8 series, what are they like?

[E21_Ross]

i've heard before that the 840 and 850ci's weren't all that, but the 850csi was something else? really really like these cars, what are they like for a long trip (that's what they are there for, right?) how are the 840ci's compared to the bigger V12s? owner ship costs i'm guessing are pretty high? parts easy to get hold of from BMW?

just general impressions on 8 series really

[Da Hose]

I have not owned one but the running costs must be high, however I think people forget that this was a comparable car to the AM DB7 in its day and I dont know anyone who says "I was gonna buy an AM, but the running cost would be high"!!

From what I heard the 840 is the one to go for, there is little or no performance difference with the 850, just even more cost!!

good luck mate

[Ean218]

On a long trip they are sublime.

This morning with the traction control off was fun too!

If you're worried about running costs don't bother looking any further...

[paoloh]

I have an 850 and it is effortless motoring with endless grunt.

Regarding repairs, no, it isn't a Ford Fiesta and will cost you a fair few pennies now and again.

I've just done a top to bottom sort out of mine and have spent nearly £3000.

Now, that sounds an awful lot of cash but it did have a lot of work done:

Suspension bushes front and rear
Brakes lines
Light control unit
Re aligning headlamp
Re aligning Sun roof
Repairing cable on seat
New disc and pads
Various bits of trim
Wheel refurb
The whole car mopped
Brake light switch

The car is now back to immaculate and won't need anything like this again for a long time. ( fingers crossed )

Just because they can be bought for 7k iah doesn't mean they are a 7k car. These were mega money new and you can't expect to maintain a top end prestige car for pennies.

[58warren]

I think the 850 had electronically adjustable suspension, which costs around £3000 to fix if it goes wrong.

[LordGrover]

I really fancy one of these too. Just waiting for my E46 to die... which may take some time.

[koenig d]

58warren said:

I think the 850 had electronically adjustable suspension, which costs around £3000 to fix if it goes wrong.

EDC electronic damper conrol.840's have it also. the csi has AHK active rearwheel steering. all csi's are 6 speed.
efortless to drive. well capable of 155 mph.@ 100 mph the front windows go up automatically.iv'e had 2 love them.

[benny.c]

koenig d - where you in Hoylake on Friday? If not your car has a double.

[AB]

They are an occasion every time you get in.

The noise, feeling of power, everything is just fantastic.

All I will say is DO IT! As a daily driver I can imagine it will cost a fair amount but if it's not your only car, then you'd never tire of it and it really won't cost all that much.

IME obviously.

[Victor101]

koenig d said:

58warren said:

I think the 850 had electronically adjustable suspension, which costs around £3000 to fix if it goes wrong.

EDC electronic damper conrol.840's have it also. the csi has AHK active rearwheel steering. all csi's are 6 speed.
efortless to drive. well capable of 155 mph.@ 100 mph the front windows go up automatically.iv'e had 2 love them.

EDC was an option, thankfully fairly rare. Don't buy a car with it fitted unless you want to pay £4000 for a set of new shocks.
The V12 is nice but it's horrific on fuel. The CSi at least has the performance to match the MPG, the standard 5.0 doesn't. It's not slow but it's nothing a 330Ci can't deal with. The 840Ci has the same sort of performance but with an extra 5-8 mpg.
They're all old enough to be horrible stboxes but there are a few nice ones left. Stay away from the £3000 bangers. £5000 is enough for a good one with lots of history. Avoid EDC and rear wheel stering (AHK). The 4.0 840Ci is almost as good as the 4.4 so don't dismiss a really mint early 94-6 4.0 840Ci.

[ADM06]

M60 4.0's can suffer from bore wear due to nikasil linings, just like M52's.
If it idles badly forget it.

[derin100]

Victor101 said:

koenig d said:

58warren said:

I think the 850 had electronically adjustable suspension, which costs around £3000 to fix if it goes wrong.

EDC electronic damper conrol.840's have it also. the csi has AHK active rearwheel steering. all csi's are 6 speed.
efortless to drive. well capable of 155 mph.@ 100 mph the front windows go up automatically.iv'e had 2 love them.

EDC was an option, thankfully fairly rare. Don't buy a car with it fitted unless you want to pay £4000 for a set of new shocks.
The V12 is nice but it's horrific on fuel. The CSi at least has the performance to match the MPG, the standard 5.0 doesn't. It's not slow but it's nothing a 330Ci can't deal with. The 840Ci has the same sort of performance but with an extra 5-8 mpg.
They're all old enough to be horrible stboxes but there are a few nice ones left. Stay away from the £3000 bangers. £5000 is enough for a good one with lots of history. Avoid EDC and rear wheel stering (AHK). The 4.0 840Ci is almost as good as the 4.4 so don't dismiss a really mint early 94-6 4.0 840Ci.

Sage words from Victor.

Here's mine (I've had several)...bought nearly four years ago now with just under 25K miles on the clock and now still just over 26K miles. And no...it's not for sale:

http://www.bmwclassics.co.uk/840cisport01/index.ht...

[sniff diesel]

ADM06 said:

M60 4.0's can suffer from bore wear due to nikasil linings, just like M52's.
If it idles badly forget it.

Ooops, my 540i E34 has that engine and ticks over a little slowly (down to 550rpm at times). Could that mean nikasil issues? The car's a 1995, has covered 129k and has FSH and recent new plugs, filters etc. Was wondering what was causing the low idle.

[very numb]

A stunning example derin100, I vividly remember a white E28 you had.

[Huff]

sniff diesel said:

Ooops, my 540i E34 has that engine and ticks over a little slowly (down to 550rpm at times). Could that mean nikasil issues?

Unlikely - 550rpm is normal idle unless you have headlights on or aircon engaged (ECU then lifts idle a little, deliberately, to deal with the load).

Nikasil is really, really overplayed on the M60 engines esp. since UK petrol went ultra-low sulphur about 8years ago. If its fine now, its good to go for a long time. Worn bores wil 1) use a lot of oil 2) be consistently very hard to start and 3) shake badly at idle - note, the M60 has a little, occasional vibe at idle because it's got quite long-duration /lopey cams and a larger plenum compared with the later M62 derivatives (4.4l version), which are smoother.

Oh, and most times people start to worry they have a nikasil issue it's probably a minor vacuum leak. HTH

(540, Nik block , 91k miles, uses less than 1L oil per 10Kmiles!)

[dave_s13]

derin100 said:

Victor101 said:

58warren said:

I think the 850 had electronically adjustable suspension, which costs around £3000 to fix if it goes wrong.

EDC electronic damper conrol.840's have it also. the csi has AHK active rearwheel steering. all csi's are 6 speed.
efortless to drive.......

Sage words from Victor.

Here's mine (I've had several)...bought nearly four years ago now with just under 25K miles on the clock and now still just over 26K miles. And no...it's not for sale:

http://www.bmwclassics.co.uk/840cisport01/index.ht...

Derin. That is fooking awesome. You are essentially, "the man"

Edited by dave_s13 on Wednesday 16th December 19:59

[Chester Drawers]

In the UK, the choice would probably be to go for a later 840 - these had the M62 4.4ltr engine mated to the steptronic gearbox which is a vast improvement over the older slushmatic boxes. As already pointed out, the 8 series was a top end expensive car when new and you may expect to have to shell out some cash to keep one running in good condition, expect to budget for a front end bush replacement every two years or so as these are heavy cars and do hammer the front suspension. Properly sorted they are fantastic cars for long distance driving, a proper continent crusher and it was designed with long distance in mind. I drive a 1997 M73 V12 version which was never sold in the UK, this uses the 5.4ltr M73 engine with steptronic and if I drive it reasonably it will give around 25mpg - mind you it easy to get the mpg down to low teens or even single figures if you welly it a bit. Bear in mind that as the car weighs around two tons it will not perform like a sports car, they are quite fast but not really fast when compared to some modern machinery, it should be seen more as a refined cruising machine, a proper GT, as such it's a bloddy good car. Most early M60 4 ltr cars that were victims fo the Nikasil issue will probably have been sorted by now, the V12 M70 is a bit thirsty but packs loads fo grunt, the S70 CSi version is a fantastic machine.
If you're looking for more information then have a look at the owners club at www.8er.org

[pits]

Firstly how old are you? I am 22 in a cat A/B postcode and TPFT is £1300.

Buy one which is straight panels are stupidly expensive front bumper is £2500 iirc and headlights are £1500 so bear that in mind when looking for one

Buy the 4.4 litre V8

Average under 20mpg

Money is irrelevant with these took us 9 years to find ours we paid 4k for ours
1 owner
FSH with BMW or BMW specialist and still is
52k had the 4.4 litre V8 fitted with a full check up
121k we found a problem with the rear few cylinders apparently a common problem with them the head gaskets compress to much, so we had it rebuilt just the top end was 2.5k with genuine BMW gasket kit

We have looked at ones all the way up to 10k and most of them are stters to be fair, owned by people who bought them for the look and dont maintain one, be aware there is a dog st green one out there, all the electrics were failing


Interior is immaculate the only problem is the sticky seat motor, and of course the digi display has broken you wont find one that hasnt broken lol and they are £900 IIRC

Bear in mind they were a 70k+ when they came out so demand 70k running costs

Bits again are hard to come by as they are rarely broken and when they do they are snapped up very quickly.

Get ready to be tailgated by every out there usually BMW owners with older bimmas ie kids, and Audi drivers, ruins the drive slightly

I will add more later, they are great and there is nothing better than all 4 windows down on a hot day with the sun roof open with classic rock its bliss, the V8 is superb aswell


Dont bother with 850 to heavy on the front end not much power difference

[E21_Ross]

hmmm think i'll leave it then. thank for the replie guys, have been really helpful. sounds like they are too muh maintenance to be honest, although lovely cars. maybe one day!

[pits]

E21_Ross said:

hmmm think i'll leave it then. thank for the replie guys, have been really helpful. sounds like they are too muh maintenance to be honest, although lovely cars. maybe one day!

I really don't like discouraging people buying an 8 series as they are probably one of the best cars on the road today infact I took ours out the otherday and parked up it gots lots of attention and someone asked
"Private reg? Cant really be a 95 model can it?"

It is just the maintenance and bits which are the killer on them, buying an 8 series you need to go in with the mind set of
It will go wrong, it will be expensive to fix.

Thats how so many 8 series have got trashed over the years, because people don't want to pay the maintenance costs of a 70k+ car its like buying an Aston or Ferrari and trying to run it like a Fiesta.


If you want an 840 and I mean really want one, save a fair bit of cash and buy the best you can get dont be afraid to walk away from cars, but you need that buffer zone for repairs you need to know that if something fails you can have it repaired asap and not have it sat on the drive.

If you can afford it do it, as there is nothing out there like an 840 which I dont care what anyone says, it is the ultimate 2+2 GT car feck your Astons etc 8 series all day everyday, besides that last time I checked the Aston did not come with a purpose built sack to put ones skis in, not that I own any skis or feel the need to ski, but it's a selling point.