BMW 540i Sport Touring 6 speed - new daily driver

[BriC175]

For a while I've had a Jaguar X-Type 2.0D to use as a daily driver whilst my M3 sits in the garage. Great car in terms of reliability, economy, comfortable, and had a good spec with heated leather seats, heated windscreen, auto lights, auto wipers, etc. But it was rather boring, and whilst I had a BMW in the garage for the weekend, I missed being behind the wheel of one when I was doing most of my driving!

So after having looked at a few (started off by viewing a 540i Auto with LPG), I found this on eBay for a rather good 'buy it now' price, and with the option to 'make an offer'. Took a bit of a risk and made an offer without viewing, and to my surprise, the offer was accepted! Collected it on Friday, and all was in order with the car, so paid the money and ran!

It's not got LPG at the moment (something that will come at a later stage), but it is otherwise a great car for the daily commute! Good condition overall, few small dings and the bonnet has has a (not great) respray at some stage. Anyway, I'll let the pictures do the talking:

[Otispunkmeyer]

Very nice, these look great IMO and I am in the market for one now as well, though I have to admit I am holding out for a 5.7 V8 Chrysler 300C tourer because I have a massive soft spot for cheap American tat. This and a Volvo V70R are next on the list though! Enjoy!

[RichardM5]

Looks very nice. There can't be many 540i manual tourings about!

Give the cooling system a good check over, they are prone to splitting hoses, expansion tanks and radiators. The radiators can bulge an alarming amount at the bottom. Obviously check the other mechanical and electrical bits too, but the cooling system is the most likely thing to leave you stranded by the side of the road. Battery drain can also be a problem, especially the FSU (fan control resistor pack), those old coded phones and the old Traffic Master modules (I think I can just see the controls under the buttons for seat heating etc.).

[2.5pi]

Great practical shed!

I had a 528 manual touring back in the day and that felt plenty fast so this will be a blast.

As per above cooling system is a weakness and the hedgehog FSR, also rear tailgate micro switches fail and rear light clusters corrode internally. Check the drain holes for the sunroof and scuttle area as well

I'd buy a mint one as a keeper classic estate if I could find one with a manual box and no rust and FSH but they're rare beasts

[philmots]

Saw this myself.. I don't really need it but I'd of bought it for rarity.

Lucky for you I live about 4 hours away, I was hoping it'd end up on here though.

[E30Addict]

Remove the badges and you've got yourself a real sleeper - awesome car!

[dom9]

Keep looking at these but it's so hard to find a good one! Will follow this thread with interest!

[BriC175]

philmots said:

Saw this myself.. I don't really need it but I'd of bought it for rarity.

Lucky for you I live about 4 hours away, I was hoping it'd end up on here though.

I also live about 4 hours away, but sometimes you have to travel for cars (especially something as rare as this)!

Thanks for all the comments! I'm chuffed with it.

[thatguy11]

Looks great, nice one! Also loving the retro phone

[Ved]

Wow seriously jealous

[Dr G]

Good car, particularly with a row-your-own

[BriC175]

It's been a while since I've posted on this forum, but thought I might as well update this, since I've just treated the barge to a set of 18" Parallels. Waiting for delivery of them, with pics to follow.

In my initial post I mentioned that LPG will follow, and sure enough it did - In October last year. I've done about 8k miles since, and apart from a few teething problems with the mapping of the LPG ECU, and needing a new thermostat, it's been faultless.

Few pictures of the conversion - it's quite a nice install in my opinion!

[RS Grant]

I've got a lot of time for a good E39, I had a 540ia Touring a few months back and initially planned to fit some 18" Paras to it, but being an SE, I didn't think they'd suit it so fitted some genuine 18" Alpina wheels instead.



I look forward to keeping an eye on this thread and seeing how it progresses, the 6MT versions are like rocking horse sh!t, before you take the LPG conversion into account too... very cool car.


Cheers,
Grant

[dom9]

dom9 said:

Keep looking at these but it's so hard to find a good one! Will follow this thread with interest!

I'll quote myself as I couldn't find a good one but ended up with a 545i SE Touring!

[BriC175]

RS Grant said:

I've got a lot of time for a good E39, I had a 540ia Touring a few months back and initially planned to fit some 18" Paras to it, but being an SE, I didn't think they'd suit it so fitted some genuine 18" Alpina wheels instead...

Oooft, that looks lovely on Alpina wheels.

[anonymous-user]

That looks lovely, and a great space to spend the commute. Only thing, aesthetically, for me would be to source some wood trim- the alu looks uncomfortable with that nice cream/beige leather.

Great cars, and you get to be involved in the driving with your 6 speeder. Nice find!

[Digitalize]

I am hugely jealous, E39 540i manual is perfect.

[iSore]

Lovely car but that silver trim looks awful in there - I'd have dark wood or piano black.

[philmots]

BriC175 said:

philmots said:

Saw this myself.. I don't really need it but I'd of bought it for rarity.

Lucky for you I live about 4 hours away, I was hoping it'd end up on here though.

I also live about 4 hours away, but sometimes you have to travel for cars (especially something as rare as this)!

Thanks for all the comments! I'm chuffed with it.

I'll re-quote too!

I ended up with a 550i M sport Touring instead. Bought in November, no intentions of selling unless I got an offer I really couldn't refuse!

[aka_kerrly]

LOVE IT!

540+manual is a hell of a find, also like the E21 you have hiding in the background. That's 2 of my favourite BMWs right there!