Howdy, my friends. It's been a while since the last time I have logged in here. But at least every time I buy a new beater I feel the urge to tell you. :rockon:
My old 316ti compact was a tough soldier, but after one year of driving from Hamburg (where I live) and Berlin (where my girlfriend lived), a 4000km roadtrip through east Europe, 2 skiing vacations (each a 2400km trip) and the daily madness of big city traffic and Autobahn it was hopeless to pass the german MOT without investing twice or 3 times the money the car is worth. So it was obvious, the car needed to go and another sophisticated driving machine had to be purchased. So I sold the old Beamer for 750€ and the winter tyres for 100€.
Since I had bought an apartment with 2 underground garage parking spaces last year (which makes me an outstandingly priviliged citizen in this beautiful, yet densely populated city), I decided to buy something bigger. I always had problems to fit my genitals and my pride in my tiny beamer, so I was more than pleased to get the oportunity to upgrade.
My friends, who are a lot less into cars than I am, mostly buy new cars in the 20-40k€ price range and I have to say, all these cars leave me cold. I always wanted to drive a BMW inline 6 engine, but nowadays you have to invest major money to buy a *40i car. So I checked the internet offers of used cars and finally found this:
As the title says it's a BMW 523i from 2000. It has 235.000km on the clock, it is serviced constantly until mid 2019 (which is a rarity), is well equipped with the stuff that's important to me (sunroof, leather seats with heater), has some external shortcomings, but technically it's perfect. It was offered for 1600€ with MOT for 3 more months and a broken window lifter on the passenger seat. In the end, I got it for 1800, with a fresh MOT (for 24months), new suspension on the rear axle and fixed window lifter. A great deal. I had to invest 200 more Euro, because of a leaking wiper fluid tank, a pin for the low beam and a new fender inlay. Plus I installed a Sony bluetooth radio and now it is perfect for less than 2100€.
I have driven 700km so far, once had in up to 235km/h and it was still accelerating (I think it will max out at 245 or 250 on the speedometer, in reality it should be a bit less).
Everytime I drive it I have a smile in my face. And if I consider how much money I saved for not buying a new car, I smile even more. I must say buying cars at their nadir of their worth has become my thing. I'll drive it for a few years now, and then I'll buy someting else.
(https://i.ibb.co/f1b1XrS/IMG-20191220-123043.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/cyW4GG4/IMG-20191220-123052.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/B3rgQgj/IMG-20191220-123111.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/prQzPsG/IMG-20191220-123146.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/D47vr1Q/IMG-20191220-123157.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/1zLCzSD/IMG-20191220-125823.jpg)
Cheers, mates! I hope you all are doing great! :cheers:
Early 2000s is peak BMW IMO. Nice car.
Nice old boat.
What a beater!
Lovely E39.
I once drove a 99 Alpina B10 3.3 from Norway to Spain. It was a marvelous machine for long distance driving. The inline 6 is a gem too, although a bit lacking in low end torque.
Very nice! That's my favorite 5 series generation.
Great car!
Quote from: CaminoRacer on January 31, 2020, 09:50:18 AM
Early 2000s is peak BMW IMO. Nice car.
:hesaid: Nice ride!!!
A 523i!? Warum kein M5!? :evildude:
Congrats! Sweet ride. I love the E39 5er and the E12/E28.
Congratulations! Love those wheels. Love that it's a manual transmission.
20 years on and it still looks great. Timeless design. Hope you have a lot of fun with it.
Quote from: Pommes-T on January 31, 2020, 09:48:00 AM
Howdy, my friends. It's been a while since the last time I have logged in here. But at least every time I buy a new beater I feel the urge to tell you. :rockon:
My old 316ti compact was a tough soldier, but after one year of driving from Hamburg (where I live) and Berlin (where my girlfriend lived), a 4000km roadtrip through east Europe, 2 skiing vacations (each a 2400km trip) and the daily madness of big city traffic and Autobahn it was hopeless to pass the german MOT without investing twice or 3 times the money the car is worth. So it was obvious, the car needed to go and another sophisticated driving machine had to be purchased. So I sold the old Beamer for 750€ and the winter tyres for 100€.
Since I had bought an apartment with 2 underground garage parking spaces last year (which makes me an outstandingly priviliged citizen in this beautiful, yet densely populated city), I decided to buy something bigger. I always had problems to fit my genitals and my pride in my tiny beamer, so I was more than pleased to get the oportunity to upgrade.
My friends, who are a lot less into cars than I am, mostly buy new cars in the 20-40k€ price range and I have to say, all these cars leave me cold. I always wanted to drive a BMW inline 6 engine, but nowadays you have to invest major money to buy a *40i car. So I checked the internet offers of used cars and finally found this:
As the title says it's a BMW 523i from 2000. It has 235.000km on the clock, it is serviced constantly until mid 2019 (which is a rarity), is well equipped with the stuff that's important to me (sunroof, leather seats with heater), has some external shortcomings, but technically it's perfect. It was offered for 1600€ with MOT for 3 more months and a broken window lifter on the passenger seat. In the end, I got it for 1800, with a fresh MOT (for 24months), new suspension on the rear axle and fixed window lifter. A great deal. I had to invest 200 more Euro, because of a leaking wiper fluid tank, a pin for the low beam and a new fender inlay. Plus I installed a Sony bluetooth radio and now it is perfect for less than 2100€.
I have driven 700km so far, once had in up to 235km/h and it was still accelerating (I think it will max out at 245 or 250 on the speedometer, in reality it should be a bit less).
Everytime I drive it I have a smile in my face. And if I consider how much money I saved for not buying a new car, I smile even more. I must say buying cars at their nadir of their worth has become my thing. I'll drive it for a few years now, and then I'll buy someting else.
(https://i.ibb.co/f1b1XrS/IMG-20191220-123043.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/cyW4GG4/IMG-20191220-123052.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/B3rgQgj/IMG-20191220-123111.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/prQzPsG/IMG-20191220-123146.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/D47vr1Q/IMG-20191220-123157.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/1zLCzSD/IMG-20191220-125823.jpg)
Cheers, mates! I hope you all are doing great! :cheers:
Wow, great to.hear from you man. Good luck with the new wheels. That looks similar to my first BMW, a 2001 530i. That ccx ar drove great! I hope you have a similar experience. :rockon:
Dude I love your purchases, they're always interesting. I'm really jealous of this, they're some of the best looking cars on the road to this day, and that's a great example you've got. I sometimes wish I got an E46 330i like 10 years ago and just kept it going.
Although I actually think the E60 has aged at least as well
Does thing have that high pitched chirp when you lock it? I wish I could get my car to make that noise when locked/unlocked.
Quote from: CaminoRacer on January 31, 2020, 09:50:18 AM
Early 2000s is peak BMW IMO. Nice car.
Thank you. Exactly my opinion. Also love the E46 and E38s... Too bad that BMW is building so much crap these days.
Quote from: mzziaz on January 31, 2020, 10:53:19 AM
Lovely E39.
I once drove a 99 Alpina B10 3.3 from Norway to Spain. It was a marvelous machine for long distance driving. The inline 6 is a gem too, although a bit lacking in low end torque.
Alpinas and the M5 are of course the holy grail of the E39. My 523i is lacking a bit more low end toque. But it's totally okay.
Quote from: Raza on January 31, 2020, 01:19:42 PM
Very nice! That's my favorite 5 series generation.
Thanks. Mine too!
Quote from: cawimmer430 on January 31, 2020, 04:25:53 PM
A 523i!? Warum kein M5!? :evildude:
Congrats! Sweet ride. I love the E39 5er and the E12/E28.
Because $$$$$$. Would have cost me 10 times the money. Plus I wouldn't be able to stop :vapors:
Thanks! E39 is indeed my favourite. And they sell almost for free at the moment.
Quote from: veeman on February 01, 2020, 04:41:19 AM
Congratulations! Love those wheels. Love that it's a manual transmission.
Thanks yeah. Thats's the BBS Y spoke style, love that too. I preferred a manual transmission. In new cars, the automatics and double clutch automatics might be even better, but back in the day manual transmissions were the more efficient and more fun choice.
Quote from: Submariner on February 01, 2020, 05:10:07 AM
20 years on and it still looks great. Timeless design. Hope you have a lot of fun with it.
Thank you! So far I love it. I have to admit, the fact that I can't fold the rear seats is a bit annoying and I am searching for 523/528 or 525/530/540 tourings. I think I keep it, but if I find a really good touring I might as well buy one.
Quote from: dazzleman on February 01, 2020, 05:33:16 AM
Wow, great to.hear from you man. Good luck with the new wheels. That looks similar to my first BMW, a 2001 530i. That ccx ar drove great! I hope you have a similar experience. :rockon:
Thanks. Nice, a 530i of course has a lot more power, but also sells for much higher prices. The 540i had a different (worse) steering, so the 530i was the most powerful one with the basic (and better) steering.
A 540i Touring with manual transmission would be like finding the holy grail.
Quote from: CALL_911 on February 01, 2020, 07:31:45 AM
Does thing have that high pitched chirp when you lock it? I wish I could get my car to make that noise when locked/unlocked.
Thank you! No, it doesn't make any sound. But there might be differences in the Euro/US versions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz0vV8DSsDo
This is what I'm talking about. Late 90s-early 00s BMWs had the wolf whistle
Quote from: SJ_GTI on February 02, 2020, 09:27:02 AM
A 540i Touring with manual transmission would be like finding the holy grail.
They do exist, but are indeed very, very rare. Most of them came with the automatic transmission.
https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=287991882&damageUnrepaired=NO_DAMAGE_UNREPAIRED&isSearchRequest=true&makeModelVariant1.makeId=3500&makeModelVariant1.modelId=24&pageNumber=1&scopeId=C&sfmr=false&transmissions=MANUAL_GEAR&searchId=e0da880e-5474-389b-a4d7-91f8561d6b5c (https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=287991882&damageUnrepaired=NO_DAMAGE_UNREPAIRED&isSearchRequest=true&makeModelVariant1.makeId=3500&makeModelVariant1.modelId=24&pageNumber=1&scopeId=C&sfmr=false&transmissions=MANUAL_GEAR&searchId=e0da880e-5474-389b-a4d7-91f8561d6b5c)
Quote from: Pommes-T on February 02, 2020, 09:17:33 AM
Because $$$$$$. Would have cost me 10 times the money. Plus I wouldn't be able to stop :vapors:
Thanks! E39 is indeed my favourite. And they sell almost for free at the moment.
Schon klar. :lol: