Indestructable E34s

[matt21]

My 215,500 mile E34 525i Touring is currently doing about 1500 miles per month and runs like a dream. Just about to embark on a 1500 mile round UK trip up to John O Groats and along and down the West Coast of Scotland.

Anyway just wondered if anyone else had a E34 and whether they were similarly robust

[mmm-five]

My 1994 e34 M5 had 172,000 when I killed it, and I'm currently doing 2,500 a month in my 1990 M5.

A good friend has a 1992 M5 with 180,000 miles on it and it looks like it's going to cope with a fair few more.

[matt21]

quarter a million is my target

[belleair302]

Along with the W124 M-B and the Lexus LS 400 these cars will go on forever if serviced and fed oil.

[buggalugs]

I picked up a 525tds a few weeks ago with 300,000 on it. I'd like to say it runs like a dream, but lets just say that it runs Comfy ride though.

[[TW]Fox]

I do hope the E39 is as hardy as these! I'd like 200k out of mine.

[Mustard]

belleair302 said:

Along with the W124 M-B and the Lexus LS 400 these cars will go on forever if serviced and fed oil.

have to say much as I rate and love the E34 the W124 clearly has the edge on build quality (bar front wing rust!) though the E34 is a more involving drive

[Mustard]

[TW]Fox said:

I do hope the E39 is as hardy as these! I'd like 200k out of mine.

Simple answer! No

The accountants had started to move in, and comparing the two you can see where, as my old man says, your moneys been spent on more buttons to push rather that the quality of the car

[Talkwrench]

Well, having just serviced a fellow PH'ers e39 525 tds tourer with a whisker off 1/4 million miles on the clock, I can honestly say that their longevity is astonishing. Not an oil leak, not a creak or groan, not a single thing that doesn't do what it should. It has had regular servicing and normal service item replacements and the car drives like 25k not 250k.
Looks like new underneath and is as smooth, relaxed and effortless to drive as it was when it was new. The engine pulls strongly, never uses oil between services, the gearbox changes gear perfectly and the axle is silent. A true testament to well made, well designed engineering.

[sniff petrol]

I've had 3 E36's and they all rust - how does the E34 compare in that department?

The way it looks now both my E36's will be killed off by rust eventually.

[[TW]Fox]

Mustard said:

[TW]Fox said:

I do hope the E39 is as hardy as these! I'd like 200k out of mine.

Simple answer! No

How annoying. Is my 6 year old 530i about to explode into a pile of parts then? I mean it's made it quite safely through the 150k mile barrier..

[matt21]

sniff petrol said:

I've had 3 E36's and they all rust - how does the E34 compare in that department?

The way it looks now both my E36's will be killed off by rust eventually.

not bad, certainly far less rust that the 325i. on the outside little bit on the bonnet thats about it. its done 215500 aswell.

[sniff petrol]

matt21 said:

sniff petrol said:

I've had 3 E36's and they all rust - how does the E34 compare in that department?

The way it looks now both my E36's will be killed off by rust eventually.

not bad, certainly far less rust that the 325i. on the outside little bit on the bonnet thats about it. its done 215500 aswell.

The '92 325i isn't much worse than my '97 325tds to be honest. I had a '91 320i that was uneconomical to repair due to the amount of rust. Why are E36's so bad then? Cheap steel?
In the not too distant future there will be more E30's left on the roads than E36's I reckon.

[matt21]

sniff petrol said:

matt21 said:

sniff petrol said:

I've had 3 E36's and they all rust - how does the E34 compare in that department?

The way it looks now both my E36's will be killed off by rust eventually.

not bad, certainly far less rust that the 325i. on the outside little bit on the bonnet thats about it. its done 215500 aswell.

The '92 325i isn't much worse than my '97 325tds to be honest. I had a '91 320i that was uneconomical to repair due to the amount of rust. Why are E36's so bad then? Cheap steel?
In the not too distant future there will be more E30's left on the roads than E36's I reckon.

i guess maybe like the e39 compared to e34 it was the point they started to cost cut by making the cars out of cheaper materials. e39s suffer from bad tailgate rust, not an issue at all with the e34.

[downthepub]

I did the Scumball last year in a K-reg 520i, started off with 184K on the clock, finished with 187K, didn't miss a beat. Now owned by a friend with 189K on the clock and running fine - the last MOT cost £100 to get it through. Impressive. Body is rusty, I reckon that'll kill it.

[matt21]

about to head off for John O Groats in the morning and along and down the Scottish West coast. See how it copes with 1500 miles in 4 days

[belleair302]

I did London to Aberdeen via Edinburgh and across Glenshee, back to London in 4 days. Used around 1 ltr of oil over 1000 miles and otherwise drove amazingly. The E34 is designed for long distance at speed driving. Suspension and performance are amazing for a car that is at the youngest 13 years old, and the engine sound is always amazing.

[derin100]

There's one important thing that has been omitted from this debated...

There's no doubt the E34 is the best screwed together 5-Series to date...I know because I just sold my wife's a few weeks ago:

http://www.bmwclassics.co.uk/e34_525i/index.html

However....

Dynamically, pound for pound (or cc for cc) an equivalent E39 will p*ss all over an E34...all day long! There is simply no comparison between the two as a driving machine! The E39 is light years ahead.

There's a very good reason why the E39 was voted best in its class for basically the whole of its production run. An E34 simply cannot match it for dynamic performance. It's not simply about more buttons to push.

I had the privelege of owning three successive 5-Series generations simultaneously....E28, E34 and E39. Each is a quantam leap over the preceding model.

Whether E39s will prove as long-lasting? I don't know....probably not. But realistically how many really good E34s have 'lasted'? Very few.

A point comes for all models when most people don't 'care' anymore because they can buy a newer car cheaper. Thus a large number of cars end up at the scrapyard leaving a few good examples for enthusiasts.

The real shame for the E34 is/was that so many will now have gone to the scrappy for no good reason other than consumerism.

They are indeed very well built cars!

Edited by derin100 on Monday 28th July 07:32

[hellrot_e34]

E34's rule!! theyre better than an e36 in every way, rarely rust due to being galvanised, built like a panzer, rarer and far more old school.

[welwynnick]

I've had a 1992 E34 525i with 160k, and a 1999 E39 540i with 101k. Both were in fine, healthy fettle when I sold them. The E34 was probably the most fault-free car I've ever had. The E39 was very solid as well and I had a lot of confidence in it, but I started getting niggly faults. I had to replace the flywheel and the MAF sensor, and keeping the headlights free of condensation was a battle. It was still a very solid car though, in a way that many modern ones aren't.

Nick