Re: Are 97 528's reliable?

1997 is the 2nd year of the 5 series.

> The 5 series is quite strong but you cannot expect japanese-like > reliability. Many things will fail, but basically nothing major. > In my old 1997 535, I had to replace the clutch, power windows, rear > suspension, a few sensors, leaking engine, etc.

That kind of stuff happens on all cars, even Japanese cars. My 1985 635CSi is a much more reliable car than my 1988 Supra was. When I sold the Supra in 2002, more pieces were falling off than I knew what to do with, and it was well cared for. The BMW still looks and runs like it was pulled of the showroom floor yesterday. Just my .02

Reply to
Paddington
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You can't be serious. BMW's are high maintenance vehicles. I'm on my 3rd BMW, and all of them have been just as unreliable so far, old or new. I often say: "BMW's are easy to work on, and that's fortunate, because you have to work on 'em a lot."

From experience and from research I can say that almost any Japanese car would be more reliable than a BMW. If your '85 Big Coupe looks showroom new, with no body rust forming, either you live in a desert, or you never, ever drive in the rain or road salt. Or possibly you have had the car completely stripped, zinc primed, undercoated and repainted with 2-stage paint. 6-series coupes rust notoriously. They are fraught with electrical problems, the main seals leak, cam oilers fail, they have steering failures, A/C problems, failing hydraulic struts, loose shifter bushings, weak timing chain idlers, "rocking" front seats, ECU problems, etc, etc. I had to repair all four electric window motors in my Coupe at least twice, which involved taking the doors completely apart. That was barely the beginning.

The 6-series are beautiful cars, no doubt; but after spending hundreds of hours endlessly repairing and de-rusting my low-mileage '83 633csi, I finally gave up and sold it. That was a decision that I don't regret.

Now I drive a 2000 BMW Z3 Roadster. It's obviously a better car than the old 6-series in every respect; but I can already see that it's not as reliable as my bombproof '92 Honda Civic with 160,000 miles on the clock. I love BMW's for the driving experience; but I'll never lie to myself about their reliability. Buy a BMW with your eyes open, and be ready to either roll up your sleeves and fix it yourself, or write some fat checks to the local Stealer.

YMMV, HTH

R
Reply to
Rocketman

Yeah, I won't deny we've put a lot of money into it. It was repainted two years ago. My experience comes from owning a money pit Supra. We put $3,000 in engine work alone, followed by much more. Total up the receipts and the bix six has been cheaper to run so far, and it feels much more solid and bomb proof than the Supra did.

I won't argue with you that they aren't expensive to own and run, they are. But I do think it's a more solid vehicle than my Supra was, and the quality of materials is much better as well.

Reply to
Paddington

I kinda guessed that ;-) My '83 633csi was repainted in 1991 - and it actually looked very good. It's not BMW's fault that the paint was weak. The 1980's were a dark time for auto paint, across the entire industry. Metallic paints in the 1980's were particularly notorious for literally peeling off in sheets, especially on American cars. I was following a late

80's Chrysler recently that actually had long paint "fronds" waving in the wind on every top surface. Strange.

Yeah, an old girlfriend of mine bought an '84 Supra in '87, with barely

24,000 on the ticker. Before she had owned it 1 year, she put ~$2,000 into it. The cooling system had been trashed by some idiot who put several cans of Bars Leaks in it (god knows why). Gummed it up real nice. The local Toyota $tealer really worked her over. Total frauds.

Once you get all of the bugs worked out, and if you live in a dry, warm area (or run it summers only), a Big Coupe is a nice touring car, and still a head-turner. I just wish I could have kept mine from rusting. I'd probably still have the darned thing. They grow on you. It's a version of Stockholm Syndrome ;-)

R
Reply to
rocketman

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