Went for a bit of a road trip to buy this car today, ended up running extremely fast in the other direction.
Under the bonnet is an unmitigated disaster:
*Oil everywhere, and heaps of it. Rocker cover gasket is gone, others are suspect.
*Coolant stains all over the show- like, really majorly bad- needs a total cooling system replace. Rust to the pipes heading off to the heater- so who knows what the inside of that system looks like too
*Most tellingly for me though, was the tiny copper particles merrily swirling about in the coolant (I say coolant- it is more a kind of dirty water). That's right, bright clean copper, not rust. Oil was clean, so maybe some other kind of leak not just a dodgy head gasket fix.
Made an offer which they accepted, but decided it really needs a new engine and cooling system, so not really worth the effort when combined with the hideous blue interior- alas, no manual E39 for me.