A follow on to the bangernomics thread!

I have a 1996 528i SE e39 which I bought for £13.5k in early 2000. Is this the best car BMW ever made? The motoring press always gave it a full five star rating. The car was in really good shape when I bought it, full main dealer history and only 61k miles on the clock. I got it indi serviced for the first 2 years then realised what a great car it was an that I intended to keep it indefinitely so started to look after it myself.

I can oil service this car for £45 with fully synthetic (6.5 liters required) and do a full service inc plugs, pollen filters air filters, brake fluid, coolant etc for less than £100.

Brake pads and discs wear well and good after market ones are not expensive. In the eight years I have owned this car, I have put one anti roll bar drop link and one front control arm and one rear arm and a couple of ball joints. Its had a 'hedgehog' fan resistor and thats it. I now have 195,000 miles on the clock and did an oil service last weekend which, fingers crossed, will see the double ton.

I still drive it every day and still drive it hard when I want to. It is still tight and for a large old barge, very nicely balanced and a pleasure to drive fast and slow. The tiptronic box is great! Its FULLY loaded with elec memory seats, heated everything inc mirrors, washer jets etc, cruise, six cd changer, Harmon Kardon audio system with 16 speakers (?? whatever it was) etc etc. It had the clear indicator lenses front and rear already so no horrid orange on the car. I got a set of 18inch alpina wheels when I bought it, so it looks very sharp!

I had the front of the car re-sprayed 2 years ago to clear the stone chips, together with a couple of parking dings and a little rust patch just under the boot release (£350) and it looks great still.

It had a factory tow bar and a ski hatch with folding seats, so its practical as in you can get a lot in it for a saloon and it tows big caravans and large car trailers easily.

Best of all, I pull up in a car park full of exec motors and it doesn't look out of place as its pretty ageless and classically styled! To aid this, its been on a private plate since in my ownership so looks newer that it is!

Unless something major goes wrong with it, I intend another 100k miles of use, however long that takes. Other than loving the style of the new A5, I haven't seen a car that I would change my E39 for and that doesn't get me 'moist' enough to stump up the cash!

So to summarise, cheap, quality motoring in a car that is worth very little, is a pleasure to drive and cheap to run but looks like its worth a lot more, quality bangernomics, any other practitioners?

Sort of, but not quite as luxury as you! I've got a '98 325TDS Touring which looks good (I also have the clear indicators front and rear which makes a huge difference), drives beautifully and is practical too. Cost me £3K a while back and I'll own it for at least 3 years, so must be a form of bangernomics.

see bangernomics post about ....volvos

I bought this / for a Grand, had it for a year and sold it for a Grand! (Only decided to sell it when fuel prices went through the roof) Audi A4 Avant Quattro 2.8 V6.


loaded on trailer

I have a '98 saab 9-5 - fully loaded 2.3turbo.

Bought it for £2250 12 months ago and I have done 20k miles in it this year - I only bought it to tow the caravan and now I use it as my main car.

Would recommend

I,ve never lost out buying jags... so my choice this year is an early XK8 softop.

Cost 10.5k, I have converted to LPG so 300miles costs ~ £30, I do not believe its will ever be worth less than £5k as decent softtop XJS's still fetch more than that.

Parts are surprisingly cheap, loads of bits are common to any XJ jag.

Prior to that range rovers, paid 8k for one 6 years ago, did 100k miles in it before it caught fire, replaced with another, completed 100k miles in that and sold it without MOT for £1200, not so bad really all things considered, especially as I get 45p per mile for the first 10k per year

They all have made me money in fact!

Saab 900s P reg had it from new, wife ran it for the first fewy ears then it was down graded to me . It's now on 155k, garage that does major servicing say they regularly see them with 300k on the clock,
now that my student daughter's faithful old escort "Brian" is getting expensive - see post in bargains elsewhere- I think she might be driving the Saab soon! I'm looking for another one with about 90k on the clock.........

atb
mike

Its good to see I am not on my own and a few others have taken a long term ownership proposition of a quality car to get good value-for-money motoring!

VW passat tdi's. The early B5's are getting very cheap. The petrol ones especially the V6's with all the toys can be had for peanuts and will go forever. Nice too drive, nice to sit in and go well!!

Bought this just under a year ago for 1700 on 151k, now done 167, 98 reg. still going well. I sold a 98 tdi saloon to get it which i had for nearly 4 years, bought with 70k on sold with 140. Never spent any money on it apart from servicing. Sold it to my old man. Still going well.

These can be got for a grand now.

I had an m reg audi 80 tdi in between with 188k still ran perfect and not a bit of rust on it. Only sold it cos i wanted aircon for me daughter in the summer. Sold that to a nice Polish chap.


passat

[Edited on 18/1/09 by Danozeman]

quote:

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Originally posted by carpmart
AI have a 1996 528i SE e39 which I bought for £13.5k in early 2000. Is this the best car BMW ever made?

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Alpina

Interesting thread, I'm now convinced I should keep my lexus, had it 4 years, only done 40k in it, should do me another 4 years why spend good money and also let a good car go and serve someone else...

quote:

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Originally posted by TimC

quote:

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Originally posted by carpmart
AI have a 1996 528i SE e39 which I bought for £13.5k in early 2000. Is this the best car BMW ever made?

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I'd say not quite; my new car:

Alpina

Alpina B10 3.2

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quote:

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I have a '98 saab 9-5 - fully loaded 2.3turbo.

Bought it for £2250 12 months ago and I have done 20k miles in it this year - I only bought it to tow the caravan and now I use it as my main car.

Would recommend

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quote:

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Originally posted by D Beddows

quote:

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I have a '98 saab 9-5 - fully loaded 2.3turbo.

Bought it for £2250 12 months ago and I have done 20k miles in it this year - I only bought it to tow the caravan and now I use it as my main car.

Would recommend

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I can beat that as mentioned in the Volvo thread - my real car is a fully loaded MY98 Saab 9-5 2.0l turbo - Stage 1 tuned (220bhp and about 400lb/ft ), Aero TD04 Turbo, fully poly bushed suspension, big brakes, every single receipt from the past 5 years, mint bodywork oh and a towbar - cost? £800 just before Christmas...... looks easily worth 5 times that

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see

response on other thread

though considering the nature of people of those who frequent the site the purchae of a car is never going to be purely on economics

[Edited on 18/1/09 by locogeoff]