What do you think of the BMW 8 series?

[STW2010]

bmthnick1981 said:

300bhp/ton said:

STW2010 said:

Much rarer than the 540 and 740 and so parts will be more expensive. Being far more high-tech, there are more electronics to go wrong.

Curious, but which bits of them are more high-tech than the 5 or 7 Series?

I recall someone on the Thread bought one and it needed a windscreen wiper linkage or similar, it is a unique part to the 8er and it was eye wateringly expensive and only available from BMW.

The pop-up headlights too...

I thought there was a bigger difference in the tech, but reading through this buyers guide it would appear that's not the case- http://www.meeknet.co.uk/e31/buying_guide/BMW_E31_...

That said, the cost of maintenance wouldn't bother me unless I bought a lemon which developed a new problem every week.

[BS75]

Always loved the 8 series since reading about the Alpina 850CSi when I was a kid...they look a little plain compared to modern cars, but as someone said earlier, they'll probably go the way of the 635CSi and be utterly retro-cool in another 10 years. Hope I've got one by then

[Bemmer]

I love the 840 Sports but as I have mentioned before the way the have go up over the last 3 years or so I think I have left it too late to get hold of a nice low milage one for under 10K I think they are stunning in Daker Yellow these guys always have a few in stock www.Cramag.com but out of my budget now the black one in there advert sold for just under 20K.......

[WojaWabbit]

Bemmer said:

I love the 840 Sports but as I have mentioned before the way the have go up over the last 3 years or so I think I have left it too late to get hold of a nice low milage one for under 10K I think they are stunning in Daker Yellow these guys always have a few in stock www.Cramag.com but out of my budget now the black one in there advert sold for just under 20K.......

Ok, so it's not Dakar (wonderful colour, saw a lovely Dakar E36 M3 today) but there's a tidy-ish looking Estoril 840i round the corner from my work up for £6.5k. It's been on the forecourt for a while, mind you, so it might be housing some gremlins the length of time its sat there... though I imagine a cheeky sub £6k offer would have you driving it away.

[Bemmer]

WojaWabbit said:

Ok, so it's not Dakar (wonderful colour, saw a lovely Dakar E36 M3 today) but there's a tidy-ish looking Estoril 840i round the corner from my work up for £6.5k. It's been on the forecourt for a while, mind you, so it might be housing some gremlins the length of time its sat there... though I imagine a cheeky sub £6k offer would have you driving it away.

What's the mileage though..? I think as a long term investment as a collectors car you need something sub 70K with FSH,but Estoril Blue would be my 2nd choice colour......

[loudlashadjuster]

shielsy said:

EddieFelson said:

So can anybody quote any facts related to 8 series costs? Or is it just general old car running costs.

i replaced some rear suspension components on mine. shopping list was:

2x shock absorbers
2x rubber top mounts
2x dust covers
2x trailing arm front bushes
2x trailing arm rear bushes
2x reinforcement plates

this lot came in at just under £500. all parts from BMW, apart from the shockers and the reinforcement plates. these plates are not fitted standard to the car, but are highly recommended due to the shock towers failing on older cars.

That sounds eminently reasonable. I've spent as much replacing similar items on far less auspicious motors.

I'm in the 'running costs must be similar to a 7-Series' camp.

[toppstuff]

Minty XJS or BMW 840?

You could get a very good , practically perfect jaguar XJS for the same money.

Different image for sure but lets face it, neither car is exactly fashionable right now.

Both lovely cars in their different ways.

[WojaWabbit]

Bemmer said:

WojaWabbit said:

Ok, so it's not Dakar (wonderful colour, saw a lovely Dakar E36 M3 today) but there's a tidy-ish looking Estoril 840i round the corner from my work up for £6.5k. It's been on the forecourt for a while, mind you, so it might be housing some gremlins the length of time its sat there... though I imagine a cheeky sub £6k offer would have you driving it away.

What's the mileage though..? I think as a long term investment as a collectors car you need something sub 70K with FSH,but Estoril Blue would be my 2nd choice colour......

It's on 86k miles. I hadn't bothered to check before now, but there's an abundance of 8-series on autotrader at all sorts of prices. If you just want to 'tick the box' as it were, then you can pick one up that doesn't look too sheddy for around £5k.

I'm not convinced by some of the dealer prices at the other end of the scale either. I think some dealers buy £5k private sales, put it on their forecourt and then double the price just for the hell of it.

Here is the one near my work...

http://www.cottagecars.co.uk/Cars/Executive/r199td... Note: the current window price is £6495

[The Big G]

WojaWabbit said:

http://www.cottagecars.co.uk/Cars/Executive/r199td... Note: the current window price is £6495

The beige dash/plasics looks awful though, they are always the cheaper cars as well. The grey or black looks far better in my opinion. You'll be looking at it far more than the exterior colour! It was a definate no no when I was looking for mine.

[Burt124]

I've had my 1998 840 for about 10 months now. It has been reliable, I have spent some money on it either to fix faults existing when I bought it or on improvement. Rough expenditure, from what I remember, as follows:

KDS alignment at BMW £200
Wheel refurbishment £480
Fix A/C £450
Stainless Exhaust £700
Headlamp Lens £90
Bumper Lamp £200

I have also just had to replace the bumper because I caught it while putting the car on a ramp. The bumper cost £450 plus paint.

I will have the interior re-coloured soon and next year it may get a repaint.

[Bemmer]

Estroil with Beige looks horrible.... That's more than likely why they have had it a while and a bit too many miles for what I'm looking at and well Daker Yellow....... one day.!

[BS75]

Eye of the beholder....I rather like the EB/tan combo and can't think of anything worse than yellow - on any car.

[WojaWabbit]

BS75 said:

Eye of the beholder....I rather like the EB/tan combo and can't think of anything worse than yellow - on any car.

It's all personal opinion isn't it? I usually hate cream/light interiors, but I love tan/brown. I'm not overly keen on Estoril Blue, but I love Dakar. My ideal spec would be Velvet Blue with black interior, or possibly Dakar with black interior and grey leather.

If you're seriously considering a car to keep in the hope of it appreciating in value, then in thirty years time the cars in period colour combinations (I'm thinking 90s fashion excess...) may well be worth more than the boring combos. Maybe, but then again....

[Ozzie Osmond]

WojaWabbit said:

If you're seriously considering a car to keep in the hope of it appreciating in value, then in thirty years time.....

Good grief. That level of optimism is worthy of Mervyn King (former governor of the bank of England) and his constant assurances that inflation would fall below 2% by the end of the year!

[The Big G]

WojaWabbit said:

It's all personal opinion isn't it? I usually hate cream/light interiors, but I love tan/brown. I'm not overly keen on Estoril Blue, but I love Dakar. My ideal spec would be Velvet Blue with black interior, or possibly Dakar with black interior and grey leather.

+1 on the Velvet blue. Love the way it changesin different lights.

Light leather(champagne) looks great with the black dash. Some how it just looks so right! Just steer clear from the beige dashes which are uaually found with the brown leather combo. A fully black interior with black leather can feel really dark and oppressive.

Think mine looks just right wven though I say so myself A couple of photos are earlier in the thread.

[Barry38]

To me it's a timeless classic. I always loved that car.

[derin100]

I have now sold off nearly all of my cars...well, it feels like it having gone down from 10 to 5 since Xmas...but I still have my 840Ci Sport. A few years ago I even sold my E30 M3 but still kept the 8-Series. This year I sold my M3 CSL...but still kept the 8-Series!

Still has only 27K miles on the clock:

http://www.bmwclassics.co.uk/gallery/index.php?spg...

Hard to believe but let's remember that next year the 8-Series will be a quarter of a century old!

[wildcat45]

Gorgeous things, that stand the test of time.

I can't help but think that they were cars just out of their time when they first came out. I never really matchedthe shark nose 6 in some way. Though I guess it was a much better car.

Had it come out in the early 80s on the back of the M1 (To me there are echoes of the M1 in its styling) it could have tapped in to those high 80s years of excess, red braces, mobioe bricks etc. By the 1990s the world was just a bit skint to buy lots of these.

When did it stop production?

I'd love one, but given the choice a shark nose 6 would win.

[derin100]

wildcat45 said:

Gorgeous things, that stand the test of time.

I can't help but think that they were cars just out of their time when they first came out. I never really matchedthe shark nose 6 in some way. Though I guess it was a much better car.

Had it come out in the early 80s on the back of the M1 (To me there are echoes of the M1 in its styling) it could have tapped in to those high 80s years of excess, red braces, mobioe bricks etc. By the 1990s the world was just a bit skint to buy lots of these.

When did it stop production?

I'd love one, but given the choice a shark nose 6 would win.

The styling actually goes all the way back to Paul Bracq's E25 Concept Turbo car of 1972.



Production ran from '89-99 making it one of the longest running BMW models...possibly even the longest if one divides the E24 6-Series into early (E12 based) and later (E28 based) cars?

[EddieFelson]

Just noticed they are not that quick looking at the performance figures. They 'look' quicker.