Doing some super preliminary, havent-sold-or-actually-even-paid-off-my-current-car-yet car shopping (quite fun) and I noticed a $5,500 E39 540i M Sport popped up in my craigslist search results for RSX Type S'es.

I've always admired these cars. German muscle car/boat/sled for minimal initial outlay. Wicked exhaust note. Have never owned a vehicle with anything bigger than a 2.0 Turbo, this would be a big bump up in displacement and low end torgue.

My fathers' 1993 740i has been pretty dependable, 200+ thousand miles. Just the standard leaky power steering lines and valve cover gaskets.

I am extremely concerned about cost of ownership, mid to long term. The 540's in this price range have at least 89,000 miles.

Assuming the used 540i Sport I buy is in decent enough shape, drivable, maybe a little rough around the edges, what am I going to be dealing with in terms of scheduled maintenance? What are the intervals and how costly does the work tend to be? I have a BMW shop I know I can trust, but their prices are steep. Any glaring faults/weak points on these cars? Is an 89,000 mile 540i 11,000 miles away from needing a $5,000 overhaul? These people are obviously selling these high end cars for such a low price for a reason.

I earn MAYBE 50 grand a year... Should I just stop right here and limit myself to American muscle/more high rpm torqueless jap import mediocrity?

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

Do you do any maintenance on your own vehicles? If not, I would look for something else.

 

Tough call. Such a great car! If you do not plan to do a majority of the maintenance yourself than it may end up costing you a pretty good chunk of change. Plenty of tech support out there though.

 

Suggest you sit tight and payoff your current car. These cars ate very expensive to maintain. I'm pretty handy when it comes to fluid changes and other minor maintenance stuff. However, when it comes to replacing major parts, you better have a buddy that knows bmw's. I have a e39 M, the fuel pump and fuel relay went out last weekend. I was quoted $1200 by the dealer to fix the car. I decided to buy the fuel pump and relay and have my buddy (bmw master tech) do the work.
Parts $450 dollars. Labor - cases of beer plus $100 and I got to see work in my own garage. Good luck in what ever you decide to do. My $.02 jump on the m5board and look for a well maintained m5.