Re: What a test drive... (archive)

I have one, and its a wonderful car. The prices drop so quickly because the typical maintenance is $200 to $300 per month, on average. Folks who plan to spend maybe $15k on a car usually can't afford the maintenance, so prices keep dropping. For example, when the transmission goes at around 150k miles it will run the average maintenance cost way way up. If this one has been dealer maintained it may be a little less for a few years. Just be sure to take it to a BMW dealer for a complete check out before buying, or you could be spending several thousand $ to catch up mainteneance which is not obvious to the untrained or to those without the BMW diagnostic computer. I could easily be leasing a new 528 for the same cost, and probably should be, but it ain't a 750. Some months I figure I could be buying a new 750.
You won't be sorry if you can handle the maintenance.
I do plan to get a later model soon, hence my snooping around the E38 board. As Derrel said, go to the E32 board and check the archives to get a feel for the car. Don't be too put off by negative comments, though. Many of the folks on the board didn't know any better and didn't have it checked by a dealer and bought cars with lots of deferred maintenance and are now facing having to spend a lot of money to bring them up to date.
Good luck.
Lin Gilbert

I was out today looking at a 1990 MB 300E, took it for a ride, it was very nice. The dealer then showed me a 1991 750iL and said I should drive it also. I must say that I was quite taken buy the 750. It's looks(wet black), ride, performance, it all was great.

I haven't even heard of this car before today. Not knowing much I left the dealer and came home and started to research on-line. Find out that it was something like 90k new. So why is this vehicle (which looked totally clean) have an *asking price of $16k with 98k miles?

I have somewhat of a feeling for repair bills on German cars, I owned a Porsche in the early 80's and know about $500 tune-ups and such.

Is a used one a good bet? What should I look (or look out) for?

Are there other models that have similar styling/performance?

Thanks in advance!

-Renee

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