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      11-27-2016, 01:16 PM   #1
Red Ryder
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Perspective? Looking at 2003 540i M-sport 6MT

Hello, I found a car I am considering but want to hear some perspective on what is fair. It is a 2003 540i M-sport 6MT, has 108k miles, Sterling gray on beige, good condition overall but does have some cosmetic damage like dents/scuffs/scrapes which are all minor except for the dents which my body guys says he will fix for $500. Maintence records are not comprehensive, but okay and he said he just had the 90-100k mile maintenance done.

Seller is asking $10k, I have offered him $9500 pending a pre purchase inspection. Car will have to be shipped as well.

Does that maintenance interval include the coolant system rebuild, and VANOS solenoid seal replacement?

Thanks.

EDIT: BMW shop I talked to said 110k maintenance is trans fluid, diff fluid, spark plugs, and o2 sensors.

Last edited by Red Ryder; 11-28-2016 at 03:10 PM..
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      11-28-2016, 01:49 PM   #2
Red Ryder
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Having a hard time finding a loan for this car, nobody wants to touch a 14 year old car from out of state even though I have an excellent credit score/history and not much debt. But that doesn't help much as interest rates are around 7% for it. I went to my bank first and they said since hte car is older than 7 years it would require a personal loan with a high rate. Kemba had a great loan offer until I told them the car was out of state, then that rate went up too.

What lenders have others used? I'm going to call Lightstream or whatever it is, and maybe Quicken.

Last edited by Red Ryder; 11-28-2016 at 03:12 PM..
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      11-28-2016, 09:08 PM   #3
Ghetto2315
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Ryder View Post
Having a hard time finding a loan for this car, nobody wants to touch a 14 year old car from out of state even though I have an excellent credit score/history and not much debt. But that doesn't help much as interest rates are around 7% for it. I went to my bank first and they said since hte car is older than 7 years it would require a personal loan with a high rate. Kemba had a great loan offer until I told them the car was out of state, then that rate went up too.

What lenders have others used? I'm going to call Lightstream or whatever it is, and maybe Quicken.
Get a loan through PenFed. They are technically a military and/or government credit union but all you have to do is donate $15 and then you become a member. They will finance any model year. I just financed my 2001 E46 M3 from them and I bought it out of state. Interest was also very low.

By the way - I think $10K is way too much for that car. Unless its mechanically pristine and the dings and dents are very minor, I wouldn't pay more than $8K for it.

Any accidents? How's the carfax report? I would be happy to run a carfax for you if you haven't seen it yet.
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      12-05-2016, 07:17 PM   #4
Red Ryder
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^Thank you so much for posting, I appreciate what you had to say. Very helpful. Yeah it had some dents I would have to fix and then I found out the thrust arm bushings needed replaced and that he didn't replace quite all the cooling components. I want a car with less baggage.

I'm going to stick to buying within my state because I got a great offer from a credit union. It was going out of state that killed it for me. Just going to keep looking and waiting for the right one, and if I decide to pay cash then I may look out of state again but it must be within reasonable driving distance.

I'm holding off on it, but it had no accidents other than the sideswipe supposedly, Carfax was good but too many gaps in service. Too many maintenance records missing and he couldn't tell me when the clutch and timing chain guides were last done. Just too much of a gamble.

Just saw you have an i8, those have really grown on me. They look amazing.
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      01-03-2017, 04:45 PM   #5
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Its a GREAT CAR..recently gave mine up at auction after 13 FANTASTIC years. Just didn't have the room for it plus my newer bimmer. Auction fetched $2800, all proceeds to Vietnam Veterans..and I found it being sold here for about $8500. It needed over $6K in paint & body, $4K in interior work (seat mechanism inop) plus the overhead was peeling back from the rear window forward. From what I could tell they did the easy body work but left the seats alone.

Drive train SOLID..BUT, recently over last few years put in no less than $5K in engine and tranny work..mostly to replace gaskets. Nothing major.

Drove that beast thru every snow storm here in the midwest and with quality snow tires, never an issue.

Hope you find yours...as I told the wife, if we had the space, I'd still have mine.

Here is the link to where it was being sold...worth checking to see if the deal actually went thru.

http://www.premiummotorsinc.com/2003...IL_6101763.veh
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      01-06-2017, 03:40 AM   #6
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These are _high maintenance. Avoid. For the money you have and maybe can finance, you will do much better with an E60.
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      01-17-2017, 06:04 PM   #7
Red Ryder
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Quote:
Originally Posted by phefner View Post
Its a GREAT CAR..recently gave mine up at auction after 13 FANTASTIC years. Just didn't have the room for it plus my newer bimmer. Auction fetched $2800, all proceeds to Vietnam Veterans..and I found it being sold here for about $8500. It needed over $6K in paint & body, $4K in interior work (seat mechanism inop) plus the overhead was peeling back from the rear window forward. From what I could tell they did the easy body work but left the seats alone.

Drive train SOLID..BUT, recently over last few years put in no less than $5K in engine and tranny work..mostly to replace gaskets. Nothing major.

Drove that beast thru every snow storm here in the midwest and with quality snow tires, never an issue.

Hope you find yours...as I told the wife, if we had the space, I'd still have mine.

Here is the link to where it was being sold...worth checking to see if the deal actually went thru.

http://www.premiummotorsinc.com/2003...IL_6101763.veh
Thanks, I'm not in a hurry so hopefully if I'm patient enough I will find the right one.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mpathic View Post
These are _high maintenance. Avoid. For the money you have and maybe can finance, you will do much better with an E60.
I thought about a 550 but no matter how hard I try I just cannot get myself to love the Bangle BMW's inside or out. It's pretty much 540 or something else non-BMW, at least right now.
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