The ‘nearly free’ 530d (E60 Individual)
Discussion
I’ll try keep the story short and sweet, because it’s boring.
I normally buy a car every winter to run around in, keep my Civic off the road (as it’s just not fun in the winter!) and the checklist is normally
Cheap to buy
Cheap to run
Cheap to tax
Preferably an estate
And, most importantly, cheap to buy, did I mention that?
So with that in mind I found a little Clio diesel that ticked all of the above, but, by god it was boring.
By chance, someone I know said ‘I’m after a cheap car, do you have anything?’ And off the Clio went, for a bit of a profit and the search for a replacement was on. The same checklist as above…. But maybe a little, tiny, itsy bit nicer. I put the word out to the traders I know and about 2 weeks ago I got this message..
He told me the reg, miles and how much he wanted. I did a quick HPI and mot check which came up with no massive shocks and said ‘ok, I’ll have it’ and a deal was done…..
So another few days go by and the chap rings me up ‘deal done, be in next week, oh, it looks like it’s an exclusive, it’s got a weird interior’
So a quick call to my friendly BMW local garage and it turns out it is an individual, originally a Sytner Demo car.
What does ‘nearly free’ mean? I hear you ask! Well, the money for the the clio was already spent, plus the money spent to get it right, take that + the profit from selling it, and hey presto! This BMW was ‘nearly’ free. That’s man maths right?
So what does that get you? Well, here you go.
A 2007 530d Auto Saloon. I believe the colour is Le Mans Blue. It needs a bit of love but overall it is a very straight car.
As you can probably tell, I’ve missed everything on my list, but hopefully it’s worth it! More to come laterzzz
I normally buy a car every winter to run around in, keep my Civic off the road (as it’s just not fun in the winter!) and the checklist is normally
Cheap to buy
Cheap to run
Cheap to tax
Preferably an estate
And, most importantly, cheap to buy, did I mention that?
So with that in mind I found a little Clio diesel that ticked all of the above, but, by god it was boring.
By chance, someone I know said ‘I’m after a cheap car, do you have anything?’ And off the Clio went, for a bit of a profit and the search for a replacement was on. The same checklist as above…. But maybe a little, tiny, itsy bit nicer. I put the word out to the traders I know and about 2 weeks ago I got this message..
He told me the reg, miles and how much he wanted. I did a quick HPI and mot check which came up with no massive shocks and said ‘ok, I’ll have it’ and a deal was done…..
So another few days go by and the chap rings me up ‘deal done, be in next week, oh, it looks like it’s an exclusive, it’s got a weird interior’
So a quick call to my friendly BMW local garage and it turns out it is an individual, originally a Sytner Demo car.
What does ‘nearly free’ mean? I hear you ask! Well, the money for the the clio was already spent, plus the money spent to get it right, take that + the profit from selling it, and hey presto! This BMW was ‘nearly’ free. That’s man maths right?
So what does that get you? Well, here you go.
A 2007 530d Auto Saloon. I believe the colour is Le Mans Blue. It needs a bit of love but overall it is a very straight car.
As you can probably tell, I’ve missed everything on my list, but hopefully it’s worth it! More to come laterzzz
Yes, the wheels. I was pleasantly surprised to find it had these wheels, I think they look great on the E60, even if the tyres are a bit on the wide/expensive side…
Overall they’re ok, not on RFT (I’ve already ditched these on my wife’s 1 series) and it also had an optional spare from new which is very nice.
I’m planning on getting them off this week and off to be powder coated, I think I will go a light great colour, should look nice against the blue!
Overall they’re ok, not on RFT (I’ve already ditched these on my wife’s 1 series) and it also had an optional spare from new which is very nice.
I’m planning on getting them off this week and off to be powder coated, I think I will go a light great colour, should look nice against the blue!
Ok!
The interior is Syrah Blue. You can imagine the conversation when the dealer first spec’d it as a demo… ‘blue, with blue? Really?’ But it looks alright.
It’s a very dark blue, heated seats, media package (looks like Bluetooth and an Aux input, a snip at £3k+ when new) it also has the HiFi speaker upgrade which is nice.
The interior is Syrah Blue. You can imagine the conversation when the dealer first spec’d it as a demo… ‘blue, with blue? Really?’ But it looks alright.
It’s a very dark blue, heated seats, media package (looks like Bluetooth and an Aux input, a snip at £3k+ when new) it also has the HiFi speaker upgrade which is nice.
So, of course, it’s a 14 year old, 147k mile car, it’s bound to have issues right?
Well, so far, touch wood, nothings come to light, no horrible noises, everything works as it should, no warning lights on. Cosmetic bits aside…
Bumper alignment here.
Bit of a paint chip here
The main thing is that horrible 3 stripe grille which needs gone ASAP.
It needs some front discs and pads and the tyres aren’t too long for this world. But that’s hopefully all it’ll need except an oil change and gearbox oil change I think for safety.
Well, so far, touch wood, nothings come to light, no horrible noises, everything works as it should, no warning lights on. Cosmetic bits aside…
Bumper alignment here.
Bit of a paint chip here
The main thing is that horrible 3 stripe grille which needs gone ASAP.
It needs some front discs and pads and the tyres aren’t too long for this world. But that’s hopefully all it’ll need except an oil change and gearbox oil change I think for safety.
The Rotrex Kid said:
Yes, the wheels. I was pleasantly surprised to find it had these wheels, I think they look great on the E60, even if the tyres are a bit on the wide/expensive side…
Overall they’re ok, not on RFT (I’ve already ditched these on my wife’s 1 series) and it also had an optional spare from new which is very nice.
I’m planning on getting them off this week and off to be powder coated, I think I will go a light great colour, should look nice against the blue!
I went with platinum silver on my LMB E65Overall they’re ok, not on RFT (I’ve already ditched these on my wife’s 1 series) and it also had an optional spare from new which is very nice.
I’m planning on getting them off this week and off to be powder coated, I think I will go a light great colour, should look nice against the blue!
It worked well IMO
Aluminati said:
g3org3y said:
Looks great 
Quite an uncommon colour for an E60. Heated sports seats = win.
Comfort seats George ?Quite an uncommon colour for an E60. Heated sports seats = win.
I was under the impression that the comfort seats had the headrest inserts and the shape of the extendable thigh support is different.
Nice looking car. I had an E61 a few years ago and really liked it.
I'm not a fan of the wheel colour change - I think it makes it look a bit more 'traveller site chic' compared to the original colour, but each to their own and the bodywork colour is lovely. Try some Dodo Juice Supernatural leather cleaner to get the shine off those seats - worked well for me.
I'm not a fan of the wheel colour change - I think it makes it look a bit more 'traveller site chic' compared to the original colour, but each to their own and the bodywork colour is lovely. Try some Dodo Juice Supernatural leather cleaner to get the shine off those seats - worked well for me.
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