He REALLY loves to drive my 535i, but decided to buy a Toyota Camry so as to not seem "uppity" in the neighborhood. He bought a very nice out-of-warranty 4 cylinder '93 that needed some minor work for $8500. He could have had an '89 e34 535i belonging to a friend for the same price, but he insisted that he wanted to be low key and have a cheaper car to maintain. It looked almost new, but...

After leaving the car at the local Toyota dealership and telling them to "do what ever it needed," he was SHOCKED to return to an almost $4000 repair bill. They did "whatever it needed" including a water pump for $195 (part only), tie rod ends for $78 each (parts only) and one front axle boot for $489 (parts only-they said whenever they find a cracked boot that Toyota specifies a new drive axle). Needless to say, he was outraged. He remembered the "old days" when Toyotas were cheap to own.

He still likes the car, but admits that the e34 would have been a much nicer car to be in, except for the fact that his friends would have been put off by the "show of wealth."

Gene

I lurked awhile here on the Forum before jumping in and purchasing an '86 535i (I wanted a 535is, but couldn't find a decent one).

You guys all seem to love these cars, and after driving one, I found I liked the model as well and thought that one would last a long time and be fun to drive.

I had heard stories about rip-off repairs, but I needed new shocks and springs for my car because there was a banging in the left front corner on parking lot speed bumps only a week after buying it, so felt that the dealer would be more honest than unknown independent shops.

I ended up paying over $2200 for shocks and springs plus almost $1000 for front brakes (I needed pads and calipers, but the dealer wouldn't do the job without new calipers since my car had over 100,000 miles on it and I couldn';t prove the calipers had been previously replaced).

I only paid $4500 for the whole car, and now I have almost $9000 (including tax and license) in it and they told me that I need new front end parts ($2500 or so)to make the car "right."

Add to that the fact that I failed CA emmissions and they want $1700 plus an additional $300 to install a new catalytic converter. The local muffler shop won't touch the car since their cats are not CARB certified for BMWs unless they get a cat from the dealer, so it's the same price either way.

Short of actually doing the work myself (I live in an apartment don't even own a hammer), how can I ever afford to own this car? I like driving it, but they just didn't build them like I thought they did! Do you guys have a list of shops that can fix my car somewhere? I live near Redding, CA. and cannot justify owning a $14,000 car of 1986 vintage regardless of how much I like it.

Erik