I am negotiating the purchase of a 98 740iL from a private leasing company my company does business with. The car is in Chicago. I am in NJ. I havent seen the car yet. Generally, this company takes high end cars and structures leases specifically for clients depending upon their tax or other situation. The 98 iL has 40K miles on it. I will have the car checked out by a BMW dealer before I purchase.

Here are a couple of questions for the group. I appreciate your help:

1. Is it possible to bring the car to BMW and pay for them to "certify" it?

2. I did an archive search on extended warranties and the results were a little dated. So, assuming I cant certify it, please recommend an extended warranty company that you've had recent experience with.

3. I've asked for all the service records, VIN number, pictures...what else should I review? What specifically should I ask the dealer to look for?

4. Can anyone recommend a transport company? What cost should I anticipate to transport from Chicago to NJ.

Thanks everyone! This group is great.

Hello from Milwaukee...I was in the same boat...bought a 740il off lease with 6900 miles (belonged to a Milw Brewer pitcher) Rather than buy out his lease, he turned it in and I bought it from a dealer who 'certified' it, so I got the 100k warranty (pro rata after mfg warranty). I had looked in Chicagoland and found them all to be cosmetically not too good due to brutal weather out here. The black ones were bad newz with snow scatches. Did you log on to BMW-usa.com? You can look under 'certified pre-owned' for the whole country, or within 500miles of your zip. Or set yourself up with automatic e-mail notification for any certified cars getting sold anywhere. Hope this helps.