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...and never seen a timing chain break on one of these.Not like the current breed of BMW chocolate engines.E 34,great bit of kit.
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...and never seen a timing chain break on one of these.Not like the current breed of BMW chocolate engines.E 34,great bit of kit.
Weren't the smaller-engined ones timing belt ?
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Yes,518 4 pot ,belt drive cam on early models,chain on later versions..But not very popular.Under powered for such a heavy car,and only available as a manual shift (IIrc)
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Yes,518 4 pot ,belt drive cam on early models,chain on later versions..But not very popular.Under powered for such a heavy car,and only available as a manual shift (IIrc)
Yup, early 1800 M40 was a belt and later M43 a chain. I don't recall having trouble with any E34's we sold, they were genuinely well made cars.
Disagree that it wasn't popular though, it was a tax break special designed to slip below the £19,250 tax band at the time with SE spec and it sold very well and It really wasn't as bad as you'd think performance wise despite only having 113bhp to haul such a heavy car.
What little it had was produced far lower in the rev range than the 6cyl 520 so it didn't feel that much slower day to day despite being 37bhp down and fuel economy was quite a bit better. Hardly the pick of the range though and looking under the bonnet it was comical how small the 1800 looked in there.
Edited by SLO76 on 17/01/2017 at 21:55
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I'd say stick it on at £1,795 and see where you go assuming it's as tidy as you say.
Possibly a bit pessimistic.
Plenty on there asking for around £3k, one 1990 518i with 65k in apparently nice condition up at £3850. May not get it of course.
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I'd say stick it on at £1,795 and see where you go assuming it's as tidy as you say.
Possibly a bit pessimistic.
Plenty on there asking for around £3k, one 1990 518i with 65k in apparently nice condition up at £3850. May not get it of course.
If you start higher you can always go lower. If you price it too low, get lots of interest, you'll kick yourself for not trying a higher price. Depends how quickly it needs to be sold.
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"Plenty on there asking for around £3k, one 1990 518i with 65k in apparently nice condition up at £3850. May not get it of course.
If you start higher you can always go lower. If you price it too low, get lots of interest, you'll kick yourself for not trying a higher price. Depends how quickly it needs to be sold."
True but you'll notice many overpriced cars at classic dealers who're prepared to sit with them for months and even years to get top dollar. I doubt this is an option of the OP but right enough to suggest starting high. The values of these are all over the place with some tidy cars changing hands for well under £1k so I'd suggest my valuation is realistic unless it truely is a thing of beauty.
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Trouble with valuing such things is that you can't really, not until you've had it up on the lifter and seen what the underside is like, many a beautifully polished body sitting atop a wreck that needs ££££ of welding.
It would be very interesting to see how good or bad this car is underneath, bearing mind the salt its likely to have seen assuming it was used in winter.
I had a quick look at Landcruisers whilst on that Classic site, quite why there are some moderns on there priced laughably is a mystery, and if you thought ebay sellers could wax lyrical!!
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And we don't know how well specced the car is? Alloys, sunroof, leather, aircon, manual or automatic. Does it have full service history, with all receipts and MOT certificates? How many owners? We don't know. SLO, you'll probably have more idea than most here how much the above could impact the value.
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Toys add little to no value, it's all about condition and history with a run of the mill 5 series. Whether it has a sunroof or not won't add or detract though a more desirable engine like a 2.5 or the 3.5 6cyl would add appeal.
Gordonbennet is right though, I can't really appraise a car like this without seeing it in the metal. One persons "mint" is another's tatty. It might be low mileage but could be poorly painted and rotten underneath.
Edited by SLO76 on 18/01/2017 at 15:46
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I had an E34 520i in the late 90's early 2000's - They are one of the last "built to last" BMW's before the bean-counters and the computer- geek designers got hold of the company.
But beware, dashboard display malfunctions, and disintegrating water pump impelllers, cracked/split rubber inlet pipes, also soggy front suspension and vague steering.
Also ignition coils prone to failure - I replaced 3 out of 6 to get it running properly using a transistor radio on top of the coils to diagnose which were faulty.
But they feel like they are hewn from a block of solid steel - no rattles or squeaks.
Not worth a ton of money nowadays though.
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Someone at my old workplace had a an H reg 520i auto. He never needed to do much to it apart from servicing and ran it the whole time I was there until he suffered health problems. It never seemed to age visibly from one year to the next. I loved seeing it the car park, a handsome shape next to all the modern blobs.
I'd be behind him sometimes and there was no smoke or the smell of burnt oil.
The old M30 3.5 in these sounded lovely.
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Since it's not my car (never even seen it) there's an awful lot of specifics I don't know.
All the replies on here so far however have been really useful in letting the person who will be selling it know exactly what things to specify/check for when it's advertised beyond a general 'mint condition' which I now recognise means not a lot without the aforementioned details.
Thanks again
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I helped a friend sell his 1994E34 525i a year ago. It was almost mint having been garaged from new and he'd owned it since three months old. It had a good spec, auto, metallic crimson with as new cream interior, electric roof. He had no mechanical ability so if a light bulb blew he would get the garage to fix it. The minor repair bills started to escalate so he decided to sell. I very seriously considered buying it but I have too many cars. It was a very nice car indeed. The car had done 140k however there were all MOT s and a stamped service book but not the 1000's of pounds worth of iinvoices ( he'd thrown them away they were taking too much space in the drawer....... ), he looked surprised when I told him he'd thrown away £500.
On my advice he put an advert in Car and Classic . He priced at £2.5 a little high IMO. He got got no response. The advert was poor with rubbish photos. When I saw his advert I reworded it with better text and good photos and dropped the price to £1995. Still no response. He reduced the price to £1695 with little result. I suspect the advert was tainted, People saw the car had been advertised for so many days and disregarded the car, perhaps.
He then put the car in Autotrader and the car sold within four days at the asking price.
Back to the OP if my friend's experience was typical then I would not expect this car to sell easily.
As an aside this episode reinforced the message that there are many hidden gems hidden away behind poor adverts.
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I helped a friend sell his 1994E34 525i a year ago. It was almost mint having been garaged from new and he'd owned it since three months old. It had a good spec, auto, metallic crimson with as new cream interior, electric roof. He had no mechanical ability so if a light bulb blew he would get the garage to fix it. The minor repair bills started to escalate so he decided to sell. I very seriously considered buying it but I have too many cars. It was a very nice car indeed. The car had done 140k however there were all MOT s and a stamped service book but not the 1000's of pounds worth of iinvoices ( he'd thrown them away they were taking too much space in the drawer....... ), he looked surprised when I told him he'd thrown away £500. On my advice he put an advert in Car and Classic . He priced at £2.5 a little high IMO. He got got no response. The advert was poor with rubbish photos. When I saw his advert I reworded it with better text and good photos and dropped the price to £1995. Still no response. He reduced the price to £1695 with little result. I suspect the advert was tainted, People saw the car had been advertised for so many days and disregarded the car, perhaps. He then put the car in Autotrader and the car sold within four days at the asking price. Back to the OP if my friend's experience was typical then I would not expect this car to sell easily. As an aside this episode reinforced the message that there are many hidden gems hidden away behind poor adverts.
I totally agree that the quality of the advert is crucial to selling a car priivately. I have only basic mechanical knowledge and zero 'trade' experience but I've sold about 5 sub 3K cars now on eBay all within 48h and damm close to the price I've wanted for them. All it takes is a bucket of water and a run over with the Dyson, a dozen good quality photos including interior shots then a detailed and honest listing of every aspect of the car including shortcomings. A realistic asking price obviously helps too!
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A well written advert with well taken high quality pictures will help no end. As a home trader I buy a lot of cars from local press and Gumtree that are mostly poorly advertised and presented.
A thorough clean, repair any minor faults and a well prepared advert then sells the car quickly at a higher price, generating tokens for my beer fund.
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A well written advert with well taken high quality pictures will help no end. As a home trader I buy a lot of cars from local press and Gumtree that are mostly poorly advertised and presented. A thorough clean, repair any minor faults and a well prepared advert then sells the car quickly at a higher price, generating tokens for my beer fund.
SLO76, you must be permanently drunk! ;)
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SLO76, you must be permanently drunk! ;)"
Hic..
Edited by SLO76 on 18/01/2017 at 21:24
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