davintosh

Here’s one that I’ve seen on the Chicago CraigsList several times. I would dearly love to have this car; it sounds awesome.

(link)

Yeah, 363k on a car sounds like a lot… but on a 25 year old vehicle, that only comes out to under 15k a year, which isn’t too bad for a daily driver in a major metropolitan area. And it sounds like this is truly a daily driver, and has been well maintained. And the guy knows his BMW gear… the original engine was replaced with one from a European 635csi. Then there is the list of modifications…

Condition-wise, the car seems pretty solid. The seller says that while it’s not perfect, he wouldn’t hesitate to hop in & drive it cross-country. He’s provided a link to a Photobucket album with a ton of extra photos (link); from that it looks like he’s being honest about the car’s condition. It doesn’t look like your run-o’-the-mill vehicle from 1983. And a car that’s 363,000 miles looking like this one does has definitely been well cared for, and will very likely go many more miles.

The seller lists a few of the issues with the car… Cruise control does not work, a leak in the A/C somewhere, the driver’s side back window “just stopped working”, and there is the inevitable “some minor spots of rust”. I really hate rust, but from his description and the photos it sounds manageable.

The seller is including with the car, “3 additional rust-free doors, the two original front seats in decent condition, the original TRX wheels with tires (tires aren’t good), a large box of miscellenous parts for the car, and a Bentley repair manual.” All in all, this sounds like a great car for $3,800 or best offer. Given the number of times the ad’s been seen on CL, I’d be willing to bet that he’d go a lot lower than that. The ad says it’ll be available for viewing until the snow flies; then it gets put away. I’d be willing to bet it’ll be back on CL in the spring. Let’s see if I can scrape together $3,500 or so by then.

I decided the site needed a new category, so this is the first in it; BMW of the Day. I wrote a while ago how I’d decided that my next vehicle purchase was going to be of the Bavarian variety, and since then I’ve been checking the CraigsList posts in Minneapolis, Chicago, Kansas City, and elsewhere for BMW’s in the sub-$5,000 price range. It’s amazing what you can find with those criteria.

My first example is this fine 1997 740iL in Glenview, IL, with just 104,000 miles on the clock — barely broken in.

Up for sale is a very clean White/Beige 1997 BMW 740IL with 104K miles. Automobile is in great condition. It was recently detailed.

Equipped with comfort heated front seats, heated steering wheel, premium sound with 6 disc cd changer, like new michelin tires, overall in great condition.

Please email me for a copy of Autocheck report.

MUST SEE, please email if you would like to come and see it or see more photos.

Link

I really like the looks of the 1995-2001 7-series — or E38 — sedans, and the iL more so than the standard -i sedans. The -iL designates the car to be of the “long-wheelbase” or “limousine” variety; the rear doors are about 6 inches longer, giving the rear seat passengers plenty of legroom. The E38’s sold in the US were all equipped with either the 4.4L V8 (the 740) or the 5.4L V12 (the 750); the V12 is much rarer than the V8, and from what I understand much more prone to engine control problems — it uses two engine control modules; one for each bank of six cylinders — and is much more difficult to diagnose. I don’t think I need that kind of headache, so I’ll go with the garden variety V8, thanks.

The Wikipedia article that discusses the E38 BMW’s says that they were sold with either the 5-speed automatic or the 5-speed manual transmission. I would much prefer the manual, but have yet to bump into one so equipped. I have seen a number of 5-series cars equipped with the 5.4L V8 and a 5- or 6-speed manual, so converting an automatic to manual wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility. In fact, if I do buy one with an automatic and if the transmission dies, that’s what I’d likely do.

It’s pretty common to see a 740i or 740iL selling in the $5,000—$6,000 range, and they seem to be well maintained and in good running condition. That makes sense for a lot of reasons; these cars generally sold for $50,000 and up, which tells me that if their owners had the means a purchase like that, they also had the means to have the car serviced regularly. BMW suggests a visit to the service center every 3,000 miles or so. If I buy one, I don’t know if I’ll be that anal about maintenance, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to pay them a visit now & then. The BMW dealership in Sioux Falls is Vern Eide. They’re not known for inexpensive service rates, but what dealer shop is?

Now, it’s a matter of waiting until the CFO gives the nod to either selling the Suzuki or handing it off to Ian. Until then, I’ll need to keep a towel over my laptop whilst browsing the CraigsList ads.