E31 840Ci - first ever BMW (and a daily!)
Discussion
jamesson said:
The E31 is one of my absolute favourites. There's a chap on YouTube who has mildly restored a few of them. The channel is called M539 Restorations. Well worth a watch.
Good luck with it and keep us updated.
Literally just finished watching his latest video and then I spotted this thread in Readers' Cars! Brilliant timing. What a great entry into the BMW marque, really like the little personalisation with the sticker too. Looking forward to Chapter 2 and why protection with a warranty was so prudent...Good luck with it and keep us updated.
KelvinatorNZ said:
Jebus thats a great looking car. I still kick myself for not buying one when they were cheap a few years ago.
This! I always thought that they were undervalued at 4 figure prices. I do see a fair few of these on west London streets in various conditions, many that have seen better days. I'm sure they could be had for a low price but would need the money spent on them to bring them into shape.
This is a lovely looking car!!
KelvinatorNZ said:
Jebus thats a great looking car. I still kick myself for not buying one when they were cheap a few years ago.
Same. When they were ~£6k I looked at getting one a few times but never quite did it. Always wanted one with cream leather & Estoril blue paintwork.Looks really good OP!
Fantastic purchase, it looks great!
Like many others on this thread I've seen a few over the years and never taken the plunge. WIll be following with interest.
My wife's uncle has had a string of these over the years (he's in Notting Hill so fits the 'West London' theme!), I'm lucky enough to have been asked to shuffle them around various locations - always a special occasion.
Like many others on this thread I've seen a few over the years and never taken the plunge. WIll be following with interest.
My wife's uncle has had a string of these over the years (he's in Notting Hill so fits the 'West London' theme!), I'm lucky enough to have been asked to shuffle them around various locations - always a special occasion.
Hi again,
Thanks to everyone for the kind messages – as cliched as it sounds they really are nice and it’s very uplifting to be part of a supportive and appreciative community!
Apologies I'm still trying to get my head around how to post and not sure how to "quote reply all" to the individual messages - so will try and reply to questions in the updates.
So to continue the story…
Thanks to everyone for the kind messages – as cliched as it sounds they really are nice and it’s very uplifting to be part of a supportive and appreciative community!
Apologies I'm still trying to get my head around how to post and not sure how to "quote reply all" to the individual messages - so will try and reply to questions in the updates.
So to continue the story…
Initial outlay
As previously mentioned, not being rich enough to send it to a mechanic every time an issue occurred, and not being heroic enough to completely work on it myself, I needed a car in good condition that didn’t cost too much per mile.
Someone has asked how much it cost, and if you include everything to get it home (car cost, road tax, insurance, warranty) I was close to my £25,000 budget.
Since buying I’m still tracking prices (mainly on Autotrader) and they seem to fall into two camps. You have your ultra-low mileage or rare spec beauties that are advertised above £30,000 and you have (relatively) high mileage cars (over 100k miles, but that’s still only 4k per year) that are between £10-15,000. For some reason (most likely current times) neither are selling.
In America it seems to be a different story and on the crackpot auction site, Bring A Trailer (which I am convinced is just a front for cocaine smuggling due to the ridiculous prices), they are doing well.
Dailying
I bought it home in the third week of January and dailyed it until the date the first lockdown began in March.
This meant all trips to work, the grocery shop, visiting B&Q a few times, and going to the tip once. It was performing faultlessly.
Also on 22nd February it breezed through its MOT without any advisories or issues. While on the lift it gave me the opportunity to inspect underneath, and for the age, it’s remarkably clean. I think the time spent in dry storage really helped and backs the previous owners claims of it being well looked after.
The only two issues I found were that two front bushes could be replaced for more confident steering and that part of the front undertray/guard maybe missing. I can’t quite work this out as checking diagrams online make it look standard, but two people I know (ones a mechanic, the other ones worked with cars all his life) have said they usually extend beyond the front axle? Would anyone know if this is the case?
First grab of prayer beads
Cue the evening of 11th of March and I am patiently waiting in line at the Yeading Starbucks drive-thru. I usually order a latte but due to the hot day my eye caught the toffee caramel frappuccino on offer. At this point there are 4 cars in front and 2 behind and the temperature needle starts to rise above middle. Clearly I have sinned with my beverage choice and am about to be smite down.
I manage to get out in time and decide to progress down the dual carriageway to try to get cool air into the engine, with the interior heater on full blast. Doesn’t work. I pull over just before the needle goes into the red and then spend the next 90 minutes or so waiting for the engine to cool down. It does and I put in some distilled water and travel around 2 miles back home. The temperature rises again.
I phone around a bit/check online and general consensus is to start small with diagnosis and work the way up. I have a somewhat disturbed sleep that night. The next day I visit BMW Brentford and purchase 3 litres of antifreeze at £24.07. At the local independent I ask them to check for an airlock and then fill up. Miraculously this turns out to be correct and the brute is back to good health (spoiler alert – for now). One slightly used prayer bead goes back on the shelf.
Peace of mind
The car has a reverse-tardis quality of being intimate on the inside and yet massive on the outside. (Its actually only 12mm longer than the new Jaws grille 4 series and 2mm narrower and 57mm shorter).
And despite a year spent living out at Coventry Uni where I honed my parallel parking/tight parking skills I really didn’t want to prang the car (or have others do it). The low nose also doesn’t help the driver or other drivers as it drops out of view.
For this reason, I decided to buy a dash cam with parking protection and try and hard wire it.
This seemingly simple task turned into a right ball-ache, as for some reason the only permanent live fixture point in the car is situated in the next post code/engine. The only remaining two options are to run a wire along the a-pillar, across the centre console and to the cigarette lighter near the armrest or to adapt the circuit in the dome light panel ( link here). Not liking the aesthetics(!) of the first option or paid enough attention in electronics/DT class to attempt the second (without burning 4 houses down in the process), it was back to square one.
While researching dash cams the main issue was the battery life (and wiring to the cigarette lighter was useless when the car was off and parked). Some considerable time later I hit upon a brainwave and started researching bicycle dash cams (as they usually have a longer battery).
After a while I came across the Cycliq Fly 12 ( link here) which managed to fit the bill. Good points - up to 10 hours battery life, looped recording, incident protection mode, takes a 64gb card, good video quality. Bad points – it’s a chunky old hector requiring a three-suction clamp for the windscreen, and theres no display so it’s controlled through a phone app, which is a little clunky.
Rather amusingly it also comes with a Strava overlay, so if I wanted, with a heart rate monitor I could pretend to be in a budget F1 race. ( link here).
For £99 (plus an additional £20 for the microsd card) I think this is a very worthwhile purchase. The only issue now is that it is discontinued, so hard to find, and the newest release has a smaller battery.
OEM +, slowly
As long as funds allow, I’m letting the pros tackle the big jobs and am tackling the small jobs myself.
So, around March 2020 I bought some metal pressed numberplates (from UK Metal Plates) and also upgraded the headlight bulbs to Osram Night Breaker H1s. (I’m making sure any changes I make are reversible so ruled out a xenon or HID retrofit. They also gave off a little too much of a gangsta lean vibe for my liking). For the price (£24.82) these are bright, effective and have a long throw.
I’m finding prices for parts are all over the shop, with items you’d expect to be cheap costing a fortune, and vice versa.
For example, there are 8 trim clips that go hold the airbox/fan cover in place (the V shaped black plastic volume in front of the engine here: ( image link ). These push buttons seem to be of a special design and no other style really fit the cover (as most catch the point where the two faces meet).
My airbox only had 6 trim pieces (two of which were a different style) meaning two were missing. The different sstyles ones (I suspect they were the door card variety) proved very difficult in removing. I think each one took about 30 min to remove!
So I ordered these ( link here) and it cost £18.70 for 10. Yikes! On the other hand, being one of the first things the eyes fall upon when opening the engine bay, at least no more holes. I also could hear a slight rattle from the passenger door and after stripping down the door card, it turned out that some of the clips had perished. These were a much more reasonable £2 for a bag full.
This car is very environmentally friendly
Living between Heathrow and Twickenham, and with work being close to the South Circular road, I was a little apprehensive about the ULEZ charge and its expansion. Being a 4.4 V8 gas guzzler from 1997 I fully expected it to be non-compliant and putting the numberplate on the TFL website came up with the “you may need to pay” message.
I then read on another forum that certain cars maybe exempt and TFL regularly make manually decisions. I immediately contacted BMW GB for a certificate of conformity (which has the NOx number on it). They appear to be backlogged so it took a month for it to arrive. Once received I sent this along with a copy of the V5 to TFL. Three days letter and, amusingly, this happens. The 8 series is now ULEZ compliant.
As previously mentioned, not being rich enough to send it to a mechanic every time an issue occurred, and not being heroic enough to completely work on it myself, I needed a car in good condition that didn’t cost too much per mile.
Someone has asked how much it cost, and if you include everything to get it home (car cost, road tax, insurance, warranty) I was close to my £25,000 budget.
Since buying I’m still tracking prices (mainly on Autotrader) and they seem to fall into two camps. You have your ultra-low mileage or rare spec beauties that are advertised above £30,000 and you have (relatively) high mileage cars (over 100k miles, but that’s still only 4k per year) that are between £10-15,000. For some reason (most likely current times) neither are selling.
In America it seems to be a different story and on the crackpot auction site, Bring A Trailer (which I am convinced is just a front for cocaine smuggling due to the ridiculous prices), they are doing well.
Dailying
I bought it home in the third week of January and dailyed it until the date the first lockdown began in March.
This meant all trips to work, the grocery shop, visiting B&Q a few times, and going to the tip once. It was performing faultlessly.
Also on 22nd February it breezed through its MOT without any advisories or issues. While on the lift it gave me the opportunity to inspect underneath, and for the age, it’s remarkably clean. I think the time spent in dry storage really helped and backs the previous owners claims of it being well looked after.
The only two issues I found were that two front bushes could be replaced for more confident steering and that part of the front undertray/guard maybe missing. I can’t quite work this out as checking diagrams online make it look standard, but two people I know (ones a mechanic, the other ones worked with cars all his life) have said they usually extend beyond the front axle? Would anyone know if this is the case?
First grab of prayer beads
Cue the evening of 11th of March and I am patiently waiting in line at the Yeading Starbucks drive-thru. I usually order a latte but due to the hot day my eye caught the toffee caramel frappuccino on offer. At this point there are 4 cars in front and 2 behind and the temperature needle starts to rise above middle. Clearly I have sinned with my beverage choice and am about to be smite down.
I manage to get out in time and decide to progress down the dual carriageway to try to get cool air into the engine, with the interior heater on full blast. Doesn’t work. I pull over just before the needle goes into the red and then spend the next 90 minutes or so waiting for the engine to cool down. It does and I put in some distilled water and travel around 2 miles back home. The temperature rises again.
I phone around a bit/check online and general consensus is to start small with diagnosis and work the way up. I have a somewhat disturbed sleep that night. The next day I visit BMW Brentford and purchase 3 litres of antifreeze at £24.07. At the local independent I ask them to check for an airlock and then fill up. Miraculously this turns out to be correct and the brute is back to good health (spoiler alert – for now). One slightly used prayer bead goes back on the shelf.
Peace of mind
The car has a reverse-tardis quality of being intimate on the inside and yet massive on the outside. (Its actually only 12mm longer than the new Jaws grille 4 series and 2mm narrower and 57mm shorter).
And despite a year spent living out at Coventry Uni where I honed my parallel parking/tight parking skills I really didn’t want to prang the car (or have others do it). The low nose also doesn’t help the driver or other drivers as it drops out of view.
For this reason, I decided to buy a dash cam with parking protection and try and hard wire it.
This seemingly simple task turned into a right ball-ache, as for some reason the only permanent live fixture point in the car is situated in the next post code/engine. The only remaining two options are to run a wire along the a-pillar, across the centre console and to the cigarette lighter near the armrest or to adapt the circuit in the dome light panel ( link here). Not liking the aesthetics(!) of the first option or paid enough attention in electronics/DT class to attempt the second (without burning 4 houses down in the process), it was back to square one.
While researching dash cams the main issue was the battery life (and wiring to the cigarette lighter was useless when the car was off and parked). Some considerable time later I hit upon a brainwave and started researching bicycle dash cams (as they usually have a longer battery).
After a while I came across the Cycliq Fly 12 ( link here) which managed to fit the bill. Good points - up to 10 hours battery life, looped recording, incident protection mode, takes a 64gb card, good video quality. Bad points – it’s a chunky old hector requiring a three-suction clamp for the windscreen, and theres no display so it’s controlled through a phone app, which is a little clunky.
Rather amusingly it also comes with a Strava overlay, so if I wanted, with a heart rate monitor I could pretend to be in a budget F1 race. ( link here).
For £99 (plus an additional £20 for the microsd card) I think this is a very worthwhile purchase. The only issue now is that it is discontinued, so hard to find, and the newest release has a smaller battery.
OEM +, slowly
As long as funds allow, I’m letting the pros tackle the big jobs and am tackling the small jobs myself.
So, around March 2020 I bought some metal pressed numberplates (from UK Metal Plates) and also upgraded the headlight bulbs to Osram Night Breaker H1s. (I’m making sure any changes I make are reversible so ruled out a xenon or HID retrofit. They also gave off a little too much of a gangsta lean vibe for my liking). For the price (£24.82) these are bright, effective and have a long throw.
I’m finding prices for parts are all over the shop, with items you’d expect to be cheap costing a fortune, and vice versa.
For example, there are 8 trim clips that go hold the airbox/fan cover in place (the V shaped black plastic volume in front of the engine here: ( image link ). These push buttons seem to be of a special design and no other style really fit the cover (as most catch the point where the two faces meet).
My airbox only had 6 trim pieces (two of which were a different style) meaning two were missing. The different sstyles ones (I suspect they were the door card variety) proved very difficult in removing. I think each one took about 30 min to remove!
So I ordered these ( link here) and it cost £18.70 for 10. Yikes! On the other hand, being one of the first things the eyes fall upon when opening the engine bay, at least no more holes. I also could hear a slight rattle from the passenger door and after stripping down the door card, it turned out that some of the clips had perished. These were a much more reasonable £2 for a bag full.
This car is very environmentally friendly
Living between Heathrow and Twickenham, and with work being close to the South Circular road, I was a little apprehensive about the ULEZ charge and its expansion. Being a 4.4 V8 gas guzzler from 1997 I fully expected it to be non-compliant and putting the numberplate on the TFL website came up with the “you may need to pay” message.
I then read on another forum that certain cars maybe exempt and TFL regularly make manually decisions. I immediately contacted BMW GB for a certificate of conformity (which has the NOx number on it). They appear to be backlogged so it took a month for it to arrive. Once received I sent this along with a copy of the V5 to TFL. Three days letter and, amusingly, this happens. The 8 series is now ULEZ compliant.
Edited by salmanorguk on Tuesday 13th April 16:44
Edited by salmanorguk on Tuesday 13th April 16:47
Edited by salmanorguk on Tuesday 13th April 16:47
Fuel costs
This car has a V8 under the bonnet. 4.4 litres of “Das ist good ja?” engineering. From 1997. A time, where I suspect “tuning” was performed by burly, bearded men using a hammer. And yet, for my use, it is no less economical to run than my 2006 3.0 V6 Mercedes CLK convertible. (Although that M272 engine being based on one from 1998 may have something to do with it.)
Around town (which is a drive across a portion of the A4, then single lanes) the Mercedes got around 19 - 22mpg. On the motorway it got around 33 - 36mpg. I calculated that a weeks’ worth of petrol cost around £38. (The 1990 Eunos would take around £30)
The BMW is averaging 18 - 20 mpg in town and on the motorway it can hit 27 mpg. My spreadsheet states that from 13th January to 21st December 2020 I filled up 19 times at an average cost of £43.93.
This may have been lower still, but I had to take two 300 mile round trips to my sisters house in this period, as well as the initial 40 mile odd trip back from the dealers. Conversely, perhaps, if you exclude these it may be higher as these were the only three trips that took advantage of the motorway.
Anyway, cost breakdown was:
Lastly, I’ve found the car is very sensitive to tire pressure, and even the slightest psi difference can upset the mpg. As an example, on one of the trips to my sisters the best mpg the OBD spat out was 20.4mpg, having cruised there at around 65mph. I checked the psi and the fronts were down to 33. Once inflated back to 42 psi, the mpg was a much healthier 24.6mpg, even while travelling at a faster speed.
Confidence inspiring
One of the best things about the car is that it is a conversation starter.
I’m more of a listener than a talker, so my interactions with people have been more Harrison Ford, leave me alone, than James Corden, I’m everyones friend. (Perhaps that’s why I went into visual design, who knows!)
Anyway, this car has upended my natural order a bit, and I find quite a few people appreciate the car, and a number approach and ask questions. This has greatly increased my confidence and made me feel better in terms of “yes, that was a well communicated conversation”.
I have been guilty of waving to a fellow E31 driver while pootling about in Teddington though!
PS
I’m quite good at composing a photo shot (i.e working out what looks good) but its just a shame I’m absolutely useless at effectively taking it, and don’t know anything about photography.
Mark Riccioni, GF Williams or Hooded Reeper I am not.
So I apologise for the lack of photography – but if youre interested in viewing solid 3/10s I’m happy to take more! Or if anyone has any requests/specific areas (apart from anything requiring a lift) just shout.
To make it up, here’s a gratuitous pic of what 300 miles of road grime looks like on the front of these:
Chapter 2 - done
Again, I’ll leave it here for now and next time will talk about the first of my two (and hopefully last) warranty claims (touch wood!!!) – and if anyone has any questions, happy to answer them.
This car has a V8 under the bonnet. 4.4 litres of “Das ist good ja?” engineering. From 1997. A time, where I suspect “tuning” was performed by burly, bearded men using a hammer. And yet, for my use, it is no less economical to run than my 2006 3.0 V6 Mercedes CLK convertible. (Although that M272 engine being based on one from 1998 may have something to do with it.)
Around town (which is a drive across a portion of the A4, then single lanes) the Mercedes got around 19 - 22mpg. On the motorway it got around 33 - 36mpg. I calculated that a weeks’ worth of petrol cost around £38. (The 1990 Eunos would take around £30)
The BMW is averaging 18 - 20 mpg in town and on the motorway it can hit 27 mpg. My spreadsheet states that from 13th January to 21st December 2020 I filled up 19 times at an average cost of £43.93.
This may have been lower still, but I had to take two 300 mile round trips to my sisters house in this period, as well as the initial 40 mile odd trip back from the dealers. Conversely, perhaps, if you exclude these it may be higher as these were the only three trips that took advantage of the motorway.
Anyway, cost breakdown was:
Lastly, I’ve found the car is very sensitive to tire pressure, and even the slightest psi difference can upset the mpg. As an example, on one of the trips to my sisters the best mpg the OBD spat out was 20.4mpg, having cruised there at around 65mph. I checked the psi and the fronts were down to 33. Once inflated back to 42 psi, the mpg was a much healthier 24.6mpg, even while travelling at a faster speed.
Confidence inspiring
One of the best things about the car is that it is a conversation starter.
I’m more of a listener than a talker, so my interactions with people have been more Harrison Ford, leave me alone, than James Corden, I’m everyones friend. (Perhaps that’s why I went into visual design, who knows!)
Anyway, this car has upended my natural order a bit, and I find quite a few people appreciate the car, and a number approach and ask questions. This has greatly increased my confidence and made me feel better in terms of “yes, that was a well communicated conversation”.
I have been guilty of waving to a fellow E31 driver while pootling about in Teddington though!
PS
I’m quite good at composing a photo shot (i.e working out what looks good) but its just a shame I’m absolutely useless at effectively taking it, and don’t know anything about photography.
Mark Riccioni, GF Williams or Hooded Reeper I am not.
So I apologise for the lack of photography – but if youre interested in viewing solid 3/10s I’m happy to take more! Or if anyone has any requests/specific areas (apart from anything requiring a lift) just shout.
To make it up, here’s a gratuitous pic of what 300 miles of road grime looks like on the front of these:
Chapter 2 - done
Again, I’ll leave it here for now and next time will talk about the first of my two (and hopefully last) warranty claims (touch wood!!!) – and if anyone has any questions, happy to answer them.
Edited by salmanorguk on Tuesday 13th April 16:48
Still buggering around with the "reply all" facility so instead will go old-fashioned and type it below,
Thanks to WhisperingWask, Tobinen, d_a_n1979, carb4.5lee, Chickenvanguy etc for kind messages
DanG355 - answered question in the sescond update. I'm a little annoyed with final cost as even a bit back as 2-3 years ago you could save around £5,000 on what I paid for one in the same condition.
Paul S4 - thanks for the advice. I knew about the chain but not the tank. Will keep an eye out for it.
Cra1g - Your posts here (and I think on one of the BMW forums) did help decide getting one of these. Although I'd probably swap it for your Z3M in a heartbeat!
Jazzer77 - will do
Thanks to WhisperingWask, Tobinen, d_a_n1979, carb4.5lee, Chickenvanguy etc for kind messages
DanG355 - answered question in the sescond update. I'm a little annoyed with final cost as even a bit back as 2-3 years ago you could save around £5,000 on what I paid for one in the same condition.
Paul S4 - thanks for the advice. I knew about the chain but not the tank. Will keep an eye out for it.
Cra1g - Your posts here (and I think on one of the BMW forums) did help decide getting one of these. Although I'd probably swap it for your Z3M in a heartbeat!
Jazzer77 - will do
Love it! My second BMW was an 840Ci (first was an E34 540i). Mine was a 6-speed manual, and they are indeed very rare - apparently only 57 were built in right-hand drive worldwide. Who knows how many of those have since perished.
Reading this makes me wish I'd kept mine. It was in good condition, mechanically spot on although certainly not immaculate cosmetically. I sold it about 10 years ago, which was probably around the trough in values, mainly because I'd bought myself an E36 328i Sport which turned out to be far more engaging to drive than the E31 so I decided that I couldn't justify holding on to the 840. I was in my 20s back then and had the expectation that the E31 should handle like a sports car, which of course it didn't - 1800Kg and a recirculating ball steering box put paid to that. With the benefit of hindsight I should have just enjoyed the car for what it was.
That said, I owned my 840 for about 6 years and it rarely gave me any serious problems. Aside from the cooling system the only other thing I had to deal with was weak batteries. There are two of them (one each side of the boot) and if you let one or both get low you will have all manner of strange electrical issues crop up. In such an instance it's highly recommended to replace both batteries simultaneously with good quality items, as it will save a lot of grief in the long term.
Good luck with the car, I hope it serves you well!
Reading this makes me wish I'd kept mine. It was in good condition, mechanically spot on although certainly not immaculate cosmetically. I sold it about 10 years ago, which was probably around the trough in values, mainly because I'd bought myself an E36 328i Sport which turned out to be far more engaging to drive than the E31 so I decided that I couldn't justify holding on to the 840. I was in my 20s back then and had the expectation that the E31 should handle like a sports car, which of course it didn't - 1800Kg and a recirculating ball steering box put paid to that. With the benefit of hindsight I should have just enjoyed the car for what it was.
salmanorguk said:
At the local independent I ask them to check for an airlock and then fill up. Miraculously this turns out to be correct and the brute is back to good health (spoiler alert – for now). One slightly used prayer bead goes back on the shelf.
I know where this is going! I had a very similar experience multiple times with my 840. Whenever the temperature gauge moves above the middle you definitely have a problem, and often topping up and bleeding the system will resolve it - at least temporarily. However in my experience, there is always a leak, and the problem will be back sooner or later depending on how big that leak is. As is common with most BMWs there are lots of plastic components in the cooling system and they are all potential failure points, often resulting in slow weeping leaks that can be hard to find. It's almost worth preventatively replacing as many plastic cooling system components as you can, because at the age of these cars now failure is quite likely.That said, I owned my 840 for about 6 years and it rarely gave me any serious problems. Aside from the cooling system the only other thing I had to deal with was weak batteries. There are two of them (one each side of the boot) and if you let one or both get low you will have all manner of strange electrical issues crop up. In such an instance it's highly recommended to replace both batteries simultaneously with good quality items, as it will save a lot of grief in the long term.
Good luck with the car, I hope it serves you well!
salmanorguk said:
Still buggering around with the "reply all" facility so instead will go old-fashioned and type it below,
Thanks to WhisperingWask, Tobinen, d_a_n1979, carb4.5lee, Chickenvanguy etc for kind messages
DanG355 - answered question in the sescond update. I'm a little annoyed with final cost as even a bit back as 2-3 years ago you could save around £5,000 on what I paid for one in the same condition.
Paul S4 - thanks for the advice. I knew about the chain but not the tank. Will keep an eye out for it.
Cra1g - Your posts here (and I think on one of the BMW forums) did help decide getting one of these. Although I'd probably swap it for your Z3M in a heartbeat!
Jazzer77 - will do
Your overall costs are a little higher than I expected, but considering the value of these is still on the up it's money well spent. Enjoyed the update and am interested to see what the warranty claims were in the coming posts.Thanks to WhisperingWask, Tobinen, d_a_n1979, carb4.5lee, Chickenvanguy etc for kind messages
DanG355 - answered question in the sescond update. I'm a little annoyed with final cost as even a bit back as 2-3 years ago you could save around £5,000 on what I paid for one in the same condition.
Paul S4 - thanks for the advice. I knew about the chain but not the tank. Will keep an eye out for it.
Cra1g - Your posts here (and I think on one of the BMW forums) did help decide getting one of these. Although I'd probably swap it for your Z3M in a heartbeat!
Jazzer77 - will do
If you get the chance then a full rear view would be good (ooo-er!!)
Lovely! I had an 850i for a while, but never got on with it even after changing all the suspension rubbers, just felt floppy. I still love the look and would love to try an 840 at some point (especially if I could manual convert it). Looking forward to seeing how many miles you rack up using it as a daily.
Helen is definitely right about SLs though, they're another great car.
Helen is definitely right about SLs though, they're another great car.
SturdyHSV said:
Love the E31, great choice 
You mentioned modifications, any chance of a set of these very appropriate wheels going on...
OP.. Why would you want to modified it...? keep your E31 original...l Those wheels.. and V8 side badges...You mentioned modifications, any chance of a set of these very appropriate wheels going on...
keep it standard and you will end up with an appreciating classic..?Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff