Worth buying? Old BMW 528i - advice needed from expert shitters

[Peter C]

11 minutes ago, HMC said:

Also- is it a trick of the light or are the bumpers below the rubbing strip a different colour? If you look at the rear bumper in the front 3/4 view it looks Matt on the lower part. Personally and a fault on my part probably but I dislike prefacelift e39s with (aftermarket?) angel eyed fitted, but that just personal choice. 
 

TL:DR to me that’s £750 tops

Small marks and rust aside, the paintwork is good.

All lights are genuine BMW.

[Peter C]

10 minutes ago, Agila said:

Don't know if you've seen this. Either way it's an option.

Seen it, it looks great but it’s located in a diseased part of the country, 5 hours and 290 miles away from me.

[sierraman]

Cars like this are difficult to buy at that age, on one hand you’ve the cheap ones but they’ll have fell into the sort of hands where they’ll have been run on a shoestring by somebody that doesn’t know what they’re doing. Tackle like that are fit only for running to the next MOT, rag the bollocks off it then expect to chuck it away. On the other hand you can get them where they’ve been owned from a few years old by a man of means, it’ll have been serviced on the dot and don’t properly. The problem is then that they’ll want the GDP of Hong Kong for it. 

[sierraman]

Also don’t buy into this idea it’ll run forever as it’s old and German, they’ll do some high miles but they’re nothing like as dependable as you’d think. Cooling system falls to bits and the 6 cylinder ones are scrap if it’s ever got hot. 

[Peter C]

3 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Cars like this are difficult to buy at that age, on one hand you’ve the cheap ones but they’ll have fell into the sort of hands where they’ll have been run on a shoestring by somebody that doesn’t know what they’re doing. Tackle like that are fit only for running to the next MOT, rag the bollocks off it then expect to chuck it away. On the other hand you can get them where they’ve been owned from a few years old by a man of means, it’ll have been serviced on the dot and don’t properly. The problem is then that they’ll want the GDP of Hong Kong for it. 

But this one has been well maintained and compared with comparable cars, it’s not that expensive.

[Spurious]

16 minutes ago, Ian_Fearn said:

I’ve just looked at WhatCar magazine who say the target pcp monthly payment on a bmw 530 is £500, it doesn’t say what the deposit is either! That’s 6k a year for something you’ll never own and you’ll almost certainly get screwed on a chipped alloy on return. 
I’d say it makes sense to budget £2k a year to keep it reliable and enjoy a proper old school petrol 6. You’ll still be on top financially even with a few bigger bills.

Look part of me sees this logic. And just a brief aside. 

But for some people who aren't mechanically inclined or bothered, a PCP deal is a nice way to run a car. Any problems with it during warranty, just drag it back to the dealer and most offer it with a service plan thrown in too.  You can budget these things then. 

The older car you get something more nice for less but if it breaks catastrophically, you're on you're own.  I can accept that they're sometimes disposable at that price point but the last thing I need is for it to shit the bed when I'm due in for work. That happened before and it cost about £100 in taxis and a headache without transport never mind the cost of an alternator. 

Don't get me wrong, I love cars, especally cheap ones, I've never spent more than 4k on one, but there needs to be people buying cars now for us to have them in 10-15 years time.  

As for the original question? I'd pass. It falls into that awkward age bracket where it's loaded to insure because of its age, potentially too young for a classic policy and it's a Cat C.  There's other E39s out there or other options. 

 

 

[big_al_granvia]

if the sills are rusty factor in welding costs, unless you can do it yourself.. pitch the auldyin at a bag of sand

[jmsguzzi]

21 minutes ago, Peter C said:

Seen it, it looks great but it’s located in a diseased part of the country, 5 hours and 290 miles away from me.

The car I’d like to replace it with is in the Lake District if that’s any better for a soft southerner like yourself! 

[Peter C]

8 minutes ago, jmsguzzi said:

The car I’d like to replace it with is in the Lake District if that’s any better for a soft southerner like yourself! 

Closer but not close enough.

[cort16]

I’d give it a miss . Did you see this one on Facebook ? 

https://m.facebook.com/groups/341580322708846?view=permalink&id=1505248569675343

[Peter C]

3 minutes ago, cort16 said:

I’d give it a miss . Did you see this one on Facebook ? 

https://m.facebook.com/groups/341580322708846?view=permalink&id=1505248569675343

I can’t get the link to work.

[cort16]

 

[HMC]

“Stage 2 detailing” for me that would be shaking the mats out.

[angle]

1 hour ago, wesacosa said:

Agree with that. I thought cat C was stuctural damage, so perhaps also something on the upright or the steering was also damaged

Nope. That's true with the new Cat S / Cat N classification, but C and D was purely on cost of repair. Cat C means the cost of the repair exceeded the cars value, and Cat D meant the whole insurance bill (including transport and car hire and storage and whatever else) would have been more than the car was worth. My old Xantia was Cat C for a slightly dented wing, on the basis it was worth about 27p, so more or less any repair work would have cost more than just paying out for a total loss. Same for an elderly BMW, I'd imagine. 

[Cookiesouwest]

I've had a few of these. I think its quite overpriced. But if you are not bothered by the Cat C mkr and the effect it will have at resale, then haggle him down. Must be a chunky margin in that car for the dealer to play with

[Patent]

Front lights look genuine and could be explained away by a slightly more serious front end prang that led to used units, bumper and wing being fitted from the same scrapper?

Rear lights  and bumper also look facelift so unless she was convinced to upgrade by the garage, maybe the shunt was a bit harder?

If it's straight underneath I'd punt lowball offer personally

[Spiny Norman]

I like these but my gut instinct from the description and pictures is walk away. Just looks like there's something not right with it to me.
Isn't there one on here just now?

[wesacosa]

13 minutes ago, angle said:

Nope. That's true with the new Cat S / Cat N classification, but C and D was purely on cost of repair. Cat C means the cost of the repair exceeded the cars value, and Cat D meant the whole insurance bill (including transport and car hire and storage and whatever else) would have been more than the car was worth. My old Xantia was Cat C for a slightly dented wing, on the basis it was worth about 27p, so more or less any repair work would have cost more than just paying out for a total loss. Same for an elderly BMW, I'd imagine. 

I stand corrected. I always thought C was structural. Thanks !

[RoadworkUK]

18 minutes ago, Patent said:

Front lights look genuine and could be explained away by a slightly more serious front end prang that led to used units, bumper and wing being fitted from the same scrapper?

Rear lights  and bumper also look facelift so unless she was convinced to upgrade by the garage, maybe the shunt was a bit harder?

The "upgradey-ness" of facelift bits certainly doesn't feel like it fits with the ownership provenance. Also, if it really does have Xenons, they'll be eBay/Amazon DIY "conversions". That dash has a manual headlight beam adjust knob, so it won't have had Xenons from factory, and I don't think bolting in facelift angel-eye Xenons is a plug-and play job. I think Xenons without auto-levelling is an MOT fail.

Otherwise, it does look nice, but an E39 that doesn't pose such questions is bound to be along soon enough.

[Patent]

That's very true, maybe even direct from the old giffer

[Jazoli]

1 hour ago, jmsguzzi said:

The car I’d like to replace it with is in the Lake District if that’s any better for a soft southerner like yourself! 

Its not, its 22 miles from the Lake District, its in Lancashire

[rainagain]

2 hours ago, Peter C said:

I agree about the lights, most odd that an old lady would feel the need to make such upgrades.

Yeah this but doesn’t sit right with me. TBH honest this and the cat C would really put me off. Could it be a ringer? Take the identify of a car owned by an old lady and stick it on your drug dealer spec stolen one?

[Peter C]

15 minutes ago, rainagain said:

Yeah this but doesn’t sit right with me. TBH honest this and the cat C would really put me off. Could it be a ringer? Take the identify of a car owned by an old lady and stick it on your drug dealer spec stolen one?

Doubt it. Take a look at the dealer’s stock, the trader is running a legit nearly new car sales business.

[Schaefft]

Cons:

For the mileage the price is too high

Cheapest interior, grey with cloth seats just looks cheap compared to all other options

Automatic which really isnt a recommendation, especially at that mileage, unless its what you definitely need

Rust will be worse under the sill plastic covers, the jacking points always rot out, especially when its already starting to show on the ends of the sills

Pros:

Cat C literally doesnt mean anything, the car was worthless 6 years ago, any damage would make it a cat C

All lights are genuine facelift parts from what I can tell (bumper is a normal pre-fl bumper), check if the LCM has been changed with the taillights or if it has the Hella retrofit kit (which I just installed on mine), in that case the owner spent a lot of money on updating the look of the car. Otherwise there will be lights for burnt out bulbs visible on the dash (which there arent from what I can see).

If the service history shows money was no problem then it is a really well maintained car that already had everything replaced that might need replacing, at 178k any original part in the suspension, brakes, cooling system and all consumable would be completely worn out

 

I would not buy it because of the interior, rust and price combined with the mileage. However it might be very well maintained and got everything it needed, hence the seller thinking its worth that much.

[AnthonyG]

It strikes me it’s had one careful lady owner and then somebody else, maybe in the family so the ownership wasn’t changed, who was a little less careful...

It sounds like you’ve talked yourself out of it, and that’s probably just as well.

[Peter C]

1 hour ago, cort16 said:

 

Thank you but this is miles away from me.

[cort16]

I can't help with that. Ask the guy selling the BMW near you if it's been stage 2 detailed, if it has then buy it. 😀

[motorpunk]

4 hours ago, sierraman said:

Also don’t buy into this idea it’ll run forever as it’s old and German, they’ll do some high miles but they’re nothing like as dependable as you’d think. Cooling system falls to bits and the 6 cylinder ones are scrap if it’s ever got hot. 

Just for balance - I bought a manual E39 528 with 140k on the clock and flogged it with 170k on the clock. From memory it only needed a new rad as a plastic fitting failed and the suspension was always a bit baggy, but it felt rock solid and cost peanuts to run. My E61 is coming up for 166k with no real bother, either.

I’d wait for a better one than the advert in the first post. Cat C, rust, etc.. nah. There’ll be others if you’re patient.

[Cavcraft]

11 hours ago, Peter C said:

But this one has been well maintained and compared with comparable cars, it’s not that expensive.

Why don't you just buy it then? 

[sierraman]

9 hours ago, cort16 said:

I can't help with that. Ask the guy selling the BMW near you if it's been stage 2 detailed, if it has then buy it. 😀

I’d love to see Stage 4 or 5? 

A guy near my old house was into this fucking detailing game. He was out twice a week with the Autosmart 5 litres of TFR, anyway on closer inspection despite having no dust in the air vents it smoked like Stanley Baker and he ran it on the shittest tyres he could find. Big fuck off patch of rust on the sills as well. Clean but a bag of shite.