Eagle

Unless he wants something modern then this is just plain wrong. Id never tell anyone to get a BMW for the sake of it and there's is much better selection for the usual makes no doubt. One of my friends is still rocking his E36 318is he bought in 2006 for 10k and its cost him next to nothing. If i bought something like a 10k E36 318is these days off someone who really looks after cars then id trust its reliability would be as good if not better than most cars. I DD'd my old E34 535i manual with 450,000km on it for years without spending or doing hardly any work on it. Plenty of good reliable and cheap to run BMW's

Looks tidy, seats are quite unique. I agree its begging for a manual swap and a nice set of rims

Haha, to be honest you didn't exactly pick a cheap to maintain model\chassis, but you could of done much worse. Many people would happily spend more on the purchase price to buy something newer or more reliable etc, even though buying something cheaper\older and having to spend money on fixing it to a decent standard could up cheaper in the long run. I think everyone hates dealing with cars now and again.

Nice car. Shouldn't be too hard to sell the most reliable and robust 7 series ever made.

Damn On the positive side at least it can be replaced easy if required or you can change to something else

That's why fold down seats are good, you relocate them to the boot easily when you need a break.

Dreams are free

They certainly are the best tyre around for the money in my experience. Tbh once you fit new dampeners and replacement springs (even if std ones) you'll probably be doing some word eating haha.

They sound like 3 series wheels then E39 offsets are around ET20, so i highly doubt it they will work without hitting fender wells when turning and rubbing on brake calipers etc using the correct size tyres. Even if they worked you'd compromise handling with reduced track and the car would look terrible. Assuming typical tyre sizes in 8-9" you'd need a 25-30mm hubcentric wheel spacers and bolts for the front, and a 15-20mm ones for the rear. This would bring it into spec without and you wouldn't have any issues unless you lowered it excessively.

"Non turbo with similar output" Yeah because you left the torque figure out of the equation like the bs'ing car salesman you are.

Yes same word different definition

Yeah and get rid of that that hideous spoiler and it wouldn't be too bad.

Sounds like a grounding issue to me. Being a BMW id check all the connections like holders, plugs etc at rear lights first.

Yeah Mercedes was always the higher quality and more refined ride back then but that why ive never liked the concept of them, that and the W201 looks weird to me with tacked on sporty bits. The E30 was far more natural looking.

200,000 is nothing really, it maybe a positive in fact if the water pump etc have been done. The N52 appears to have less overall issues than the M54 but the ones it does have are more costly to fix. Neither engine bulletproof in my book but they certainly aren't bad per se. Id rate them similar reliability wise taking into account that N52 are generally newer and have less mileage, they use much of the M5X design. M54 isn't great to work on but the N52 generally worse in my experience, more compact, more things to remove and even more stupid fasteners to worry about.

60k sounds like a figure they sold it for in their dreams

Believe it was through Autolign, at the time i just specified what springs i had and just wanted the setup to be a bit more livable on the road. I never used B8's are std, i got them revalved after removing the B6's that i bought instead of B8's. H&R springs aren't known for great for ride quality either. E24 should ride better than an E30 either way.

Not my thing but its the E12 suspension design so maybe not to worse thing you could do to it. Yeah looks tidy on the outside but no mention of any other work done and too many wanky exterior photos with little else.

Single din headunits with those fascias always look out of place on BMW's. The way @qube did it for his E39 was ok though. Id just get a dynavin etc clone and be done with it, they are only a couple of hundred more and have much many more features, even if dont use all of it its surely helps when you sell the car.

Yeah ive heard people getting picked up now for non factory LED driving lights. Ive got 5W LED's in my high beam halos, pretty much matched to the factory xenon low beam halo, you'd never know they weren't factory from the outside. I get my WOF for free atm so wouldnt fail on it but id just swap them back after the WOF if i was ever in the situation. Yeah that why i hate driving at night, so much light pollution these days esp with rain, it's much worse when you on a motorcycle. You don't even need low beams in the city at night to see.

FCP with Fedex for 2x E39 front struts and 2x rear shocks was $100 USD, It was $60 USD if shipping them as pairs. I use Youshop when their charges get a bit excessive for smaller items and i dont mind waiting. They were going to charge for $50 USD to ship a front wheel bearing at a few little connectors and seals, Youshop was $50 NZD with the 5-9 day and $37 iirc for 7-14 day.

Would think they would have better rates on the newer model parts as they would be more likely to stock them?. Part of the issue is not having any options when using a dealer, ie you can buy the same OE part from a supplier for much cheaper a lot of the time.

Depends on who you ask. Personally i always do strut mounts, followed by bump stops and dust boots if perished, some times the lower spring pad if it looks deformed but i re-use everything else.

Suppose to come down to your definition. To me its a bit like smoking, there is a push to reduce fossil fuel consumption but i wouldn't say the industry is going to die out anytime soon, It's likely going loose market dominance in certain segments over time as other tech evolves, specially if taxation side makes it favorable to own something else. Those with money will likely be far better off and usual and could pick and choose. Modern engine advancement seems to be all about ringing out the rag to need emission targets, doing more with less, even when there are break through's its always at the expense of something else, we all know most things these days are build to a certain lifespan.

Much depends on how thorough you want it done too, replacing old seals, shifter bushings, clutch and drive line components etc will increase the cost but certainly provides many benefits. Like most things you get what you pay for.