Life is luck. You could buy that 540 i posted a link to on ebay in Michigan as you;re next door in Wisconsin with low miles and it could just blow up in your face the day you drive it home because of the way the head was cast. You never know what's gonna happen do you? A friggin' asteroid could slam into Madison tonight and where would that leave you? I've put about 15,000 savage , brutal merciless miles on mine since i bought it this summer and it still screams like a banshee every drop of the hammer... It is likely going to NEED a few thousand in maintenance of " normal wear items" like steering, suspension, etc but it is an 11 year old car... if you have parents who can help you out when you need it to keep it going , go for it. They're very well built cars. They've won awards for their reliability but they are machines like anything made of material, they will need stuff from time to time to keep running but they are extremely well built cars and there is a lot of support from other owners. You should be financially able to keep it up though.Some things fail and the car is not drivable till they're fixed.
1995 540i Manual build 1/95