E34 - 520!

Peter Fenwick wrote: MBW1 wrote: -No! The whole idea of a quality car is that it can withstand normal daily use. Proper BMW's like the E34 can take terrible abuse and not break. E34s break plenty, just go on www.forum.bmw5.co.uk">www.forum.bmw5.co.uk to see. Normal daily use is not the same as abuse. How do you know that the previous owner of your car did not thrash the nuts off it? Did it come with a fully stamped service history? Unless you got it from new it's a bit daft to condemn a car as unreliable based on owning one. I'm guessing you got your compact after it had a few miles on it? Even with proper servicing you can kill an engine/box by thrashing from cold, bouncing off the limiter and just generally always driving it very hard. As for cracking heads, how is that any different from something like Nikasil which afflicted all BMWs even the 7 series. Also didn't the 518 have the same 4 cylinder engine as the compact?

I don't think you're quite getting the point. There isn't a car made that
doesn't go wrong.
I've always bought everyday use cars with high mileage and the E34's
have always been fine and feel like they were built to do 200'000 miles.
The Compact doesn't. It's crap. The guy valeting it yesterday afternoon
was laughing at the crappy door trims as he cleaned them. At the front
you can push them in an inch they're so flimsy.

My previous Compact was a 316i on a P plate, a two owner car with
around 80'000. Mechanically it wasn't bad but it had the same trim
maladies. In the end I went and bought a brand new drivers's door trim
because the original was delaminating and kept falling off. I also replaced
all the loose window mechanism rivets with nuts and bolts. Absolute
garbage IMO. I sold it whilst it was still worth something!

No, a Compact didn't use the 1.8 8v engine but the 1.6, similar enough
though and basically a good engine.

I saw a really nice mint M plate E34 on my way home this morning.  It was in that sexy blue colour that I remembering seeing on a spanking new E34.  I remember dreaming about it at the time cos it was before I could drive and I wanted to drive a car like that........Never have driven an E34.

The E34 I saw today was de-badged but had the (low spec?) alloy wheels (similar to those on the Senator, just to link back to an earlier post).  You still see a few nice E34's out there.  They are enthusiast owned now I guess cos they are all nice.  The 525i appear to be popular, the majority I see are 525i. I see one 518i around Glasgow but I haven't seen a 530i or a 540 for a long time now.  There are a few tatty E39's now and they are getting into the price range where the chavs then 'chav' them.

I also regularly see an E34 525is but what is the significance of the s in the badge?  I've only heard of E36 318is but never ever heard of an E34 525is, till I saw one in Glasgow recently.

Nigel wrote: I'm presently running a very late E34 estate, the 518i 4 pot, it only does 30 - 33 on a run, I used to get 30 out of the two 525's I've owned.

That makes me feel better!  Just shows what leaps and bound have been made in engine efficiency, my E60 gets between 28-34, depending if I'm towing crud to the tip or cruising.

No it is a lighter shade of blue.

Gotta be the 34 all the way. The epitome of BMW. I only have the baby 4 pot 518, but i sit at traffic lights in comfort. The above seems a perfect buy for the gent in question.