RE: Shed Of The Week: BMW 728i
Discussion
Blackbird425 said:
B'stard Child said:
Well you'd be very wrong in 10 years my average mpg in a 4.4 E38 has been 27 mpg
You must drive it like a hearse. I fail to see the point of having a V8 to build speed slowly and sit at a steady 60mph all day. I had the same car and was getting 22 tops. On a Motorway or Dual carriage way I'm normally 70-80 mph - single carriageways I'll still take any overtaking opportunities where safe to do so.
What I don't do is waste fuel - anticipation of the traffic conditions ahead and lift off so minimal braking is required
If you drive with a heavy right foot and can't see past the next car in front and either accelerate of brake with binary control of both then or sat in a lot of traffic going nowhere I'd expect to get 22mpg or less
It's a great big barge - not a sports car - waft in comfort get to the destination relaxed and happy......
As I said before is you do need to use the horses they are there whenever you need em - I did return 18 mpg on a local PH run once but my preferred choice for local runs was broken.
Anyway enough of the "mpgs"
B'stard Child said:
Nope never the slowest vehicle on the road - but I do live in Norfolk - it's mostly flat and apart from when Snetterton has a big meeting on we don't get many traffic jams - I don't use it to commute to work because it's less than a mile - it's a mile muncher and it gets used predominantly on longer trips.
On a Motorway or Dual carriage way I'm normally 70-80 mph - single carriageways I'll still take any overtaking opportunities where safe to do so.
What I don't do is waste fuel - anticipation of the traffic conditions ahead and lift off so minimal braking is required
If you drive with a heavy right foot and can't see past the next car in front and either accelerate of brake with binary control of both then or sat in a lot of traffic going nowhere I'd expect to get 22mpg or less
It's a great big barge - not a sports car - waft in comfort get to the destination relaxed and happy......
As I said before is you do need to use the horses they are there whenever you need em - I did return 18 mpg on a local PH run once but my preferred choice for local runs was broken.
Anyway enough of the "mpgs"
Fair enough. Just one thing though, you say the throttle isn't binary? That must be where I'm going wrong.On a Motorway or Dual carriage way I'm normally 70-80 mph - single carriageways I'll still take any overtaking opportunities where safe to do so.
What I don't do is waste fuel - anticipation of the traffic conditions ahead and lift off so minimal braking is required
If you drive with a heavy right foot and can't see past the next car in front and either accelerate of brake with binary control of both then or sat in a lot of traffic going nowhere I'd expect to get 22mpg or less
It's a great big barge - not a sports car - waft in comfort get to the destination relaxed and happy......
As I said before is you do need to use the horses they are there whenever you need em - I did return 18 mpg on a local PH run once but my preferred choice for local runs was broken.
Anyway enough of the "mpgs"
Matt UK said:
B'stard Child said:
Well you'd be very wrong in 10 years my average mpg in a 4.4 E38 has been 27 mpg
Wow, I averaged 26.6mpg over 65,000 miles in an e39 530i and thought I'd done rather well 
not wanting to continue the discussions - you don't have to drive slowly to get good mpg - below 80mph it's getting there and then losing speed using the brakes that punishes mpg especially on something that weighes in at nearly 2000 kgs rolling
Matt UK said:
B'stard Child said:
Well you'd be very wrong in 10 years my average mpg in a 4.4 E38 has been 27 mpg
Wow, I averaged 26.6mpg over 65,000 miles in an e39 530i and thought I'd done rather well 
- good response made me chuckle - going to avoid answering mind!!425 quid seems ridiculously cheap until you factor in that we're looking at an 18 year old car with an intergalactic mileage.
Having said that, I think these E38 Beemers are much nicer looking that the horrid Bangle designed things that followed, and were indeed wonderful cars in their day. There seemed to be a lot of E38s rolling around the USA when I lived there 2 years ago. The 728i had a reputation for respectable performance. It's not going to smoke any modern hot-hatches, but if properly maintained it's got plenty of waft factor and is very cool (even with a bit of rust here and there).
Considering the low price and 6 months MoT I think this is a great SOTW.
Having said that, I think these E38 Beemers are much nicer looking that the horrid Bangle designed things that followed, and were indeed wonderful cars in their day. There seemed to be a lot of E38s rolling around the USA when I lived there 2 years ago. The 728i had a reputation for respectable performance. It's not going to smoke any modern hot-hatches, but if properly maintained it's got plenty of waft factor and is very cool (even with a bit of rust here and there).
Considering the low price and 6 months MoT I think this is a great SOTW.
Blackbird425 said:
X5TUU said:
Epically cheap ... the skeptic in me says its way too good to be true!
Can something be "epically cheap"? It can't be too good to be true at that price, because the price says it all. You could probably flog the bits for more than the asking price.X5TUU said:
Of course it can be and the whole point of shed of the week is to use it, not strip it, and at that price it ain't gonna last long at all ... Hence to good to be true
I fail to see how a £425 motor could disappoint. You really wouldn't expect much at that price. If it lasted a month you wouldn't have done too badly. 3 months and you're laughing. Even if it lasted just a month id be pretty pissed off ... That's 2mths tax, insurance admin costs, disposal hassle, fair enough that's a months pcp on something less interesting but surely shed of the week should not be the premise to change cars monthly...or have I missed something here for all this time?!
Top shedding!
What's the view on younger 7 series? This one is within my current £5k wafter budget:
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...
Are they any good or is it going to blow up and cost me a fortune?
What's the view on younger 7 series? This one is within my current £5k wafter budget:
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...
Are they any good or is it going to blow up and cost me a fortune?
Possibly the best value shed for ages.
I just temper that by saying that a month ago a friend of mine bought a 740i (4.4l) for nearly £200 LESS than this.
And no, there's no rotten arches, sills, wings etc, petrol tank and radiator are fine.
Now THATS a bargain (and it's done less than 150k with loads of bills.....)
I just temper that by saying that a month ago a friend of mine bought a 740i (4.4l) for nearly £200 LESS than this.
And no, there's no rotten arches, sills, wings etc, petrol tank and radiator are fine.
Now THATS a bargain (and it's done less than 150k with loads of bills.....)
Talk of mpg makes me wonder, I've had 3 E39 523i's, both auto and manual, and never managed to get over 32mpg no matter how hard I tried.
My friends 740 gets mid-teens around town and mixed driving, and mid/late 20's on longer runs.
Of course, that's not done using the cars OBC, and I'm sure they aren't that accurate, but hey, we all like to think we get more mpg than we really do.
Having said that, working out my mpg using the brim-to-brim method, my new Octavia has averaged 51mpg from new so far, or more if you trust the VFCC (VAG Fuel Cheat Computer)...
My friends 740 gets mid-teens around town and mixed driving, and mid/late 20's on longer runs.
Of course, that's not done using the cars OBC, and I'm sure they aren't that accurate, but hey, we all like to think we get more mpg than we really do.
Having said that, working out my mpg using the brim-to-brim method, my new Octavia has averaged 51mpg from new so far, or more if you trust the VFCC (VAG Fuel Cheat Computer)...
My Dad bought his 1st E38 in 95 a 740 which was very nice followed by a E38 728 in 98. He kept that until 2014 after 99k miles.
Due to the price BMW offered against a new X6 he gave the old girl to me. The MPG is what it is but the drive is so smooth and a comfortable place to be. The miles get soaked up, makes a nice addition to the Elise.
So far the shocks at the rear corroded and the spring dropped so I replaced those. In December last year I thought the engine had launched itself but it was the waterpump. Thankfully a short journey so no overheating.
E38 probably one of the best cars to come from the chaps in Munich.
Due to the price BMW offered against a new X6 he gave the old girl to me. The MPG is what it is but the drive is so smooth and a comfortable place to be. The miles get soaked up, makes a nice addition to the Elise.
So far the shocks at the rear corroded and the spring dropped so I replaced those. In December last year I thought the engine had launched itself but it was the waterpump. Thankfully a short journey so no overheating.
E38 probably one of the best cars to come from the chaps in Munich.
i run one as my daily smoker (with a £3k R129 SL as my weekend smoker... combined value - less than £5k).
it's a 2000-w 728i with about 115k. i absolutely love it... sure, the cooling system went south on me, but i've fixed all that now. the fuel tank is holding and everything just works (the a/c is a bit whiny though).
it stands me in at nothing and regularly returns me circa 35mpg on the airport runs (sub 20mpg on 5 min drives around town).
the whole reason i bought the r129 sl was because i couldn't part with the 7-series so had to have two cars rather than one.
still haven;t used the fax machine though...
it's a 2000-w 728i with about 115k. i absolutely love it... sure, the cooling system went south on me, but i've fixed all that now. the fuel tank is holding and everything just works (the a/c is a bit whiny though).
it stands me in at nothing and regularly returns me circa 35mpg on the airport runs (sub 20mpg on 5 min drives around town).
the whole reason i bought the r129 sl was because i couldn't part with the 7-series so had to have two cars rather than one.
still haven;t used the fax machine though...
Limpet said:
Hard to go wrong for £425 to be honest. It's worth more than that in parts.
Worth a lot more in parts.It will probably end up in Poland to be stripped.
When the water pump failed I bought an E39 just in case the engine was toast to swap (long story). In the end it was the waterpump. Used the E39 for a few months and sold when the MOT ran out on eBay to a chap in Poland who turned up with a truck and took it away with a mix of cars to take to Poland to strip for parts.
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