Earlier today I drove by an obviously well cared for BMW 840, driven by an older gentleman who I'd bet was the original owner. Its been a while since I've seen one (the car, not the older gent), and I cant remember ever before seeing one in quite the same shade of merlot red. I'd forgotten how striking these cars are in person, and now I want one. Never mind how impractical they are (hard/silly to daily drive one, can't really track them, cant haul kids with em).
Was it this color? Called Calypso Red. Same color as the 840i I owned a few years ago. Neat car, but not one I'd want to own long term.
dyintorace wrote: Neat car, but not one I'd want to own long term.
Why is that?
A friend of my dads has had a 92 850i since the late 90s. It doesn't get a lot of miles on it, but it's been surprisingly non-problematic, all things considered.
Is this one of those cars that REALLY makes sense to LSX swap?
I want one of these pretty badly. I hear the drivetrains are not the most reliable...
the V8s had the nikacell and Alumacell liner issues and the V12 had finicky EFI as they treated the engine as pair of siamesed I6s, Basically each bank had it's own complete fuel injection system that was completely self contained from the other bank.
they are old enough that some of the body computers are not yet canbus connected, but as BMW's flagship, it was cutting edge for it's time
If it needs a new engine, a newer BMW engine would be my choice. Skip the LSx unless its a ratty version. If it's a ratty one, throw a 4.8 and tons of booooooooOOOOOst at it! 
I was looking at a ratty one for swap purposes. A rat 8'er still cost some serious coin. If you find a cheap one that needs parts, break out your wallet! Replacement parts are astoundingly stupid price wise. An example would be 1 headlight assembly + motor . . . $1000+ used 
Surprisingly, the motor can be found for ~$100 with other bits and pieces available via BMW parts dept.
The one I was looking at a few years ago with a blown engine was missing both headlight assemblies and FTP (flash-to-pass) light strips. To replace them, exceeded the price of the car.
E34 manual pedal set can be used to convert one over to manual. The rear suspension is the predecessor to the much loved E38.
In reply to dyintorace:
That's very close, but it seemed to have more purple in it, though that could just have been the light. Same wheels tho. If I had to choose between this and a 928 for classic GT goodness I'm not sure where I'd land.
They're awesome. I had a V12 powered one. No problems whatsoever, 150,000+ miles on her.
This was back when BMW still built their cars with precision and quality. The thing just held up. It was like a showroom new car - absolute tank.
Really fun to drive - it didn't have face ripping acceleration but it would cruise at theoretically extra-legal speeds with no problem. In theory, one could run two radar detectors and drive across Indiana at 150 mph in absolute comfort.
Bought mine for $5,400, sold it for $8,000 - I think they're in the tens now.
850CSi
In reply to Mister Fister:
$5400? Wow!!
interesting trivia bit about the E31. The headlights are where they are because they do not affect the airflow over the car in the up or down position
You all are a very bad influence.
850i's can be very reliable if you do the maintenance and the small $$$$ things that pop up. Mine had a solid 160K on it when I sold it and it was as tight as a drum.
I was looking at them pretty hard before i bought the 996, but never drove one. I was looking for something 'cool' that was done depreciating. I feel pretty confident i was on the right track with that assessment, but i ended up deciding against it because i wanted something sportier. I have seen some come up on CL that the owners didn't get the memo about rising values, so there are deals out there if you have cash on hand, and i don't think you'll lose unless you buy one with some particular expensive problems.
At this point though, i think the one i'd be most likely to buy is an cheap 840 with drivetrain problems to put a 4.6, 4.8, or LS into.
Strike_Zero wrote: In reply to Mister Fister: $5400? Wow!!
Drunken late night eBay purchase enabled by my wife, who wound up loving the car more than me.
You can find them out there at those prices - most people don't have the sack to buy one because they're afraid of maintenance.
Those of us on this forum are not like most people.
mad_machine wrote: interesting trivia bit about the E31. The headlights are where they are because they do not affect the airflow over the car in the up or down position
How do pop-up headlights not affect airflow when they are up? I don't understand that at all.
Magic.
I'm sure they affect it some, but typically there is a short area along the leading edge of the hood that is actually a low pressure zone because of air coming up and over the grille/bumper area. I don't think that those would be totally out of the way of airflow, but maybe they continue the vertical flow of air up and over the light rather than trying to redirect the air? I'm just guessing here, really.
Since the E31/928 thing came up:
https://drive-my.com/en/test-drive/item/2140-bmw-850i-e31-vs-porsche-928-gts.html
I can't find anything on the net to back it up, I just remember reading about the headlight thing back in European Car when the 8 series came out (It might have been VW&Porsche Etc at that point). Basically as Gearhead said, the airflow was still so turbulent coming over the nose of the car that having them up or down did not affect the car's rather slippery .29 cd
When they're up you hear the wind whistling. I never had mine over 120 with the headlights up.
The body on the 850 is so gorgeous, I wish BMW would just re-release it with the TTV8 from the X6.
I wish they had released the Z1 here. I do agree that the E31 is the prettiest of the modern BMWs
FYI: There's a (very rough) 850 on Washington craigslist right now for Challenge money.
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