Posts Tagged ‘caveat emptor’

BMWotD — e28 M5

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

This car came up for sale a couple weeks ago and was one of those things that might have got me in trouble. I would absolutely love to own an e28 M5, and this one sounded like a good solid car with a decent history of maintenance; it did have a few warts though which pushed the price down below the norm for these cars, but none of the disclosed warts would be difficult to overcome.

Unfortunately, or fortunately for me, the ad placed on MyE28.com lured in a buyer in what ought to be a record time of a little over 16 hours. But as the now disappointed buyer found out, things in an ad are not always as they seem, and diligence is always due especially when buying a car from afar.

First, here’s the copy & pics from the MyE28.com ad:

In the past several months I picked up an E60 M5 as a daily driver and an older SL600 as a project car. Consequently, my beloved E28 M5 hasn’t been getting any attention. As it sits, the car really isn’t a garage queen and was built to be driven. With this in mind, I’ve decided to let her go. My father purchased the car in the mid 90’s, and then sold it to me in 2009 (although we haven’t actually transferred the title yet so it’s still in his name). The car hasn’t been in any accidents and includes pretty extensive records both from me and from the previous owner who had the car maintained at Black Forrest Werkshop in Austin, Tx. Being a Tx car, there is absolutely no structural rust on the car or in the body panels. There is, however, a small bubble under the paint on the sunroof. At 180,XXX miles the car underwent an extensive rebuild during which almost every mechanical part prone to wear or failure was replaced. The result was an extremely mechanically sound, tight and fun to drive daily driver. I had intended to keep this car forever (hence the in depth rebuild), but at the moment both my garage and driveway are completely full and it just seems unfair to leave a car like this sitting out in the elements. The car has had regular oil changes with Valvoline VR1 20W-50 racing oil and valve adjustments performed @roughly 15k mile intervals. A full set of valve shims will be included in the sale of the car. Currently, the car has 193,XXX miles on it. A couple major points of the rebuild:
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