SyedUmarAhmad

Just picked this up from Philly past weekend after selling my e34 and crashing my other one. I believe there was only about 1000 or something of these made in '03 in 6 speed black/black

'03 540i M tech
165xxx
6 speed
Black/Black
All stock

djyuck

^^^ nice car! She is just getting broken in. How much did you pay?

SyedUmarAhmad

thanks, paid $4500 and a train ticket to Philly.
Car does need a few minor things to be addressed but in awesome condition for 165xxx

blackout

Lol... I'm wondering if djyuck was being satirical, or if his incoming M3 will be his first BMW...

The good news is that to have made it to 165k, it has already had the majority of what will go wrong taken care of already... but the bad news is that it might be about to hit the switch for the second round (or third!) of critical repairs.

I'm honestly not trying to be Debbie Downer, but one criticism I can levy at BMW is that they are wonderfully engineered... to last about 60k miles. They then have a tendency to start falling apart at the seams (literally... you should have seen my E36 M3's headliner...). There are exceptions to this rule, of course, and my experience comes from the 3-series. From the pics though the car looks magnificent and the price was definitely right. I would imagine that to keep the car looking like that, it had to have been well taken care of.

SyedUmarAhmad

Thats exactly right and was even mentioned multiple times when I researched the e39 before purchase, particularly with cooling systems and gaskets. Many estimate that some major components will literally need replacing every 60k miles or so which is why I am now on the next round of replacing those major items before they fail on me. Not that I dont trust the previous owner to have taken care of them, but again, with a older BMW at 165k, its very possibly that things could have been replaced 2 or 3 times around already.

Archer

Timing chain guides are your biggest worry on an M62tu. They generally fail a little before 165K but the guides are made from plastic and will get brittle and break unless replaced preemptively. Replacement entails removal of the upper and lower timing covers (and thus the valve covers, upper and lower oil pan etc.) which basically becomes an engine reseal minus a rear-main.

Reloaded

I feel like BMW needs to revisit this concept I mean who doesn't need a 4x4ish convertible 3 series.

Archer

they've built everything else. not a big fan of the current direction of the company.

don't get me wrong, they're still making some great cars but the current over saturation of models/sub-models is a bit absurd. The only car coming out in the near future that I really want is the M2.

Reloaded

I'd like to see more of the basic cars that they sell in Europe.

I think a $20,000 1 series wagon with a 4 cylinder and cloth interior would sell great.

But I also think BMW is always keenly aware at watering down their brand in the US market.

Deimos

Speaking of 4x4ish 3 series... this is super tempting. https://norfolk.craigslist.org/cto/5152843492.html