My monumentally moronic mega-miles 760Li purchase...

My monumentally moronic mega-miles 760Li purchase...

Author
Discussion

RoverP6B

Original Poster:

4,338 posts

127 months

Thursday 6th June 2019
quotequote all
Well, my January 1998 E39 535i has reached the point that it needs some TLC. The old girl is 21 and a half years old and owes me nothing, and with the MoT up next week, I need another car. The other V8 E39 (a 2001 540i Touring) is currently fked after the header tank let go at 70mph on the A303, and, along with the 520i Touring, is currently two hundred miles away from me, up in Surrey. I'm just the Devon side of the Tamar at the moment. I randomly spotted this 760Li on eBay a couple of weeks ago, and although I wasn't brave or stupid enough enough to go for it, my elder son had other ideas... and my eBay password. Well, the 535i was an unseen eBay buy too, so how bad could this be? Seven thousand imperial credits of the realm and a fee to get it trucked down from Middlesbrough to Plymouth later, here it is...






It actually did the first 200k in just three years! There is a very slight misfire at idle when cold, and cosmetically it's not wonderful (and the paint is full of orange peel), but it drives magnificently, as tight as a drum...

It's also had most of the big scary jobs done - coolant return pipe replaced, new ABS module, the gearbox has had a load of work done, new spark plugs, new lower front suspension arms, new coolant header tank, etc etc. Giving it about one third throttle on the A388, it leapt forward with alarming urgency. I haven't had the balls to get anywhere near full throttle yet.

The mileage history is as follows: 201,003 miles at its first MoT in November 2008... which it failed on leaking rear air suspension units. It then did 2,511 miles with no MoT until it failed again on the same items a couple of weeks later, and finally passed the following day. Then only 7,773 miles to the 2009 MoT, 5,350 up to July 2011 (must have been off the road for much of 2010), then only 2,935 miles to March 2014, 4,782 miles to June 2015, then 14,729 in the following year, then 6,903 in 14 months or so to August 2017, 10,867 miles in August 2018, and just 3,088 miles in the ten months since. It hadn't been taxed since February until I taxed it a few minutes ago, which might explain the misfire. Certainly, the seller (who only acquired it a few months ago) fitted a new battery before it came south on the back of a lowloader.

Jasey_

4,814 posts

177 months

Thursday 6th June 2019
quotequote all
Good Luck.

Did you transport it to keep the miles down winkbiggrin.

I spent last night watching videos of the new m760LI thinking what a beast it was smile

S100HP

12,638 posts

166 months

Thursday 6th June 2019
quotequote all
£7000 for a 260k 14 year old car?

I like the cut of your jib sir.

Edited by S100HP on Thursday 6th June 17:10

Sa Calobra

36,960 posts

210 months

Thursday 6th June 2019
quotequote all
Wow you ARE brave!

naturalaspiration

639 posts

82 months

Thursday 6th June 2019
quotequote all
It's a rare BMW individual Collection edition with platinum white merino leather, and individual (think) onyx blue paint. Nice. Make sure you check sunroof drains rather sooner than later.

RoverP6B

Original Poster:

4,338 posts

127 months

Thursday 6th June 2019
quotequote all
Onyx Blue indeed... and no, simply that trucking it was cheaper and a lot easier for me than trekking all the way up to Middlesbrough by train!

rayyan171

1,294 posts

92 months

Thursday 6th June 2019
quotequote all
Considering the galactic mileage, I have seen much worse cars with 1/3 that mileage. Very well kept, older BMW's are great when money is no object!

Touring442

3,096 posts

208 months

Thursday 6th June 2019
quotequote all
S100HP said:
£7000 for a 260k 14 year old car?

I like the cut of your jib sir.

Edited by S100HP on Thursday 6th June 17:10
2011 Glass' Guide.

naturalaspiration

639 posts

82 months

Thursday 6th June 2019
quotequote all
Proper full individuals like this one and especially V12s command much higher price than chauffeur driven zero specs 730d/lds.

Mr Tidy

22,037 posts

126 months

Thursday 6th June 2019
quotequote all
Brilliant - the Brave Pill in action! laugh

Riggie

177 posts

124 months

Thursday 6th June 2019
quotequote all
How much is it? It has the potential to be a money pit, but than again, if it has had a lot of the likely suspects already sorted, then it could be a luxury barge for not much money. £7k seems a bit steep to me though. Maybe I'll see you wafting up and down the A38 (I'm in Ivybridge)

RoverP6B

Original Poster:

4,338 posts

127 months

Thursday 6th June 2019
quotequote all
Well, it's been to Great Torrington via Okehampton and back this evening, and I am *not* going to admit what the lepton count was on the straights around Hatherleigh... but it also got hammered like a sports car in the tight twisty bits. I am seriously impressed at how good it is.

At some point I could do with meeting a fellow 760Li owner to learn everything the car actually does and identify the causes of the few minor issues it has, like the intermittent lighting of the inner quadrants of the dials, and the slight misfire at idle...

Is 7k a bit steep? Maybe, but that's market forces, it was an eBay auction and I wasn't the only bidder by any means. I actually won it at £7750, but the seller insisted on knocking it down because of that rough idle. I'll need to get the plug and coil checked, but it is so smooth at higher RPM, and it had new plugs last autumn... hmm.

Riggie

177 posts

124 months

Thursday 6th June 2019
quotequote all
RoverP6B said:
Well, it's been to Great Torrington via Okehampton and back this evening, and I am *not* going to admit what the lepton count was on the straights around Hatherleigh... but it also got hammered like a sports car in the tight twisty bits. I am seriously impressed at how good it is.

At some point I could do with meeting a fellow 760Li owner to learn everything the car actually does and identify the causes of the few minor issues it has, like the intermittent lighting of the inner quadrants of the dials, and the slight misfire at idle...

Is 7k a bit steep? Maybe, but that's market forces, it was an eBay auction and I wasn't the only bidder by any means. I actually won it at £7750, but the seller insisted on knocking it down because of that rough idle. I'll need to get the plug and coil checked, but it is so smooth at higher RPM, and it had new plugs last autumn... hmm.
Nice road that. If you're happy with the car at that price, that's all that matters. I don't see many 7s on Devon roads and even fewer long wheelbase ones never mind a V12 ! A rare beast. My 535 GT I suppose is a bit like a 7 inside. I love it - best BMW I've had so far, and I've had a number over the years. Enjoy and forget the fuel cost

hman

7,487 posts

193 months

Friday 7th June 2019
quotequote all
if theres a misfire at idle my first port of call would be to get the codes read and see if theres any pointers there.

Aside from that - vacuum leaks are notorious for misfires at idle.

g3org3y

20,590 posts

190 months

Friday 7th June 2019
quotequote all
Brave man! biggrin The rewards are worth it though, looks great. cool

What's the story with the first 3 years?

The Mad Monk

10,447 posts

116 months

Friday 7th June 2019
quotequote all
Autotrader has 10 BMW 760li. 2 below £10,000, the next one £20,995. Strange?

HTP99

22,408 posts

139 months

Friday 7th June 2019
quotequote all
The Mad Monk said:
Autotrader has 10 BMW 760li. 2 below £10,000, the next one £20,995. Strange?
Fantastic car but £7k seems an awful lot of money, just found one on Autotrader, 2006/56 with 71k for £8500.

BFleming

3,579 posts

142 months

Friday 7th June 2019
quotequote all
RoverP6B said:
I'll need to get the plug and coil checked, but it is so smooth at higher RPM, and it had new plugs last autumn... hmm.
No need for trial & error.. INPA is your friend on these cars - I got mine from https://www.cable-shack.co.uk/ and the one you need is a DCAN or a DCAN Switched (they may only sell the switched one these days). You get the software too, so I suggest an old laptop to run it on too. To this end I paid £30 and bought a Toshiba Satellite Pro U200 from Ebay, which does the job marvellously. INPA is the only installed software (apart from the Windows 7 it came with).

J4CKO

41,195 posts

199 months

Friday 7th June 2019
quotequote all
I like that, but I would have thought half that money, if that, at that mileage ?




RoverP6B

Original Poster:

4,338 posts

127 months

Friday 7th June 2019
quotequote all
HTP99 said:
The Mad Monk said:
Autotrader has 10 BMW 760li. 2 below £10,000, the next one £20,995. Strange?
Fantastic car but £7k seems an awful lot of money, just found one on Autotrader, 2006/56 with 71k for £8500.
I'm wary of low-miles cars after my experience with the E39 520i Touring... I bought it at eight years old and 54,000 miles. It proved a total moneypit until the engine finally died and was replaced with a higher-miles one, since which time it has run flawlessly. I would rather know that the car has been run in properly, has been well used and maintained accordingly. Besides, I quite like the idea of having the highest-mileage 760 in the country (I presume!). I will certainly be taking it past 300,000 (assuming it doesn't go pop before then) and hopefully well beyond. Who knows, maybe my sons will end up taking it past a million. There is definitely a sense of permanence about this car - it feels rock solid in terms of build (apart from the broken seat-back map pockets, but that's a very minor niggle).

Also, that £8500 Autotrader 760 is grey inside and out - not for me. Very dull. Much prefer my one's colour scheme. That said, it and that cheap 2003 one have a few options missing from mine - there is no fridge or rear iDrive in mine, nor air vents in the headlining (though it does have them on the B-pillar). I wonder if it would be possible to get any of those items retrofitted?

Edited by RoverP6B on Friday 7th June 14:04