Okay i saw the car today and poked around at everything, and took it for a 20minute drive.
Exterior was very good, duco looked well looked after.
1 small dent in back left door, about 40mm across, and 1-2mm deep, it was a very small shallow dent, no scratched paint on it and it was hard to notice until he pointed it out.
There was a small 30mm long crack on the rear bumper (someone must have been a bad parker?)
Tyres looked near new, rims were stock and boring but free of any obvious gutter marks.
Gas lifts on the boot only seemed to work once the boot was fully open, otherwise it fell down, is this normal? (when fully open they held it open firmly)
Gas lifts on the bonet seemed to work fine.
Inside the cabin:
Car is alot smaller than i thought it would be, im 6'1", and i was close to the ceiling unless i put my seat back (far enough to severely cramp rear passengers).
The seats were all full black leather, back seats looked very unused, front seats were worn but nothing major. Shown up more because it was black as well i beleive.
ALL the wood trim in the car was faded cracked, and pulling away, especially the gear nob, how hard is this to replace?
The top dashboard vent was buckled out at the left and right side (coming away from the dash), can this be replaced or repaired?
Glove box hinge was half broken, it worked fine but you could feel there was something broken, im sure i can repair this.
There were no floor mats, and the driver side floor was worn with the plastic coming away.
Windows were all tinted, but the rear window was bubbled enough to look unsightly... and the side windows has slide marks from going up and down, the guy told me that the car can get a complete retint for $200AU.
Steering wheel was worn but not falling apart, though the little blue/purple/red part was almost completely silver and looked very worn.
http://www.bmwmovies.net/albums/user...eel_mtech1.jpg
The dash and all black surfaces had no damage or cracking (unlike the dash fan grill).
Some buttons looked worn, but likely needed a good clean, there was alot of dust and grime in the car.
Front windscreen looked slightly unclear, man said it needed to be polished or buffed, i havent heard of this being done, is it cheaper than a new windscreen?
Ok after all that i finally drove the car.
The car was parked and he said it had not been driven since the morning (this was at 2pm), it was 13oC outside and the car started quickly without any fuss at all, no accelerator needed (unlike my current 79 volvo).
I found the rear visibility to be poor when trying to get out of the carpark, i had no idea where the rear bumper was, and the carpark was rather cramped!
At idle the car had a very slight vibration, the man said an engine mount had hardened (will confirm this when i get the bmw tech to inspect it).
As i drove off the car felt VERY smooth, i heard almost no engine noise, and the gear changed were silent and i could barely feel them even when pushing the car hard. (its an automatic btw)
The acceleration was steady and smooth, not as powerful as i had expected, but i was going alot faster than it felt as well.
The suspention was perfect, never driven a car that felt as nice on the road.
I found a quiet road and took the car to 110, which it did very easily and seemed like it just wanted to go faster.
at that speed i heard a little road noise (thus far it had been a near silent experience). 110 did not feel fast, the car was stable, and the there was no wobble or any kind of handling issues.
I did not get a chance to do any manouvering as the roads were wet, i didnt know the area, and there was a little traffic.
But the corners i did take i tried to take quickly, and the car stayed nice and flat, no roll, and no dramas.
Brakes seemed good, didnt pinch or anything uncomfortable like some asian cars seem to. Didnt get to test them at high speed tho as i didnt want to hurt my passenger.
When we got back, i opened up the bonet and had a poke around.
The Radiator was deinately new, along with alot of the hoses.
The bay was VERY clean, and you could see on the block that new gaskets had been installed, all the hoses that i gave the sqeeze test to seemed very firm and supple.
Im happy with the car and am going to get an inspection done by a bmw tech this week.
The interior is very grotty and i will work on what i can and hope to get some feedback from you guys and the tech on how much trouble it will be.
Im very excited, the cosmetic issues seem to be fixable, and should give me considerable bargaining power on the price.
Feedback at this stage is really apreciated
(Sorry for the long post!)