Any of you own an E38? Or have opinions on them?

[Dick Schneiders]

I have an opportunity to purchase a 1999 740i locally and need to know if they are as good as our E34's? I have been reading posts on the E38 boards, but didn't recognize any of the names and didn't want to barge in and ask them if they thought the E38 was as good as an E34. :-)

I have always liked the dark blue and dark green BMW's and this 740i is a beautiful dark green. It has the winter package, with the heated seats etc. which should appease my wife. Any time I approach her about a car, her first question is if it has heated seats>

This car has 90,000 miles and seems to be in excellent condition. They are asking $17,000 (it is a local high end used car dealer), but I think I can get them to come down a bit.

Any and all opinions appreciated.

Thanks,

Dick Schneiders

[Phil Sanderson]

I've always liked the E38 because they are a great looking design. They are a continuation of the design line from the E34 and the last in that line. I think any E38 looks particularly good with ///M Parallel wheels.

regards
Phil

[DaCan23]

I have an opportunity to purchase a 1999 740i locally and need to know if they are as good as our E34's? I have been reading posts on the E38 boards, but didn't recognize any of the names and didn't want to barge in and ask them if they thought the E38 was as good as an E34. :-)

I have always liked the dark blue and dark green BMW's and this 740i is a beautiful dark green. It has the winter package, with the heated seats etc. which should appease my wife. Any time I approach her about a car, her first question is if it has heated seats>

This car has 90,000 miles and seems to be in excellent condition. They are asking $17,000 (it is a local high end used car dealer), but I think I can get them to come down a bit.

Any and all opinions appreciated.

Thanks,

Dick Schneiders

[winfred]

they look nice drive nice and are ungodly fast for a 4200lb car, agravating/expensive problems, everything seems to be a ordeal with the e38, disentagrating cat's with no obdII friendly aftermarket alternative, crappy pcv plate on back of intake and leak prone intake gaskets all lead to some weird injection problems. if you get one look into preventing the grounding problem in the c-pillar lights, one of our customers cars had this problem and the wrong fuse was repeatedly installed (by another shop) and burned up about $4k worth of body wiring harness. they have a couple annoyingly designed ball joint problems also, the front center steering link has a stupid way of mounting the tie rods to the link that wears out quickly, and the rear suspension lower ball joints are a total bitch to change and don't allways last too long

[TimGinCentralNJ]

...when I was looking at an E38 a couple years ago. Answered pretty much all my questions at the time.

Hope they're of some help to you.

Rgds,
Tim

http://www.e38.org/
http://www.seattle7s.com/tips.htm
http://bimmer.roadfly.org/7series/me...w42/34529.html

I have an opportunity to purchase a 1999 740i locally and need to know if they are as good as our E34's? I have been reading posts on the E38 boards, but didn't recognize any of the names and didn't want to barge in and ask them if they thought the E38 was as good as an E34. :-)

I have always liked the dark blue and dark green BMW's and this 740i is a beautiful dark green. It has the winter package, with the heated seats etc. which should appease my wife. Any time I approach her about a car, her first question is if it has heated seats>

This car has 90,000 miles and seems to be in excellent condition. They are asking $17,000 (it is a local high end used car dealer), but I think I can get them to come down a bit.

Any and all opinions appreciated.

Thanks,

Dick Schneiders

[Mr Project]

A local CCA member just bought a '99 740i Sport with 92k for 13.5k from the dealer. I think 17k is really, really high. There are a lot of good deals out there on E38s....nothing depreciates like a 7 series/S class/Saab.

[Dick Schneiders]

are they not keeping up with actual market trends?

I have been watching eBay for these cars for awhile and the prices have been around what the one I am looking at is listed, and some are considerably more.

The car I am looking at is not the Sport version, which is rarer, but that really was only about a $2,500 option when the car was new. This one does have the $1,800 premium audio system with trunk cd changer and the $1,200 cold weather package (heated seats, steering wheel, headlight washers, etc.). It also looks in mint condition and comes with an extended warranty.

Yes, I probably can get a better deal, but I live in a small city and the opportunity to find these types of cars locally is minimal.

If you can find me another '99 740i Sport with low miles for $13.5k, let me know and I will give you a finders fee, if you will drive it out here to central Kansas and guarantee the quality. :-) Also, it cannot be a white one!

I have been looking around at prices, and have not seen anything even close to $13.5k that I would consider worthwhile. One of the problems with living in a clean air, low crime area.

Dick Schneiders

A local CCA member just bought a '99 740i Sport with 92k for 13.5k from the dealer. I think 17k is really, really high. There are a lot of good deals out there on E38s....nothing depreciates like a 7 series/S class/Saab.

[Dick Schneiders]

it doesn't seem to be too much, even considering that the repairs will be more expensive than some cars. All of these cars have some stuff that typically will go bad, and as long as the engine and tranny are fairly robust, that is really all I worry too much about.

I appreciate the heads up (or is that heads ups?).

Dick Schneiders

they look nice drive nice and are ungodly fast for a 4200lb car, agravating/expensive problems, everything seems to be a ordeal with the e38, disentagrating cat's with no obdII friendly aftermarket alternative, crappy pcv plate on back of intake and leak prone intake gaskets all lead to some weird injection problems. if you get one look into preventing the grounding problem in the c-pillar lights, one of our customers cars had this problem and the wrong fuse was repeatedly installed (by another shop) and burned up about $4k worth of body wiring harness. they have a couple annoyingly designed ball joint problems also, the front center steering link has a stupid way of mounting the tie rods to the link that wears out quickly, and the rear suspension lower ball joints are a total bitch to change and don't allways last too long

[Dick Schneiders]

and why not?

I had been looking at the Roadfly e38 forum for a few days. They seem to be a lot more helpful than did the e34 Roadfly forum.

The e38.org site seems to have a ton of information.

Dick Schneiders

...when I was looking at an E38 a couple years ago. Answered pretty much all my questions at the time.

Hope they're of some help to you.

Rgds,
Tim

http://www.e38.org/
http://www.seattle7s.com/tips.htm
http://bimmer.roadfly.org/7series/me...w42/34529.html

[TimGinCentralNJ]

...I hadn't been able to find a decent one anywhere near me. I found what I thought to be a really nice E38 740iL, though it was a lot more money than I was looking to spend, so I continued looking for an E34. The car was a '95 and was owned by my mechanic since new, and he'd intentionally drove the car until 99k miles so he could replace the Nik block himself under full factory warranty. He'd been asking $20k for it with a set of Style 32's and brand new Michelin Pilot Sport A/S. Just too rich for my blood, even though I know the car had been 110% maintained and updated. Ended up with my current E34 535i for about 8300...big difference in price for me.

I've heard E38's are wonderful cars, though (as you've probably read) they do have their own 'weak' areas, like all bimmers do. The cats are the 1 expensive 'gotcha' I've heard a lot about.

My feeling is, if the maintenance records can speak to any of those 'weak' areas having been addressed already, it might make one damn fine automobile for you.

Keep us posted - would love to see pics if you go through with it.

Rgds,
Tim

and why not?

I had been looking at the Roadfly e38 forum for a few days. They seem to be a lot more helpful than did the e34 Roadfly forum.

The e38.org site seems to have a ton of information.

Dick Schneiders