Ownership Verified: Latest aquisition, E38 Sport

Merc63

Merc63

Active Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2010
Messages
400
Location
Pikesville, MD
Car(s)
'23 Chevy Bolt EUV, '13 MINI JCW Roadster
Since I put this originally in the thread about my last E38, I decided it was appropriate to make it's own thread with proof... (as though anyone needed it for a $7500 car... lol). So here's my '01 740i Sport.

I picked it up 8 months ago for the aforementioned $7500. It was owned by a BMW tech who had meticulously maintained and repaired it as needed, with all the big ticket items taken care of (Timing chain guides, VANOS gears and seals, valve cover gaskets, valley pan and entire cooling system, front suspension, new tires, etc). Since it had 150k miles on it, that was important to make sure it lasted another 150k before needing major repairs again. The car was spotless when I went to look at it and the care it had showed.

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To the car I added braided stainless steel brake lines for more firm pedal, a cat back exhaust consisting of Flowmaster Hushpower II muflers and Magnaflow tips:

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I also added some subtle CF and M stripe graphics, LED angel eyes, rear spoiler, and a Grom bluetooth/USB/Aux in module to the later model widescreen nav/infotainment center so I can stream my music over BT off my phone. You may have noticed two different sets of license plates. The newer ones are BMW CCA National Capitol Chapter plates.

Since I got it 8 months ago, I've put almost 10k miles on it, with a few trips out to western MD to go through the twisty roads surrounding the Catoctin mountains, as well as a 2000 mile round trip to St Petersburg, FL over the new year's week, averaging 75mph and 27 mpg. The car, so far, has given me no problems and is a supremely capable cruiser and agile dance partner on twisty back roads.

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I have always loved this gen. 7-series. Your car is in amazing condition and appears to be quite the steal at that price! I had a couple good friends whose dad's respectively owned a 740i and a 750iL. They we're both pretty sweet. Thanks for sharing.
 
Yes, yes, yes...

That makes me want one very badly!
The wheels, and the seats and the looks and... It is so damn cool! Love E38!
 
My favorite (and really only gen I liked) 7-series. I would love to have one, and I would especially love to have your level of comfort and knowledge of them so as to not buy a potentially costly turkey.

May it bring you many more miles of trouble free motoring.
 
I'm drumming the same rhythm as others, best looking 7 series ever made. Congratulations for great find and for nice price.

JimCorrigan said:
My favorite (and really only gen I liked) 7-series.
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Posambique said:
That makes me want one very badly!
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Posa here's one for you then..
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ALPINA B12 6.0 lang, 65tkm my 2000, coming for sale in Land of rising sun and should not go for insane money.. Time to upgrade..
 
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That's one beautiful E38.

That Alpina's cool - but are those kms verified tho :p
 
Thanks! I've got some more minor mods planned. I have the Alpina front spoiler to install after I get it painted this spring, and I'd like to do coilovers to drop it about 2" all around (Fortune coilovers with 9k lb springs gives it the stock ride and handling while dropping it nicely. They're just kind of pricey).
 
samulis said:
Posa here's one for you then..
ALPINA B12 6.0 lang, 65tkm my 2000, coming for sale in Land of rising sun and should not go for insane money.. Time to upgrade..
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At the moment I am missing the money to both upgrade to and upkeep an E38. But someday, someday I just might. The sensible option would be a 728i, but we?ll see when that time comes though...

Let?s not hijack this thread - the car is awesome and I want even more pictures of it!
 
Jupix said:
Low mileage is the norm in Japan due to how car culture and car ownership works there.
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...and that's exactly what every importer tells you. There are tons and tons of people who got screwed. Even the Australian government has an eye on that because so much stuf from Japan gets imported with wrong mileage. I mean, what a beautiful coincidence that 99% of the cars from Japan have around 80.000 kms. Since the last ten years.
 
Okay, I don't care what my friends say -- I'm saving up and buying one of these this fall. I'm in love. <3
 
Mitchi said:
...and that's exactly what every importer tells you. There are tons and tons of people who got screwed. Even the Australian government has an eye on that because so much stuf from Japan gets imported with wrong mileage. I mean, what a beautiful coincidence that 99% of the cars from Japan have around 80.000 kms. Since the last ten years.
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Sounds an awful lot like Germany where no 5 series diesel ever has more than 150,000 km. :p
 
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And again, with the new club plates:

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And a month ago parked in the driveway:

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And not long after I got it with my buddy's Imola Red '01 Sport:

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I got my Alpina airdam from him and that was when I was picking it up. This is a concept of what it should fit like:

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Hopefully I'll have it on in a month or so, as it warms up and I can get it painted.
 
Viper007Bond said:
Okay, I don't care what my friends say -- I'm saving up and buying one of these this fall. I'm in love. <3
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One of the best rules of thumb is buy the nicest one, most well maintained one you can find, and keep it under $10k. Even though KBB excellent retail on one is only $4500, when you get down to that price range, you only find beat up, high mileage ones that haven't been maintained. High miles isn't itself an issue (my last one was bought at 143k miles and I got rid of it at 185k miles), it's how it was taken care of in those miles. Cooling systems WILL be needed to be dealt with every 100k miles. Front suspensions will need to be dealt with about the same intervals (unless the PO used cheap Chinese reproduction parts from ebay, in which case, they may not last a month...) Timing chain guides should be replaced at about 150k miles. If you find a nice one that hasn't had it done, it WILL need it shortly. Mine had it done just before I got it, so it should be fine for a long time.

There are two eras of E38: pre-facelift ('95-98) and facelift ('99-01). Sports like mine only came in facelift form. If you see a pre-facelift car with the wheels like mine, they were added by someone. There were no M sports before '99. M sports were available in both short wheelbase (740i) and long wheelbase (740iL). But the long wheelbase cars were JUST an appearance package with the wheels, blacked out trim, and Vavona wood interior trim. The short wheelbase cars like mine ALSO got a steptronic transmission, 3.15:1 final drive (instead of the economy 2.83:1 version in the regular cars), sport suspension, M sport steering wheel, and sport seats.

At the top of the E38 heap are the V12 750iL (and in the rest of the world, you could get a desirable 750i short wheelbase car) in both Sport and non-sport forms. These cars had all the options already, so the Sport package, while not being as M specific as the 740i Sport, is still a fast car with all the bells and whistles. 750s are actually cheaper to own than the 740s, due to the lack of timing chain guide issues, more robust cooling systems (except for radiators and expansion tanks, which they share with the 740).

There are many inexpensive OEM parts sources for these cars, and they are easy to DIY your own repairs on, making them actually one of the cheaper luxury sport sedans to own there are. My last E38 cost me about $1500 in repairs and maintenance over a 5 year period. I'm hoping this one will be even cheaper than that. In both cases I paid good money for well maintained cars, which helps.

My last one was a pre-facelift 740iL. I actually would like another one of those to customize heavily in VIP style...

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But if you're just looking for a fun sport sedan with agility and speed, the short wheel base '99-01 740i Sport is what you want. The '99-00 versions had black lower trim, while the '01 like mine was body colored. The '01s command the highest prices due to being the last of the model line and the most modern looking. So if you can handle the looks of the '99-00, you can save a bit of coin initially.
 
Imola Red E38 <3
 
Mitchi said:
Imola Red E38
Yeah, I love them. The color is fairly rare though, but not as rare as Estoril blue on them. I only know of 3 in the US, including my buddy Brandon's old car:


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I almost bought that car when he put it up for sale.
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I can understand why, it looks goddamn perfect with that wheel + colour combo, black kidneys and Alpina splitter. I think I've never been genuinely interested in a BMW until I saw those pics...

BTW your car looks really nice too, but it doesn't lure me to the Dark side as strongly as the blue one.
 
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