Prices on these have come waaaay down, and it seems like a nice comfy ride for the dollar. They seem to trade between $8 and $12,000.
The engine itself seem stout, no turbos or other craziness. But the eleventy billion (approximately) electronics modules and gewgaws scare me a bit. Auto transmissions seem very hit or miss. What do you guys think?
I have a 2006 BMW 330xi 6-speed manual and love the power/mpg combo, torque is strong 2000rpms+. I do hate the ride/ run-flats though. Mine has 70k miles on it and everything electronic works perfectly. Overall a great car.
I have an '04 545i with the 6 spd manual. Great driving car! It's got about 110K miles. I haven't had any issues with the electronics. Some problems with the clutch hydraulics, but that's all new now!
My DD since sept '15 is an '07 525xi, had 136k on it then, has almost 146k on it now. I got a dealer PPI with over $5k in recommended repairs, which supported the $4000 the seller was asking. So far the only weirdness is an occasional 4x4/DSC fault that goes away on the next key cycle. Internet says it's a low battery voltage issue (?).
The electric water pump failed at about 143k, and it was a bitch to replace due to packaging and general filth since my car had a couple of oil leaks and was missing the belly pans. I cleaned everything as much as I could, and replaced the gaskets for the oil filter housing and oil cooler while I had it in the garage. Somehow, this magically fixed the $1300 "oil pan gasket leak" and the car hasn't left a drop in my driveway since.
Beyond that, I'm just getting caught up with deferred maintenance (trans fluid and filter change, transfer case fluid change, front LCA bushings) and driving it. Getting about 20mpg in mixed use. It eats up the miles pretty well.
NA inline six BMWs are generally pretty reliable and/or easy to fix. That said, I can't speak to the gizmos. Once you start getting the idrive stuff in there I'm not sure what issues that could cause.
I have an 07 530 xit. Had it for a year. Prior to me it's had a new water pump, valve cover gasket and vanos solenoids. I've done headlight bulbs, oil filter gasket, a coil and cooling system hoses (stunningly expensive for hoses) and a new starter. Has an adaptive headlight module fault I haven't gotten around to ($80 part and needs to be programmed). Nice engine and a good place to be to chew up the miles. Get the software and a cable so you don't have to have the dealer do little stuff like $100 battery registrations or headlight module coding. Oh, headlights and tail lights have biodegradeable wiring. Replacements are expensive. No electronic issues and I kinda like the idrive. Seems pretty intuitive to me and I like the magic door locks.
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