Hi,

I'm looking at a 750iL on flea bay which looks very nice. I can't find very much information on these cars on the internet and what I can find is conflicting.

I am quite handy with the spanners, however this car seems to be at another level.

Can anyone please advise me what to look for and whether these particular 7 series cars are ones I should stay away from?

Thanks for any advice.

Steve

It's much like any other car when it comes to 'nuts & bolts' so if you can handle the spanners you should be able to do most things.

However if you want to keep it running to a reasonable standard & within a sensible budget you should really have a good knowledge of electrics/electronics as this is much more of a bugbear for an unknowing owner. The 750 in particular is packed with the stuff all of which is now getting on in years & faults can be difficult & expensive to resolve unless you are familiar with them & adept at fault-finding.

Some E38 specific info here including a buyers guide (top right): http://www.meeknet.co.uk/e38/

Many thanks for the info, very useful. I am beginning to think it could be more of a money pit than my XKR

I have one of these beasts as a holiday car at my Spanish home in Marbella. On the plus side , I have had it for 6 years now, LHD , of course, and now on Spanish plates direct from Germany. In general a great car 1998 750 i , and it had every extra known to man when it was new. That said, I understand that if one of the many electric motors that allow me to get comfortable in the drivers seat should ever go wrong, it's prob more than the car is worth to get it fixed.

However, I love it , despite 16.3 mpg , I don't do many miles here and the V12 still gets as many admiring looks as the many exotic cars in this part of the world !

The only real issue I have had is the dreaded shimmy on the front wheels , the local garage here could not fix it but the forum produced the answer in the form of new suspension parts, which I bought and shipped from the uk as it was much cheaper to do so. Not all members of the forum are good with spanners and I am one of those! The forum still works for me !

So, my conclusion is. If you don't do many miles the car can be reasonably economic for you, it will also provide great luxury and if you get it for the right price, everyone is a winner. Go for it .

Radioman, many thanks, it looks a bit of a daunting car at first glance. I probably will not be doing more than 2000 miles per year, I may just take a punt and have a look at the one on e bay that has a very good service history.

Cheers

Steve

Steve don't do it mate, everything is madly expensive! I had a 735 sport, a water cooled alltenator £1600, a fuel tank £1400 and enough electrical problems to turn me grey and I pampered it and looked for ages to find the best I could after a year it had to go!

Regards

Stephen

Thanks for the advice. I've also spoken to a friend who is the workshop manager at a bmw garage. He advised me to stay away as I'd it went wrong it would be expensive and bmw wouldn't like to work on it as they see so few.

He said one customer spent 30k in 3 years when his went wrong !

Glad you took his advice mate, why not but an E60 530i, bomb proof in my experience, a 545 or 550 SE or Sport, auto gearboxes can throw there guts at high miles but manuals are brilliant, cheap as chips as few people want them, but hard to find as not many sold when new, a 550 Sport can be found for £10k for the best out there and as little £5k for a 545 SE, as close as you can get to an M5 for little money, buy the best you can afford with a fully stamped service book, great fun and smile on your face motoring.

Regards

Stephen

I may well do that. I've just had my Jaguar XKR mot'd so may have to sell that to fund a decent new shaped E60. I drive a 530D at work which is very impressive, so I can only imagine what a 550 will be like. Thanks for the advice.