pHilli0 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 13, 2017 7:04 pm
Never been in an E34
must have been great?
It was, until the inevitable big bills came in at the same time. It wasn't the £1000 month maintenance costs of doing 25,000 miles a year in it (oil service every 3 months, inspection every 6 months), or the bi-annual EDC damper replacement (were ‘only' £500 each initially), it wasn't the £100-£130 fill ups of the 20 gallon tank.
I knew doing so many track days in it would accelerate the wear on everything dramatically, but it was as relatively hardy, and was fun in all weathers.
On track it was way too soft...even owith the EDC in sport mode, but that same mode was perfect for UK B roads...and you would arrive at your destination quite refreshed after a rapid drive...something the Z4M can't match.
Ultimately it needed an engine rebuild (low compression on #5) and a couple of EDC dampers (now £1200 each). Total bill at a specialist was going to be over £8k, on a car with a market value (at 160k miles) of about £5k. Even with everything in fixed and in perfect condition, I wouldn't have got more than £8k for it.
So I had a couple of years running big, sub-£1k barges...until they threw up a reasonable bill, and then they'd be dumped via eBay.
Got another e34 M5 a couple of years later...the 3.6 5-speed...and quite enjoyed the less torquey, but more free-revving nature of that (and the 100kg) weight saving over the later 3.8. It also had an engine problem, on a day trip to Trier when the Ring was shut, and once I'd driven it very carefully back to the UK (ADAC refused to transport it back home, despite me having the Plus level of covet) it took so long to diagnose the fault that I got fed up waiting and went out to view/buy the Z4MC.