your view on a 2001 525i I may be getting soon

[femme325is]

ok. Im frickin retarded. Apparently it's a 528i, not a 525i. Do you guys know that the difference is between the two?

[femme325is]

I've got some time. His 7 series isn't coming in until the beginning of the year.

[Motorsports]

I would've jumped on it already.

[uofom3]

3 grand for a 2001 525i? Grab it.

that's all you need to know

[femme325is]

i say go for it man

lol! I get this alot in car forums ;)

So I've been talking more to him about the car and he REALLY wants to give it to me, as long as I get my work into a gallery soon. :P So I'm a little excited! I'll keep you boys updated if I get it

[der affe]

hehe

hehehehe ;)

[SpecM]

i say go for it man

hehe

[gearheadE30]

Should be fun. Easy enough to swap in a stick if the tranny fails, which is known to happen on these cars if the fluid isn't replaced at reasonable intervals.

[aintnothang]

go for it!

[dashboardmonkey]

Do it:hitler:

[Tree18is]

shit breaks on everything, dont be scared.
should be a nice car to drive normally and who knows you may end up keeping it forever.

[etta325]

i say go for it man

[Stevie30]

Meh, It's no e30. It'll do 'till you can get an e30. LOL

[femme325is]

reeliz- thanks for the specific info. :) I'll ask him soon what he's actually had to do to the car since he's owned it.

Der Affe- Yes on the roadtrip. No on the transferable warranty. For some reason he doesn't have a warranty on it. He bought it in Illinois a few years back

DCColegrove- yeah, I've heard that alot so far. Lots of shit breaking on them. Im still a bit nervous about this one eve though it's a good deal. I DEF dont need a money pit rt now. The E30 is bad enough

[reelizmpro]

170K miles, auto for $3K? That's not bad at all. E39's are nice cars and are getting cheaper. A lot of shit does go wrong with them though. If you are a DIY'er it's not a problem but if you have to pay someone to fix everything then it could become an expensive burden. Fortunately, there's good info on bimmerforums.com and bmwtips.com on all of the common problems including cooling system, Secondary air pump and valve, window regulators, door handles, cupholders, climate control buttons, etc.

I have two 98 528i's that I work on with about 130K miles. This should give you an idea of what to look forward to. I've had to do the following:

98 528iA - GM trans remanufactured, broken radiator neck (so we did the entire cooling system) @ 140K miles, leaking PS hose, new alternator, door handle (interior), cupholder, brakes, 1 window regulator.

98 528i 5 speed - flooded Secondary air pump caused by bad diverter valve, 3 window regulators, cupholder, both pre cat 02 sensors, brakes, cooling system.

On the later models, like the one you're buying, also look out for dead pixels in the hi instrument cluster and bad abs computer (expensive).