645ci E63 I'm very tempted by this..... Thoughts?

[Bluejmc2005]

Hi all,

80k miles e63 645i, with decent service history including a gearbox service which hides well. Seems a lot of car for 5k. I need something to take to London on occasion, and rather than selling my xf diesel I suddenly thought why not keep it and get something fun and ULEZ free specifically for London trips. Then I saw this:-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305041071261?mkcid=16&a...

Thoughts?

[E63eeeeee...]

That looks to be well looked after, the MOT history backs it up too. Looks like it was either off the road or more likely out of the country for about 8 years up to 2016, but it's clearly been well used since then without any obvious problems. Going off the pictures and the advert you could do a lot worse.

I do have to say I can see why the wheels are rare.

It's a lot of car for 5k, it's also a heavy, complicated, nearly 20-year-old car from a company not exactly known for the reliability of their V8s.

[Bluejmc2005]

All true. And yes the wheels are something..

[Stick Legs]

I love these.

Drive them a few times and they have fallen between 2 posts for me.

When new they were out of my league, I actually took my E24 635CSi to the dealer launch event.

Now my budget leads me to looking at other things.

Ironically if I had just kept my E24…

Anyway, lovely cars & completely underrated.

[Mikeeb]

Great cars. I had one almost identical.

Two things to look out for on the engine.

Valve stem oils seals - smoking once hot and left to idle for a while.

Water pipe that runs through the V8 valley. Look for coolant running down the face of the block. There loads of pictures online.

Oil leaks from alternator area and the DVD nav disc drive failing were other issues I seem to remember.

They also HATE a weak battery. This will cause loads of spurious faults.

[sjf2020]

They are a lovely drive and good NA V8 fun, however I would do a thorough check of history and check if other issues have been resolved, they tend to suffer quite few different problems.
I had one for 6 months and it was constantly at the garage getting fixed.
I switched back to Jaguar XF SV8 much more reliable for me and still lots of fun.

[Buzypea]

Check for blue smoke on startup and after giving it full throttle for a few seconds. These engines are prone to worn valve stem seals and they aren’t cheap to replace.

[Bluejmc2005]

Thank you all