Muffleman

Hi all,

The price of a 7 series is quite frankly ridiculous ! £50k cars for £10k or less, so I'm thinking of getting one for to-and-from work. But I can't decide on the engine size !

I would rather have the 740i with the 4.4V8, but should I get the 728 ? The MPG looks like its 23 for the 728 and 21 for the 740, is it really this close in the real world ? What about servicing costs across the engine sizes ?

Any help gratefully received ! Oh, and can these be worked on ? Or is it trained BMW staff only ?!?

Cheers



Matt

[Edited by Muffleman - 1/5/2004 12:36:56 PM]

WD

Try e38.org

I had an old (1988) e32 735i SE and in 18 months of running it cost me a water pipe and back box. They are bolted together very very well ...

Just check for full BMW history.

Muffleman

Thanks for that mate.

Oh, and a lot of them for sale are over the 100k mark, should I worry ? I imagine it's the ancillaries that die long before the engine on these, simply because the engine isn't exactly stressed !

Cheers


Matt

RS Grant

My dad is looking into buying one of these as well...

As you pointed out, ALOT of car for the same money as a nearly new Vauxhall Omega!!

Has anyone run one of these for a period of years? Are there any problems with them?

Cheers,
Grant

f1

Total BMW has a buying guide on 7 series this month !! Car featured owned by my ex boss.

Tiggs

Running costs can be BIG!

my 540 gets 16mpg (i do no mway stuff but even so!)

and when bits go wrong on a 50k car they go big time!

i have just paid £620 to renew my warrenty..sounds a lot but i had the park sensors go and the accelertor pedal brake during the year...would have cost a fortune had it not been covered.

in short...a 10k 740 is still a more expensive exercise than a 10k mondeo.

T

dodgy7

if anyone is looking for a nice 740 i take a look at my add on the for sale section

Cheeky Jim

Hi, i have a 1991 730i which has an LPG conversion. I use it for bombing up and down the motorway between home and Bracknell.

The newer cars are reasonably bulletproof, but a full BM service History is a must upto the end of the warranty period and either a BMW service or a BM Independent specialist service record from then on. They do big mileages reasonably easy (ove 200k).

You need to check the engine carefully. You will see quite a few adverts that say that the engine has been replaced under warranty. This is due to BMW for a number of years using a product called Nikasil. This was meant to coat the bores and pistons (i think) and provide a nice clean smooth surface for 200k miles etc. Unfortunately, it didn't work as planned to a certain extent and a number of cars have suffered terminal engine failure. The cars with replacement engines are ones that should have replacement engines without the Nikasil coating. I cant remember the time they stopped using it though (may have been around 1996).

They used nikasil on the V8's.

Best check some of the BMW forums - For 7 series, goto http://www.thee32register.co.uk - do a search on nikasil and you will get the answers you need.

hope that helps.

Jamie

Muffleman

Hi,

Thanks for that Jamie, that helps - plus I'd never heard of the Nikasil problems ! Cheers.

Matt

Flyboy-F33

The nikasil problem only applies to the 4.0 litre V8's and some of the sixes. The 4.4 litre was iron bores, so will be ok. However, the problem was caused by high sulper fuel which has been phased out for several years now, so if the engine has lated this long, chances are very good that it will go on forever. Most of the worn ones were replaced under warranty several years ago.

My 840 has a 4.0 litre and has covered 97K with no issues. Fuel cons is 20 around town (can be less) and upto 29 on a run.

dodgy7

the problem was only in the first half of 1996 in total there were just over 4000 engines with this problem and it was only on the 4.0 lt model if your unlucky enough to end up with one of these .......if the car has done less than 100000 miles with full history bmw will replace it without any charge

Muffleman

Thanks gents, much appreciated. I was gonna go for the 4.4 (or 2.8 if I have my sensible hat on ), so I should be able to avoid that particular problem.

Matt

infinicar

Be aware that as well as the 4.0 V8s having the nikasil problem, some of the earlier 2.8s suffered brun valves and pistons. The problem was again rectified by a new engine under warranty - applied to al the 2.8s in the BMW range, 328i 528i and 728i. This if anything was a more common problem than the 4ltr one. Beware (mate of mine bought a 328 coupe and the engine went bang in 2 weeks - very unlucky but food for thought)

Paul

Muffleman

Actually, a mate of mine has a 323i and needed a replacement engine under warranty.

Hmmmmmm.

Rich and Mini

It was the M52 block that suffered from premature failure. 320/323/325/328 and the 5 and 7 series range with same engines.

Rich

(Still get the odd one go...)