Excellent, now, please look after it for the next 4 years...that'll be right up my street

Do you mind saying what you had done, Im still interested in E38s so the running costs are very much something I would like to know more about

Sure

I originally booked it in to have a hose replace and a coolant flush. £190, I had a call to say it was done and to come pick it up.

I went to pick it up and they told me it had an oil leak and would I like them to investigate £35

They discovered it needed two rocker gaskets (they all do that sir) and the main crank oil seal, which requires the gearbox removing. £1200, however I told them I'd need to get other quotes etc and think about it while I'm away (I go off on holiday on Monday) so they discounted that down to £810

They then found, after they put it all back together a coolant leek coming from the waterpump £500. At this point, I went a touch mental as they probably should have found this earlier and telling me this after I was already a grand down seemed a bit out of order. The service manager called me back and said they'd fit it for free, taking it to £150.

I also had them remove a door card to diagnose a window fault, which they agreed to do for free, however the new runner was over £400 so I'll get that off eBay and DIY the refit.

In total it came in at £1189 but I'm assured that everything on the car is now perfect mechanically and should be fine, the next service is only an oil one and it should be quite cheap. Hopefully it'll stay reliable and I won't get any huge bills (touch wood)

From my first few months of E38 ownership, I'd suggest there are a couple of ways to approach. You could buy a cheap one, run it in a banganomic style and then scrap it or sell it on cheaply when you're done. Alternatively you can buy a good one, keep on top of the maintenance and just accept the costs. That's the path I've gone down and it should hopefully mean that I get to drive one of my favourite BMWs as it was intended, reliably and comfortably.

In terms of buying tips, I'd personally ignore anything which doesn't have a full history and a large folder of big bills as you really don't want to be landed with a few years worth of repairs during your first trip to the dealer. On the other hand, miles really wouldn't put me off. Mine is on 117k and it feels as tight as a drum. The service manager who looked round it took it for a short drive and (cliched as it sounds) said there's absolutely no difference in the way it drives now to when it was new. Our Megane has half the miles and is at least three times as worn, a 740i really feels like it's capable of 500k plus judging by my experience but nearly all will be killed off before then due to a lack of maintenance/the economy of repairing it out weighing the value of splitting it.

http://www.gmscars.co.uk/bmw_750il_individualorinocodetails.html

That one? For some reason I couldn't copy and paste your link.

That is absolutely stunning. It'd need to be though for that money, any reduction in condition and it'd really drop in value.

Odd phone in it. I thought it moved to a Motorla in early 2001, though perhaps the top model with the front and back system stayed with the old kit? Personally, I'd prefer it that way, I don't take mine out of the car as it's only used as a car phone

http://www.gmscars.co.uk/bmw_750il_individual__orinoco__details.html

The double underscores in the URL are code on the forum for an underline.

Tiny URL conversion for clickableness - http://tinyurl.com/ct3n8gm

Iirc the rules outlawed a v8, so Honda thought outside the box

Didn't Loris Capirossi set various speed records on one? I'm sure he did 187mph on it (at a time when a ZZR1100 was all out at 173mph).

Certainly Mick Grant never set any records at all on the debut of the race version of the NR750 at Silverstone

Did Freddie Spencer not get pole or very close at Laguna one year though?
I could be wrong.
NR 500 as the race bike was known, or 'never ready' back then.

Sports



Contours (I have these)

Not sure on the non-sport seats.

The one at 4 star is nice but price wise it's nuts. With the work done to mine I'm up to a total cost of about £4400 and that includes buying and insuring it!

Personally, I'd just keep a look out for something lovely but at a decent rate. £7000 is really the ceiling for an E38 IMO