5k, let me know and I will give you a finders fee, if you will drive it out here to central Kansas and guarantee the quality. :-) Also, it cannot be a white one!

I have been looking around at prices, and have not seen anything even close to $13.5k that I would consider worthwhile. One of the problems with living in a clean air, low crime area.

Dick Schneiders






A local CCA member just bought a '99 740i Sport with 92k for 13.5k from the dealer. I think 17k is really, really high. There are a lot of good deals out there on E38s....nothing depreciates like a 7 series/S class/Saab. :D :D

[Dick Schneiders]

it doesn't seem to be too much, even considering that the repairs will be more expensive than some cars. All of these cars have some stuff that typically will go bad, and as long as the engine and tranny are fairly robust, that is really all I worry too much about.

I appreciate the heads up (or is that heads ups?).

Dick Schneiders


they look nice drive nice and are ungodly fast for a 4200lb car, agravating/expensive problems, everything seems to be a ordeal with the e38, disentagrating cat's with no obdII friendly aftermarket alternative, crappy pcv plate on back of intake and leak prone intake gaskets all lead to some weird injection problems. if you get one look into preventing the grounding problem in the c-pillar lights, one of our customers cars had this problem and the wrong fuse was repeatedly installed (by another shop) and burned up about $4k worth of body wiring harness. they have a couple annoyingly designed ball joint problems also, the front center steering link has a stupid way of mounting the tie rods to the link that wears out quickly, and the rear suspension lower ball joints are a total bitch to change and don't allways last too long

[Dick Schneiders]

and why not?

I had been looking at the Roadfly e38 forum for a few days. They seem to be a lot more helpful than did the e34 Roadfly forum.

The e38.org site seems to have a ton of information.

Dick Schneiders


...when I was looking at an E38 a couple years ago. Answered pretty much all my questions at the time.

Hope they're of some help to you.

Rgds,
Tim

http://www.e38.org/
http://www.seattle7s.com/tips.htm
http://bimmer.roadfly.org/7series/messages/archive/msgsy2001w42/34529.html

[TimGinCentralNJ]

...I hadn't been able to find a decent one anywhere near me. I found what I thought to be a really nice E38 740iL, though it was a lot more money than I was looking to spend, so I continued looking for an E34. The car was a '95 and was owned by my mechanic since new, and he'd intentionally drove the car until 99k miles so he could replace the Nik block himself under full factory warranty. He'd been asking $20k for it with a set of Style 32's and brand new Michelin Pilot Sport A/S. Just too rich for my blood, even though I know the car had been 110% maintained and updated. Ended up with my current E34 535i for about 8300...big difference in price for me.

I've heard E38's are wonderful cars, though (as you've probably read) they do have their own 'weak' areas, like all bimmers do. The cats are the 1 expensive 'gotcha' I've heard a lot about.

My feeling is, if the maintenance records can speak to any of those 'weak' areas having been addressed already, it might make one damn fine automobile for you.

Keep us posted - would love to see pics if you go through with it.

Rgds,
Tim


and why not?

I had been looking at the Roadfly e38 forum for a few days. They seem to be a lot more helpful than did the e34 Roadfly forum.

The e38.org site seems to have a ton of information.

Dick Schneiders

[Mr Project]

Dick, I live in Lincoln, NE. A small town with clean air not far from your central KS location. :) The dealer was here in town 'Husker Auto Group'.

I'll keep my eyes open if you like. Here's the contact information if you want to give them a call and see what they have/can find.

Husker Auto Group - BMW of Lincoln
(402) 479-7500
6833 Telluride Dr
Lincoln, NE 68521

[Mr Project]

....Oh, and it might have been 14.5k that he paid, I know the dealer made $1k (it was a quick turn-around trade-in). KBB values are pretty worthless in today's used car market, IMO. Edmunds.com TMV is better, but not perfect either.

[ryan roopnarine]

i know some people that paid well under 18k last year for a 98 750il with 125,000 miles. they said it had been trouble free in operation, the only problem the owners have is that the PO dicked around with the stereo to install an aftermarket amp and headunit, and now the factory cd player doesn't receive FM radio signals quite right.....keep in mind, though, that they have a jaguar xk8, so the "trouble free" might just be relatively speaking :D

[Dick Schneiders]

almost straight south of you. Lincoln is quite a bit larger than Salina, but I would agree they have similar life styles.

I will contact them and see what they have. I've been to Lincoln several times over the years for football games. Are you a Husker fan? I am a KSU Wildcat. The Big 12 North is certainly messed up this year. It looks like KSU will once again get into the Championship game, but with a 4-4 league record. I hate these Conference Championship games!

I still really like the 740i that I am looking at, but now wonder about the price. It still is several thousand (actually about $6,000) under Kelly Blue Book price, and is in wonderful condition. If the typical problem areas have been taken care of, I probably will still buy it. I have been looking for a newer V8 BMW for some time now and this is the first one that really has just about everything I want. They simply do not come up for sale around here.

Thanks for the information.

Dick Schneiders



Dick, I live in Lincoln, NE. A small town with clean air not far from your central KS location. :) The dealer was here in town 'Husker Auto Group'.

I'll keep my eyes open if you like. Here's the contact information if you want to give them a call and see what they have/can find.

Husker Auto Group - BMW of Lincoln
(402) 479-7500
6833 Telluride Dr
Lincoln, NE 68521

[silverz06vette]

We have a 99 740il. Bought it in June with 52k on it, has CPO (6yr 100k BMW warranty) till the middle of this month.

It now has 58k on it.

Paid $22,900 at the time which I thought was ok with the CPO.

Here are the items that where wrong when purchased.

1. most electronic in the right front door did not work.
2. Upper thrust arm bushings already shot.
3. Valve cover gaskets leaking oil.

1 and 3 where done under CPO, but the CPO does not cover anything rubber, I tried 3 different dealerships here and they all said the same. So I just got done removing the upper control arms myself. Not too hard. Got Lemforder arms coming from BMA $140 each.

Also the regulator went out in the right rear window, CPO covered that. Then the radiator upper neck cracked at about 55k. They came and picked it up and I had it back the next day.

The window regulator and the radiator are very common as well as the control arm bushings as well all know. I think you can buy the radiators for like $200 now.

The E38 is a 100% joy to drive. You will have to work on it or purchase an extended warranty. For me its worth it.

We had owned a 93 740il, drove it till 150k and sold it a few years ago.

So call your local BMW service dept with the VIN and get the service records first. Most everything was covered till 4/50k.

[Mr Project]

No problem, Dick. Yep, I'm a Husker fan, it's hard not to be when I was born and raised in Lincoln. :) Not as rabid as some, though I am starting to wonder how long it will be before we scrape out another win....it's been a long year, and it will be longer yet. :D

I've driven through Salina many times...just recently on my way back from San Antonio in the E34...I was getting about 27 MPG right about then, and enjoying it quite a bit. :)