First post here, nice forum and informative members you’ve got here.

I need some help being talked into (or out of) an E34. Here’s the situation: my wife and I are having our first child next year. Her mother has offered to be our nanny as we both have full time jobs. Problem is that the in-laws live 70 miles away. My father-in-law doesn’t want my mother-in-law racking up the miles on their late model 4Runner, so we need to provide her a car. I figure that I’ll end up driving (as a second vehicle) whatever car we buy for her in several years once our child is in school. The drive is probably 15 miles small country roads, 15 miles of 35-45mph roads with some stoplights and the remainder interstate miles. She’ll probably put 90,000 miles on the vehicle over 3 years. So….

The “logical” choice is to buy her a mid-late 90’s Camry or Accord.

But, I’m a car nut and boring cars don’t appeal to me. I’ve done quite a bit of research and have narrowed the E34 choice down to one of the sixes, for ease of maintenance and fuel economy. A ’94 or ’95 525i would be my top choice, preferably with under 100K miles, under 80K would be even better. MIL wants a slushbox, so I’ll have to make that concession even though I’d never buy a slushbox vehicle for myself.

I’m a very good hack mechanic, so the car would never be touched by anyone but me.

How do the E34 slushboxes hold up after 100K miles? How about when they are pushing 200K? Will it need a service/rebuild? That’s one thing I may not be able to accomplish myself.

I’ve been a BMW fan since my parents bought a ’92 E36 325is (silver/black, 5spd, LSD (sports package I think), 6-spoke (style 10) wheels, sunroof) new in 1992. My mother, sister and I flew to Munich (from England, now live in the USA) and picked the Bimmer up from the factory. I personally drove it through 7 countries over 5 days across Europe. The coupe is still running strong @ 175K miles.

I’ve read the “What goes wrong”, “What to look for in an E34”, etc already. I guess I’m wondering how much maintenance it’s going to likely require. Not that I can’t perform or afford the maintenance, I just don’t want the MIL hacked off at me if the car I get her always needs me to fix something on it.

Am I out of my mind for even considering getting her an E34?

Thanks,

Mike