How much 7 Series does $600 get you?

"gmctavish needs more space" (gmctavish)
05/30/2015 at 00:51 • Filed to: None

This much. 8 cylinders worth. Bless you, depreciation and simple problems.

So. My friend sent me a link for a 93 740i on craigslist, asking $1075. A weirdly exact number, indicative of someone with a broken car who doesn’t know what to ask for it. It was out of the way, and we caught it early so we got to it before anyone else. SWB, V8, BMW Individual car with nicer wood inlay, Shwarz II, no EDC III, no SLS, LSD, 256k (kms). “Needs a tune up and thermostat” That translated to “hasn’t had an oil change or service of any kind in a year, and dumps lots and lots of coolant. We offered 500, he said 800, we left. He then emailed saying he’d take 600, so we came back and got it. Luckily it hadn’t been overheated, and we looked under the expansion tank which is a common place for leaks, found a cracked outlet and ghetto’d hose connection. We ghetto’d it better and the leak is gone.

Trail of coolant and ATF from the power steering.

A couple beers and harassing of the coolant hose later, and she’s ready for cruising till we do an oil change and fix the power steering. Oh that’s one of the other problems, it won’t hold any power steering fluid, at least not enough to give us power steering. this is a heavy car, so that needs to be fixed soon...

Oh yeah, the almost B52 license plate has led to the car being named The Bomber. It’s heavy enough to be one

The back end of the E32 is perfect. Ercole Spada done good.

Other problems - the struts are so blown, that when you stop, it bobs up and down in the front about three times before it settles a bit. Very old Cadillac. The throttle cable is crazily sticky, and when you hit the kickdown switch, it says TRANS PROG ERROR but the the error clears in about 10 seconds. We’re thinking misaligned throttle cable not getting the TPS to where the computer expects it to be when the kickdown switch is pressed. It downshifts fine manually though. But yeah, pretty minor problems for the price range.

Oh all the porno lighting works. All the everything works actually, it’s so weird to find an E32 that doesn’t have rampant electrical problems. And thanks to many-layered BMW paint in the 90s, a buff and polish will make it look perfect paint-wise.

DISCUSSION (14)

MrDakka > gmctavish needs more space
05/30/2015 at 00:56

Does it still have the car phone?

itranthelasttimeiparkedit > gmctavish needs more space
05/30/2015 at 00:57

Kinja'd!!!

BASKETWEAVES here.

gmctavish needs more space > MrDakka
05/30/2015 at 00:59

Yup! When you dial it shows up on the dash

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > gmctavish needs more space
05/30/2015 at 01:30

It may be mechanically tricky, but that has to be one of the nicest E32s I've ever seen for such low money.

StoneCold > gmctavish needs more space
05/30/2015 at 01:59

Envy. I have it. I miss mine all the time.

gmctavish needs more space > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut
05/30/2015 at 02:08

I forgot to take pictures of the interior, but you won't believe how clean it is when I do

gmctavish needs more space > StoneCold
05/30/2015 at 02:09

I drove my friends for two weeks once, and that hooked me on them. He's part owner, so it's my first and his third haha

kanadanmajava1 > gmctavish needs more space
05/30/2015 at 09:06

For $600 it looks amazingly clean. Even the nicest and most expensive that you could find from here would likely look crappier.

gmctavish needs more space > kanadanmajava1
05/30/2015 at 11:52

Yeah we're still a bit surprised at how good a deal we got. We're probably keeping it, but if we wanted to sell we could sink like 1000 into it and still come out ahead

Schaefft > gmctavish needs more space
05/30/2015 at 20:39

Awesome, great find indeed. Also, I know the Cadillac style front suspension very well. I drove my E39 like that for probably about a thousand miles (more or less carefully) before I had the chance to order all the parts it needed and get them installed. A very interesting experience. I hope you do plan to fix this car up properly, this is a classic BMW now.

gmctavish needs more space > Schaefft
05/30/2015 at 21:30

Oh yeah, we're getting a new expansion tank and coolant hose to fix that properly, and it'll either get stock struts or billy HDs, as well as whatever else is needed in the front end. It doesn't need much, and a SWB V8 E32 in a good colour is so worth saving

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > gmctavish needs more space
05/31/2015 at 15:17

DUDE! Where in BC are you at? I might be moving to Kelowna later this year.

gmctavish needs more space > G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3
05/31/2015 at 15:21

Oh sweet! I'm in Burnaby, essentially Vancouver. Kelowna is lovely, I was actually considering moving there because cheaper living costs

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > gmctavish needs more space
05/31/2015 at 15:22

Cool! Maybe sometime (if I move) we need to host a BC/AB Opponaut meet!