Best Smoker Barges - 1 - 5 Large [Vol 2]

[Zwolf]

Today I am mostly wanting to be in an E38 again...

[Derestrictor]

http://www.autoclubhub.com/classifieds/details.php...

[Zwolf]

Derestrictor said:

http://www.autoclubhub.com/classifieds/details.php...

I'll bet a penny to a pinch of st that is the one that went through auction recently with the moody history and interior that looked like it had been reclaimed from the sea.

[Derestrictor]

Zwolf said:

...an interior that looked like it had been reclaimed from the sea.

New vat, please...

[Zwolf]

This one: http://www.bonhams.com/eur/auction/19292/lot/359/

auction listing said:

First registered on 23rd February 1988, this 750i saloon has had only one owner, having been supplied new to Gabriel Holding Ltd for the use of one of the company's executives. We are advised that the service book has been lost but it is known that GH Ltd was using BMW Park Lane and BMW Holland Park for routine servicing. There are 14 related invoices on file covering the period 2nd February 1995 (at 64,451 miles) to 8th April 2011 (137,955 miles). The current mileage (19th October 2011) is 137,977 miles. Finished in Dolphin Grey with Buffalo leather interior, this iconic modern BMW comes with the aforementioned invoices, original bill of sale, current road fund licence, MoT to 21st January 2012 and Swansea V5C registration document. No reserve.

Sold for £575.

Compared with:

classified said:

After 23 years of ownership from new in February 1988 I am selling my BMW 750iL. The car is finished in Dolphin paintwork (dark metallic grey) and the interior is finished in Havana buffalo hide (from memory an £600 extra in 1988). As you will be aware the engine is a five litre 300 bhp unit. It has been fully serviced throughout. The car has covered 130,000 miles and runs as beautifully as it did when new.

The car has a current MOT and is registered until June 2011. I am seeking £3800 for this car.

Same colour, same interior, similar miles. These are rare enough to not often be duplicated and for sale within a gap of a few weeks in 23 years of life of each other.

Car has current MoT and is "registered until" (taxed, one presumes) until - six months ago?



The bullst detector I keep next to this computer is blinking its light at me I'm afraid. Mock the spreadsheet by all means, but it has its uses.

Edited by Zwolf on Thursday 8th December 19:54

[Zwolf]

An interesting curio:

E38 730d





£5,695. Over nominal thread budget admittedly, however here is where I see it and I suspect it'll find most favour.

[jonnydm]

Pretty rare granted, but £5k+ for 10 years old and 187k miles. I appreciate an E38 but does seem a bit rich. What year was the E65 730d introduced?

[Zwolf]

jonnydm said:

Pretty rare granted, but £5k+ for 10 years old and 187k miles. I appreciate an E38 but does seem a bit rich. What year was the E65 730d introduced?

Left of hook too. 2002 I think.

Just turned up this oddity too. Not th ecar itself, although it looks a tidy enough 735i. But a 13 year old, 100k+ mile E38 with a claimed full BMW service history and a two year warranty? Get that rinsed for every penny it (probably isn't) worth.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...



£1,999 (although £3,999 in the window...)

Interesting colour 728i Individual: http://pistonheads.com/sales/3391212.htm

Looks nice:



>walk around the back<



Oh dear.

£2,150.

Edited by Zwolf on Thursday 8th December 20:37

[Emeye]

Zwolf said:

Left of hook too. 2002 I think.

Just turned up this oddity too. Not th ecar itself, although it looks a tidy enough 735i. But a 13 year old, 100k+ mile E38 with a claimed full BMW service history and a two year warranty? Get that rinsed for every penny it (probably isn't) worth.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...



£1,999 (although £3,999 in the window...)

Interesting colour 728i Individual: http://pistonheads.com/sales/3391212.htm

Looks nice:



>walk around the back<



Oh dear.

£2,150.

Edited by Zwolf on Thursday 8th December 20:37

Zwolf, are you some kind of charity that goes around trying place homeless E38s?

That quad exhaust may be of questionable taste, but it makes you think if someone is going to spunk that sort of money, they probably took care of the rest of the car.

[E38Ross]

hornetrider said:

E38Ross said:

Hornetrider, seen your barge and think he said its basically done. Mentioned you recommended them too me and he said that's good. No cash off your bill it would seem though mine all done just waiting for the bill.

I await my call!

any news?!?

[Zwolf]

Emeye said:

That quad exhaust may be of questionable taste, but it makes you think if someone is going to spunk that sort of money, they probably took care of the rest of the car.

It's a 7 Series Register beard's car, so you're likely right. However, sometimes people spend money on chintz, rather than bits you can't see. "All fur coat and no knickers" IYSWIM, so either logic can apply, although in this instance I'm more inclined to agree with you.

But the number you see that "ooh, nice ALPINA wheels...ah, not serviced in four years..."

[anonymous-user]

Excuse me if I'm missing something, but when it comes to E38s why is any 750i for sale less than 5k considered automatically to be horrifically broken, but 735i and 740i cars for half the price seem to be perfectly acceptable to the very same person that was steering people away from sub 5k 750s (I'm looking at you zwolf)? Surely a 750i isn't a completely different car that makes everything the cheap side of a minter financial suicide? Surely the only different is the engine and I've had the pleasure of dealing with M73 engined cars in the form of Rolls Royce Silver Seraphs, and from my experience and the experiences of my colleagues the engines are damn near bullet proof reliability wise (if not a complete pain in the backside why it comes to changing the rear most spark plugs! )

Or is EDC the main worry, and if so A) Is it a 750 only item and B) Can non EDC suspension from lesser models be retrofitted?

[SuperHangOn]

I do really quite want this.

Sobering how much dough these sort of cars can eat through on little things though. £800 for distributor caps and a sensor, £2000 for cats



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MERCEDES-S500-SEC-W140-M...

[Output Flange]

SuperHangOn said:

I do really quite want this.

Sobering how much dough these sort of cars can eat through on little things though. £800 for distributor caps and a sensor, £2000 for cats



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MERCEDES-S500-SEC-W140-M...

There's a rule of thumb to follow when buying one of these:

Don't.

[V8mate]

Output Flange said:

SuperHangOn said:

I do really quite want this.

Sobering how much dough these sort of cars can eat through on little things though. £800 for distributor caps and a sensor, £2000 for cats



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MERCEDES-S500-SEC-W140-M...

There's a rule of thumb to follow when buying one of these:

Don't.

Fugly lump, anyway.

[Zwolf]

279 said:

Excuse me if I'm missing something, but when it comes to E38s why is any 750i for sale less than 5k considered automatically to be horrifically broken, but 735i and 740i cars for half the price seem to be perfectly acceptable to the very same person that was steering people away from sub 5k 750s (I'm looking at you zwolf)? Surely a 750i isn't a completely different car that makes everything the cheap side of a minter financial suicide? Surely the only different is the engine and I've had the pleasure of dealing with M73 engined cars in the form of Rolls Royce Silver Seraphs, and from my experience and the experiences of my colleagues the engines are damn near bullet proof reliability wise (if not a complete pain in the backside why it comes to changing the rear most spark plugs! )

Or is EDC the main worry, and if so A) Is it a 750 only item and B) Can non EDC suspension from lesser models be retrofitted?

The V12s ARE mechanically quite different, way beyond simply the engine. Approximately 250% more bork potential than a standard E38. The engine is indeed the least concerning aspect of them, it's all the st appended to them, most specifically the interlinked steering and suspension systems. V12s have double glazing, electric rear benches and headrests that the others don't etc.

The brakes seem to be a lot dearer to change than those on the rest of the change too, beefed up to deal with the additional 200kg as they are. They're bigger than M5 items IIRC and were used for the Z8. That extra weight also takes a commensurately greater effort from the entire suspension too (not just the EDC bits, but all the usual E38 weak points). They've LSDs rather than open diff fitted too and they do eat them over time as most BMWs with in excess of 300lb ft seem to. If borked, they're harder to come by and proportionately dearer to boot.

You can theoretically delete EDC and return to 740 SWB spec springs, however the cost of so doing ends up not very different to merely replacing the EDC dampers by the time you've fitted a new steering pump and so on. The same applies with E34 M5s that share the system.

Bear in mind that the V12s also double up on a lot of stuff that the sixes and eights make do with one of, fuel pumps and filters, batteries, MAFs etc. The radiators are unique to the model and cost 3x what the regular ones do etc. The other models do without the twin DK motors/electronic throttle modules etc that can and do fail expensively, each of which can land a bill on par with a replacement M52 inlet manifold. As you rightly say, the rearmost plugs are often simply not changed by independents owing to the faff and labour charge of so doing, so many of them don't run as smoothly as they could any more - more than a couple that I've looked at run as V10s.

The reason for the price differential is a by product of relative rarity, much in the manner of an ALPINA E39 B10 having an asking price 3 or 4x that of a 540i, so quite often an otherwise comparable age, mileage, spec and condition 740 that's up for £2.5k will have an asking price getting on for double that as a V12, all else being equal. There are thousands upon thousands of sixes and V8s, there were only ever hundreds of V12s.

A £3.5k 750 = A £1.5-2k 728/735/740.
A £3.5-5k 728/735/740 = A £5-7k 750.

Standard sixes and V8s are a walk in the park ownership-wise compared with the perils of keeping on top of a twelve. However, doing so justifies all the heartache, but the laws of diminishing returns are very much in force.

You'd be better off buying a 740i and transplanting just the engine in theory...

[E38Ross]

that all said, i still REALLY want one

one day my friend....one day

[Zwolf]

I'll admit that it is large part why I find myself looking at '40s again, having had two twelves to date - and pretty well behaved ones at that. Third time unlucky and all that and a 740i is the only one I've not yet owned. It'll need to be a Sport too.

But an E38 ALPINA B12 in SWB is where my heart is truly at in the fullness of time. However there were only ever 16 B12s in RHD. 8 5.7 E-KATs and 6 6.0s. There's only a single RHD LWB B12 and it's a 6.0, so that plus squirrelling away the cash for a few years means it'll be a while. The one remaining to make up the 16 is a 5.7 coupé.

So logic says save quicker by running a 735/740 Sport in the meantime instead of a running restoration of a V12.

http://www.thealpinaregister.com/register/B12/5.7%...
http://www.thealpinaregister.com/register/B12/6.0%...

Edited by Zwolf on Thursday 8th December 22:42

[thejpster]

The XJ12 in Bradford that sold on eBay a few months back is back on Autotrader, at the same dealer.

Did the purchaser discover it was a nail and walk away or was it just schill bidding? It has been untaxed for nearly 18 months now.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

[GBB]

Zwolf said:

Today I am mostly wanting to be in an E38 again...

Those do make me ponder why I bought an E39.........but there's plenty of time yet. Prices can only drop further.

What strikes me most about E38's is the number of low mile, well looked after examples (though plenty of chaff too). Any car that attracts monied types and enthusiasts but isn't desirable by the market as a whole must be a good thing.

Why spend thousands on a new XF or similar when you can get a nice E39 or E38 for a couple of bags?

On the topic of the LHD E38, it must be export, otherwise you can buy a lot of petrol for the £3K premium.