Leaderboard

Disappointed, I thought this would be the 540i “Schnitzer” from Rose City Cars that started at $35k(?).

I didn't realize "luxurious feel of a bygone era" was code for "has cloth seats".

Someone is going to buy that and press it into service and find out why low km cars that have been sitting around for decades arent a good idea. The tires alone have a date code of 5206 on them, which makes them almost 20 years old. That should be illegal to wof/sell.

Yeah it looks like a poor reproduction, or just a "close enough" match. The actual retrim itself looks decent though. I'm curious if he's had the entire car resprayed, or close door and if the door jams are still silver / engine bay too. Hard to tell without any photos, looks like the tailgate inner is silver still. Also wonder who his mechanic is with this nonsense "My mechanic says it’s a newer engine than what the mileage suggests, and in his opinion about 150-200k) and must have got swapped out prior to me owning it."

Its a very nice car, no doubt, but the reupholstery on the 318i Touring makes me very hapy I stumped for all original BMW fabric for my retrim - looks like spotlight or corolla fabric.

Owned both in manual and auto form and you certainly feel the added weight of the V8, plus steering rack vs box makes a big difference in feel, hard not to notice that. The auto 540i is probably near 200kg heavier than a manual 6 cyl depending on options. 540i is great on the open road when you need passing power but mostly wasted if you doing typical Auckland driving. A M54 in good running condition with working vanos has great torque for a old 3L.

Buy a msport 530i and swap the manual bits into it. Not quite as fast as a 540i but way more reliable, better handling and you can use most of the parts from your 528i (540i mostly limited to interior, exterior and rear suspension parts from 528i). The average auto 540i is too much of a ticking timing bomb with timing chain guides, unreliable transmissions as well as the usual E39 issues. So unless its been owned by someone like @hqstu or someone who has thrown lots money at it, id probably avoid it.

Not cheap - realistic