RE: Shed Of The Week: BMW 728i

[greenarrow]

Last 3 tankfuls in my CLK430 have averaged about 24.5 MPG....town driving kills it. These 2.8 litre BMWs are capable of very decent MPG if you use the throttle sparingly.

This is an epic shed. £425, just enjoy it until it drops!

[williamp]

The autocar second hand salesman drove one for a while: "shed seven". It was scrapped in the end, but gave reliable, impressive motoring in the meantime.

Come on, why not? You might get run over by an E-class tomorrow...

[JD2329]

Fuel tanks can be refurbed or bought new from ECP for around £400...a bit of work to get it out but not a disaster.
When you look at what you're getting for your money it's hard to lose on this one.

[Lowtimer]

blademansw said:

Just how.. I averaged 23mpg over 45k miles in my (admittedly auto) E39 528i. That the Merc dealer gave me 500 quid for, I should have chucked it up on here lol.

I'm on 32 mpg over the last 20,000 miles in my 530i Touring. Mind you, that's manual too.

[Trabi601]

Great cars - driving one of these when it was nearly new converted me to BMWs.

[pSyCoSiS]

In terms of value for money and quality, most probably the best SOTW ever!

Like others have said, that 2.8 is perfectly adequate in this car (yes, it won't win many off the line races - but will happily cruise at 3 figure speeds, returning decent economy).

Fantastic cabin and a great place to endure a long journey.

Get the wheel bearing changed, and that's a great motor for less than £650.

[B'stard Child]

IknowJoseph said:

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?

That reads like an honest advert if I was looking for a later car I'd have a look at that one for sure. For me it's the looks I can't get used too, it's just never grown on me.

[cannelldocam]

B'stard Child said:

Good god man - you must drive it like an electric milk float - get the heck of PH and hand in your keys on the way out

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

My 530i Sport manual saloon averages around 28 as long as it is mostly motorway. I do like to use the horses on slip roads, though as mentioned I'm not one for steaming up to the back of a vehicle and stepping on the anchors, once at m'way speed smooth and consistent is definitely the way to go. Interestingly it is way more frugal than the auto Senator B 3.0i 24v that it replaced which averaged more like 23-25 over an eight year period.

[Earl of Petrol]

Proper shed, £425 is all you can lose. Clean it, service it once a year at the local garage so it gets clean oil, and worry ye not. Got to be better than a Polo with a crunchy gearbox. The definition of shed.

[JD2329]

Just done a return trip yesterday to Northampton in mine.
200 miles, A roads/Mway cruising, 38.7 MPG.
You just can't knock it, a 730d would be better, but not by much.

[njd27]

spookly said:

+1 on the fuel tank issue.

I was given one of these for a weekend by a friend while his workshop were fixing the gear linkage on my MK1 Golf... many years ago.

I put a full tank of fuel in, drove it about 50 miles, left the car for a few hours and came back to find only a 1/4 tank. Thought it was a bit thirsty. Then it happened again.

When I took it back to him he had a look and the tank had a leak about 1/4 of the way up, hence anytime you left it for any length of time you'd always come back to only 1/4 tank of fuel..... and I'm guessing it wouldn't be a good plan to weld the tank in situ :-)

I had an Audi 100 quattro for a while with a similar issue. The fuel tank had two lobes because it sat over the drive shaft (if I recall correctly). If you brimmed it about half of the fuel would leak out, but if you only put in 1/3 a tank it would be fine. It took me several long road trips suffering from petrol fumes before we worked that one out.

Never fixed it in the end: it was sold on ebay for a couple of hundred quid and exported to Eastern Europe.