I've got an E24 6 series I bought last summer for the A/C (Jeep has none), drove it for a week or so, then stumbled across a great deal on my A4, and the BMW has been fairly ignored since. First things first, the bad points:
- needs ball joints (have the parts(from Pelican), not installed)
- needs a serious cleanup, previous owner botched a wax job and I never got around to sorting it out
- radio and trip computer not getting power, never even bothered checking fuses (no radio at all in the Jeep, so it didn't bother me for that week)
- typical minor rust spots at the rear wheel arches, nothing severe or rotten.
The good points:
- factory limited slip rear diff, very fun
- M30 block, rumored to be bombproof, still grunts nicely.
- 5sp Getrag, shifts smooth
- clutch grabs good, during test drive the previous owner freaked out because I sat at a light with the clutch in, instead of taking it out of gear "to preserve the throwout bearing" (anal 50+yr old guy).
- two sets of wheels, alloys for summer, steel for winter (steel set only has 3 of 4 tires mounted, spare is an alloy)
- previous owner had it regularly serviced at a local BMW specialist
- sunroof does not leak (that surprised me to be honest)
- power everything, with an astounding number of buttons for adjusting the front seats (8 or 10 buttons each if I recall), all of it works (sans aforementioned trip computer and radio).
It ran rough when I got it, but having worked on similar year 5's, that was quickly and quietly diagnosed after opening the hood and seeing cracked vacuum lines. So I wrote him a check on the spot, got it home, swapped fresh vac lines in all around, and she purred like a kitten that very evening. Overall as she currently sits at the storage unit, I'd give her a 7/10, very fun car, but I'm addicted to this Audi. That storage unit eats up $60/mo just so I can sit there and say "yeah I've got a BMW too". Not doing anyone much good.
I've got $3200 in it, flexible on its actual value.
Also up for grabs are two `81 Suzuki motorcycles. One is a GS1100E, the other a GS550L. Both have been sitting for a few years, and will need fresh tires, fluids, etc... Both ran great when I parked them, I just kinda stopped riding one day. No particular reason, I guess I got it out of my system (at least until I find an old BMW with sidecar, or a Ural copy
).Value, not much, but it might be the right deal sweetener for the right person.
What I'm looking for is a -stock-, manual trans B5 in decent condition, preference is 1.8T (gas isn't getting any cheaper). I don't mind fixing things, but can't deal with a basket case for this particular situation.
Cash can of course be used to buffer the deal, I'm just trying to take some things that I'm not using and put them to good use.
Originally Posted by nihil
... that would be quite a trip...
(previous owner had a parking deficiency, all 5 of the stockers are chewed).
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