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In Reply to: Re: 850Ci purchase question. posted by JL on March 02, 2000 at 20:11:12:
I can tell you the discoloration has been on three 850i's I have looked at and on several photos on the web. I fairly quickly guessed it was not an issue "cosmetic".
: : If your screening criterion is the "brown" under the hood, then you'll probably NEVER buy an e31, or most any BMW for that matter. The coloration you are seeing is the cosmoline (a petroleum and waxed based substance) that is sprayed all over the undercarriage and engine compartment to "preserve" the car during ocean shipping. The dealer is supposed to remove it during PDI, but virtually none of them do. As it ages, and hardens, it turns a nasty looking honey brown, and is virtually impossible to remove. I would be more concerned over service records, campaign recalls fulfilled, and if the dealer really wants to sell the unit, ask him for the previous owners name and address. And yes, I have bought and sold at least two cars out of state, but flew in to "eyeball" them after doing other homework. BTW, Carfax is only a START, since it merely gives worst-case legal situations with the title (total/flood/odometer, etc.) A better start is the DSC (Dealer Service Computer) run on the car and the service dossier. Good luck.
: It may not be a fair comparison, but I own '98 528i with 30K miles. The E31 I drove was '97 with 40K miles. I have never drove in the red line, but I drive hard sometimes, just enough to make my wife scared. =) Currently the paint under the hood of my 528i still looks brand new, without any discoloration. It doesn't look like it would get that worse within a year. Maybe the dealer cleaned up the wax before delivered my 528, which is a good thing. If the discoloration (it actually looked more like scorches) under the hood is common, I guess I can safely ignore it. Thanks for your advice.
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