Car needs a few odds and ends, but for the most part it's clean and well sorted. Has every option too, including the heated rear seats and sun shades. 2001 E38 740i Sport.
Car needs a few odds and ends, but for the most part it's clean and well sorted. Has every option too, including the heated rear seats and sun shades. 2001 E38 740i Sport.
Forever on my top 10 cool car list because of this scene. Enjoy, even without the missiles, smoke screen, etc.
Ooooh, damn, that's pretty. Nice score!
Cool! Nice score.
Duke said:Ooooh, damn, that's pretty. Nice score!
Thanks! While I was shopping I saved this one for last to look at because of the silver (not my favorite color). But the silver looks a lot better in person than in pictures. And it was the best deal (and best PO) of the bunch, so it's the one I ended up buying.
Very nice, always loved this body style.
Of course, I found my first thing to fix on the car that wasn't already on the list to do in the near future anyway... It's hardly been driven for the last year or 2 (literally a few hundred miles in the last year) and I put almost 600 on it in 2 days. I'd noticed a little bit of coolant smell after it was shut off when warm, but couldn't find anything leaking. Finally found it today, the radiator is weeping a little from one of the tubes in the top corner near the upper rad hose. So I ordered a rad to swap later this week.
Fortunately, it was going to sit in the garage for a few days anyway as the tires on it are pretty well shot (fronts are pretty badly weather cracked, rears are just rock hard) and we've got a chance of snow the next couple of days. So the Jeep gets to go back to playing DD for the next few days until I swap the rad and sort out the tire situation on the BMW. Then I can bury the Jeep in the back of the garage for some work over the winter, give pretty much full DD duty to the BMW and give SWMBO's Prius an indoor spot back (kicked it out to put the BMW inside).
I still have to finish reading through the stack of maintenance records to figure out what else I should plan to do soon on the car.
I hate you so much. So, so much.
Nice score. My 2nd favorite BMW chassis!
Is it actually a short body car (i instead of an iL)? if so, even cooler! Regardless, what a timeless car, especially on the M-Par wheels!
dyintorace said:Is it actually a short body car (i instead of an iL)? if so, even cooler! Regardless, what a timeless car, especially on the M-Par wheels!
Yes it is! Which means no reclining rear seats and no tray tables, but it's got just about everything else that was common on the iLs and rare on the i (like the heated rear seats, rear sun shades, parking sensors, etc.). It's also optioned with the metal sunroof instead of glass, interestingly. And being a short wheelbase sport, it's got the real sport package: M sport steering wheel, sport seats, 3.15 diff (instead of 2.93 in the other 740i / iL cars), higher stall torque converter, stiffer springs, bigger front sway bar, M pars and chrome delete. The iL sport package didn't get the suspension, diff or converter, just the seats, steering wheel, chrome delete and M pars. It scoots its way down windy backroads pretty darn well for such a big car.
It's a late-build 01, so it's got the widescreen nav display and this one was upgraded from the MKIII nav to the MKIV unit. It's also already got the mic in the headliner so I can easily do a bluetooth retrofit with X5 parts along with putting in the updated radio module from an X5 to make it easy to add an aux in (currently it's just AM/FM, cassette and the 6 disc changer in the trunk).
The PO also got the euro-only solid armrest without the phone cutout in the center and swapped that in. Only thing is the armrest is black while the rest of the interior is grey. Car also came to me with the BMW driving gloves, the BMW neck rest pillow, BMW coat hanger, etc.
Here are some pictures from the for sale ad. I will be swapping the smoked emblems and center caps back to regular ones and removing the Sirius radio receiver at some point.
And even with the 3.15 diff, having the A/C on for part of the drive to cut humidity and spending about 40 minutes crawling in stop and go (mostly stopped) traffic, the car turned in a very respectable 27.3 mpg on the trip to get it home (according to the onboard computer, which seems pretty accurate based on the one partial tank I hand calced). Cruise was set around 66 - 67 for the whole run, as I had no desire to take it over 70 with the condition of the front tires.
Love those cars. My Dad had a non sport one. It’s such a nice driving car.
I kind of like that radio in there, looks like it belongs.
SyntheticBlinkerFluid said:I kind of like that radio in there, looks like it belongs.
That's because it's factory! It's the widescreen nav setup that the E38, E39 and 1st gen X5 got in mid 01. Because 01 was the last year for the E38, not a lot of them have that setup (being that it was only in there for half of a model year). The updated setup retains the cassette deck too, it's just hidden behind the screen (tilts forward for access when you hit the eject button). Most had the older setup like the picture below:
Nice score! These cars are great for eating up miles, and the Short Sports are even better at eating up miles of twisty roads. Here's mine that I just sold after 3 years of daily driving:
So while we're in here, I'd like some thoughts on wheel / tire setup. Straying from the M pars isn't an option, as they look better than basically anything else on the car. For winter, I'm putting together a set of 4 front (18x8 +13) M pars with 235/50R18 (stock front size) Blizzak WS80s.
But that leaves the question of summer. I've got the pair of stock 18x9.5 +25 rears, currently with 255/45R18 (stock rear size, but they almost look slightly stretched). I'm thinking of picking up a pair of rear M pars from an E31 / E34, which are 18x9 +22 and running those with 255/45R18 up front (might need a small spacer) and then putting 275/40R18 on the 18x9.5s in back. Thoughts?
Dear Bob, you folks and your pictures are making me lust after overdesigned BMW luxobarges that are past jailbait age and almost old enough to drink legally.
Now after a new radiator and expansion tank to replace the old radiator that was leaking slightly and then bolting on a set of 4 stock front M Parallels (18x8) with stock front size (235/50R18) Blizzak WS80s, the BMW has taken over DD duty from the Jeep for now. So after some garage tetris, some fuel stabilizer and a battery tender hookup, the Jeep gets to take a nice rest in the back of the garage so I can start catching up on all of the work it needs (and keep the winter salt off it so the rust spots that need fixing don't keep getting worse before I fix them). And being that Jeep is no longer occupying the right side garage bay, SWMBO's Prius gets to come back inside.
Wow! So clean. That's a good looking ride.
conesare2seconds said:Wow! So clean. That's a good looking ride.
Thanks! Now if only the Jeep were that clean and I didn't have a bunch of rust spots and fluid leaks to fix...
I’m so mad I passed up on an clean White ‘01 E38 M Sport in Cali with 130k on the odo. They wanted $3300 and all my BMW buddies said they were asking too much. I rarely ever see them in white and a clean Cali car at that.
In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid :
If they only wanted $3300 for it, your buddies are insane for saying that's too much. On this side of the country, it seems like $3 - 4k gets you a decent 740iL, $5 - 6k for a 750iL and a 740i M Sport is $7 - 9k in good shape. $3300 for a 740i M Sport would likely be a complete pile.
pinchvalve said:
Forever on my top 10 cool car list because of this scene. Enjoy, even without the missiles, smoke screen, etc.
Lol beat me to it.
Great looking car. The M parallels really transform the style of these and the E32/E34's.
Enjoy.
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