Soft Close Doors
Discussion
Apologies for this being a bit long! Somewhere I have a thread on this car, but I haven't updated it in a while and I need to do so at some point.
It's a 760Li Individual in Blue Onyx with a cream leather interior and Piano Black trim (I.E. cheap s
t plastic that shows up every fingerprint). First registered November 28th 2005 (so thankfully dodges emissions-based VED by weeks!). Bought unseen on eBay for £7k and trucked down from Middlesbrough, with a 259,950 miles, of which the first 201k had been done by the time of its first MoT in 2008... hasn't been wholly perfect, I've had to change the staggered 20" wheels for a cheaper (and also much lighter and prettier) Chinese non-staggered set that cost a bit over 700 quid, as both nearside wheels were cracked, there's an intermittent misfire at idle that improved but did not disappear when I changed the assortment of spark plugs... plus various electrical maladies mostly related to the parking brake... but it's one hell of a car and I've enjoyed the experience immensely. Can't see myself selling it in a hurry. I've already put seven thousand miles on it (most of which bashing up and down the A30 west of Exeter) since last June, and it hasn't been my only car in that time either (it ended up being off the road from August to October while getting MoT'd and repaired, with some parts having to be ordered from overseas with a long lead time, those wheels included, and I was in the situation of being one person with two cars and having to move house in the interim, so the E39 535i was my daily throughout that time. The 7 is currently sitting on a (very heavy) 18" spare on the NSF after I picked up a puncture - tyres on this thing are OW MUCH?! Over 200 quid a corner! I decided I'd need to replace the offside front too... ouch! With lockdown it's only venturing down into Launceston/Holsworthy/Okehampton for food shopping once a week at most and I'd rather not flat spot brand new tyres. Oh, but I don't think I'll ever get bored of the power, or its habit of behaving like it's an E46 on a deserted back road... it's no barge! The active ARBs really do their job of masking what a big, heavy car it is (2180kg). It really handles... yet the long wheelbase endows it with tremendous stability.
Downsides other than those already mentioned? It's not as pretty as the E39s. It doesn't feel quite as solidly constructed as my 535i, which, at 22 years old, is still rust-free, never welded, and has never suffered engine failure, unlike the two 2001 Tourings (520i M54 and 540i M62TU). The E39 door skins are much thicker gauge steel. That 535i (itself an unseen eBay buy, collected off the last train, one-way tickets and all!) has a post-apocalyptic sense of permanence about it, like old Mercs, and although it did need an autobox rebuild after it went pop a couple of years ago, it has been faultlessly reliable and I'm quite sure will outlive me. I've just turned 63 and, if I am spared, intend to put another 22 years' use on that car. Will the 760Li still be around in 2042? I don't know... although it certainly doesn't seem as fragile as the S65/S85 M cars like Top Gear photographer Mark Riccioni's E61 M5 Touring, which, after a comedy of errors and catastrophic mechanical failures, including of its engine, finally self-immolated on the road a few weeks ago... not that I wouldn't like to have one if I could find a good example, but I'd be terrified of the ensuing unreliability and gigantic bills...
It's a 760Li Individual in Blue Onyx with a cream leather interior and Piano Black trim (I.E. cheap s
t plastic that shows up every fingerprint). First registered November 28th 2005 (so thankfully dodges emissions-based VED by weeks!). Bought unseen on eBay for £7k and trucked down from Middlesbrough, with a 259,950 miles, of which the first 201k had been done by the time of its first MoT in 2008... hasn't been wholly perfect, I've had to change the staggered 20" wheels for a cheaper (and also much lighter and prettier) Chinese non-staggered set that cost a bit over 700 quid, as both nearside wheels were cracked, there's an intermittent misfire at idle that improved but did not disappear when I changed the assortment of spark plugs... plus various electrical maladies mostly related to the parking brake... but it's one hell of a car and I've enjoyed the experience immensely. Can't see myself selling it in a hurry. I've already put seven thousand miles on it (most of which bashing up and down the A30 west of Exeter) since last June, and it hasn't been my only car in that time either (it ended up being off the road from August to October while getting MoT'd and repaired, with some parts having to be ordered from overseas with a long lead time, those wheels included, and I was in the situation of being one person with two cars and having to move house in the interim, so the E39 535i was my daily throughout that time. The 7 is currently sitting on a (very heavy) 18" spare on the NSF after I picked up a puncture - tyres on this thing are OW MUCH?! Over 200 quid a corner! I decided I'd need to replace the offside front too... ouch! With lockdown it's only venturing down into Launceston/Holsworthy/Okehampton for food shopping once a week at most and I'd rather not flat spot brand new tyres. Oh, but I don't think I'll ever get bored of the power, or its habit of behaving like it's an E46 on a deserted back road... it's no barge! The active ARBs really do their job of masking what a big, heavy car it is (2180kg). It really handles... yet the long wheelbase endows it with tremendous stability.Downsides other than those already mentioned? It's not as pretty as the E39s. It doesn't feel quite as solidly constructed as my 535i, which, at 22 years old, is still rust-free, never welded, and has never suffered engine failure, unlike the two 2001 Tourings (520i M54 and 540i M62TU). The E39 door skins are much thicker gauge steel. That 535i (itself an unseen eBay buy, collected off the last train, one-way tickets and all!) has a post-apocalyptic sense of permanence about it, like old Mercs, and although it did need an autobox rebuild after it went pop a couple of years ago, it has been faultlessly reliable and I'm quite sure will outlive me. I've just turned 63 and, if I am spared, intend to put another 22 years' use on that car. Will the 760Li still be around in 2042? I don't know... although it certainly doesn't seem as fragile as the S65/S85 M cars like Top Gear photographer Mark Riccioni's E61 M5 Touring, which, after a comedy of errors and catastrophic mechanical failures, including of its engine, finally self-immolated on the road a few weeks ago... not that I wouldn't like to have one if I could find a good example, but I'd be terrified of the ensuing unreliability and gigantic bills...
It's OK but it does tend to look rather flat, and the quality of the paint job is poor by any reasonable standard - the guys who painted my Oxford Green 520i Touring (currently in my ex-wife's custody) would have been horrified at the dullness and orange peel. Add a healthy coating of Devon mud and rain...
I might just treat it to a proper respray some day, but it won't be this year or the next...
I might just treat it to a proper respray some day, but it won't be this year or the next...
I had a bright red E32 750i with moon mileage that wasn't particularly reliable. Lots of limp home mode and BMW weren't really interested in looking at it. I'm not sure what I was thinking at 22yrs old. I should know better at 46 but went to look at this last week.
https://munichmotorworks.ae/listings/bmw-760li-m-s...
It is a terrible idea.
https://munichmotorworks.ae/listings/bmw-760li-m-s...
It is a terrible idea.
RoverP6B said:
...
Piano Black trim (I.E. cheap s*** plastic that shows up every fingerprint).
....
E66 Piano Black Individual trim is a genuine wood trim with many coats of lacquer, polished by hand to get that piano black finish (hence its name). That includes roof handles and rear deck trim. Even rarer option has intarsia. Anything but cheap. Piano Black trim (I.E. cheap s*** plastic that shows up every fingerprint).
....
It looks and feels like cheap st plastic - tacky to the touch, shows fingerprints really easily, just doesn't feel like quality stuff at all. If it is wood, it's under so much polyester that it might as well be plastic... which, funnily enough, is also what polyester does to actual pianos, visually and tonally (disclaimer: I spent over 15 years living under the same roof as a heavily-used French-polished early-20th-century 6ft Bösendorfer grand, and have had friends and colleagues who have owned a variety of Yamahas, Steinways and Faziolis as well as one Bösendorfer Imperial, so although I don't play, I do know a thing or two about pianos!).
If ever this car gets a cosmetic restoration, I'll take the opportunity to pull the black trim out and see what's underneath... if it's real wood of any decent quality, the polyester will get sanded off! Otherwise, I'll have someone make up replacement trim pieces out of flame maple or swamp ash, or some such...
t plastic - tacky to the touch, shows fingerprints really easily, just doesn't feel like quality stuff at all. If it is wood, it's under so much polyester that it might as well be plastic... which, funnily enough, is also what polyester does to actual pianos, visually and tonally (disclaimer: I spent over 15 years living under the same roof as a heavily-used French-polished early-20th-century 6ft Bösendorfer grand, and have had friends and colleagues who have owned a variety of Yamahas, Steinways and Faziolis as well as one Bösendorfer Imperial, so although I don't play, I do know a thing or two about pianos!).If ever this car gets a cosmetic restoration, I'll take the opportunity to pull the black trim out and see what's underneath... if it's real wood of any decent quality, the polyester will get sanded off! Otherwise, I'll have someone make up replacement trim pieces out of flame maple or swamp ash, or some such...
RoverP6B said:
Never really cared for the newer turbo cars, and that spec is nasty. Red and dechromed black trim? Reminds me of my E30 318i Touring, except it actually looked OK.
By all means buy an F02 760Li if you like it. Just not that one.
It is pretty hideous isn't it, very Dubai though. I prefer this one but it's leggy in comparison https://www.sanamcars.com/index.php/product/bmw-76...By all means buy an F02 760Li if you like it. Just not that one.
So do I, my username refers to my P6 3500S which was Mexico Brown with Bronze Ambla vinyl interior... loved that car. However, brown belongs on 60s/70s cars and should never be metallic. Even if you mixed up a batch of Rover Mexico Brown, I can't think of a single modern car that would suit it..
Cannot agree. Brown died a death for a reason, and there were some truly foul shades around in the late 70s (Rover SD1 Brasilia for example), and I have yet to see an example of a modern car in brown that didn't look terrible. Had my P6 been restorable, I'd have painted it Cameron Green (which, oddly, is what the builder's plate said it was, even though it was Mexico Brown from new - R/G colourblindness on the part of whoever fitted it?) and done an interior swap.
Anyway, we've drifted a long way from soft-close doors!
Anyway, we've drifted a long way from soft-close doors!
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