Rare 1993 BMW 525i touring wagon

I’ll post more pictures later, I just needed to get the auction going tonight (Sunday) because it needs to be gone ASAP. I’m moving.

This car, like the Land Rover in the picture (also for sale no reserve) has been such a good car I’ve not had the justification to get rid of it. It’s just a remarkably good car. It’s also becoming a bit of a cult car and people have started to talk to me about it everywhere I drive it, which is weird. I’m totally going to regret selling it, but I own 7 cars and my neighbors are getting angry. I leave for New York in three weeks and will be gone for a year…can’t leave this thing sitting in my neighborhood for a year so it must go now. Don’t bid if you can’t complete the transaction.

I’ve owned this BMW for 17 years-ish. It’s been the most reliable car I’ve ever owned. Literally nothing has ever broken mechanically. I’ve conditioned the leather once a year so the leather still looks great, and I’ve waxed the paint once a year so it’s still in real good shape. I only use the expensive gas so the engine and fuel injection system stay clean, and it gets mobile 1 synthetic every 3000 miles. It’s got the m50 tu engine…google “high mileage BMW e34 m50 tu” and you’ll see a TON of people with this generation of BMW with this particular engine with 300K – 500K miles. This was an extremely reliable generation of BMW, and this particular car has been very well taken care of (at least longetivity wise…there are a ton of little things to fix) so this car should last the next owner a very long time if they take care of it.

I’ve been super big about preventative maintenance, but I’ve not really fixed stuff as it’s broken. I’m not going to be able to remember everything, but the below list is an attempt at being super honest about the car:

· Passenger side window regulator is goofy. I’m afraid of rolling it down so I only roll down the driver side.

· Sunroofs (which are HUGE and amazing by the way) have been leaking forever. I typically tape them at the end of summer, but for $80 you can fix this for good.

· Heater/ac motor only works on high. It’s not the switch, it’s the motor. It’s a cheap part, but a couple hours work. Many videos on youtube about this.

· I recently spent $3000 completely rebuilding the front suspension with upgraded 750il bushings and ball joints and control arms and all that, plus bilstein HD struts. The rear suspension is that hydraneumatic self-leveling system and it’s not working…it levels itself, but it’s bouncy. It’s been this way since I bought it…I never diagnosed what is wrong. Should be magic carpet ride smooth, but instead it’s a little bouncy over big bumps.

· I recently spent about $1000 on belts, hoses, clutch fan, water pump, pulleys…all the stuff on the front of the engine. It’s never had a new timing chain and the VANOS system has needed a rebuilt since I bought it 17 years ago. I’d personally do the timing chain and VANOS if I wanted the car perfect, but it’s been fine for a very long time.

· The headliner has been bad for a long time. At this point a lot of it is missing…I pulled the sunroof headliner panels out to do the headliner and just never finished it. The headliner would be easy to do on your own…many small pieces instead of one big piece. Do the headliner and the sunroof seals and that would dramatically increase the feel of the inside.

· The paint is incredible…it always gets faded, but it always polishes out to be beautiful. BUT it’s 25 years old now and getting little thin on the hood. It also has more small dings, scrapes, chips and whatnot to even mention. It can be made to be super nice, but there’s no getting around this being the original paint on a 197,000 mile 25 year old car. No accidents and no rust ever.

· The tires were the best Micheline tires I could buy when I got them, but then I just noticed cracks and remembered I put them on in like 2011. Tread looks great, but they have cracks now.

· Nothing works on rear wagon door. Wiper or glass hatch. Some kind of connection not working.

· It’s got the nicest Pioneer stereo with Bluetooth that you could buy two years ago. It’s a great stereo.

I’m sure I’m forgetting stuff. Here’s the lowdown: I take care of my stuff in terms of maintenance, but I’ve not been great about fixing things on this car as they broke. Probably because the car has been so stupid reliable that I’ve taken it for granted and treated it like a bit of a beater. But I’m 100% sure that if the right buyer buys this car, it will be on the road 40 years from now. The thing is engineered extremely well.

On Jun-04-18 at 21:01:17 PDT, seller added the following information:

Please, seriously, save everyone a bunch of heartache and don't bid if you're not going to complete the transaction. I'm leaving Washington state at the end of June and will not be around to complete the transaction after then. If you can't pick the car up or have it shipped by the fourth week of June, please please don't bid.

On Jun-04-18 at 21:17:29 PDT, seller added the following information:

I totally forgot to mention that is has new Bavauto coil packs as of about 10,000 miles ago.
I intended to rebuild the rear suspension, but the self leveling shocks are like $750 each. I found one new old stock one on ebay which is included with the car. Find the other one, then buy all the inexpensive bits to do the rear suspension job and get the magic carpet ride back. Or drive it bouncy like I have for many, many miles. It just feels like it has stiff springs, it's not awful the way it is.

I put metal master pads and brembo drilled slotted brake rotors on it like 50,000 miles ago. It should totally need new brakes, but it doesn't. I should really go write a review for those rotors and brake pads because they're amazing...I've come over the shastas and cascade mountain ranges more times than I can count and I do the mountains fast...there should really be some warping or glazing to those disks, but there's none.
It's had a tiny oil leak from what appears to be the front main seal for the entire 17 years I've owned it. It's never got worse so I never addressed it. But if you have a pretty concrete driveway, this car will make it less pretty. It's a 197,000 mile BMW...if it's not leaking fluids, it's probably out of fluids.
I put a new radiator in it at about 115,000 miles and put in the good behr one. Not sure the service life on a radiator.
The leather has imperfections. There's a product called leatherique that could be used to make the seats look like new for an hours worth of work. The base leather is in great shape because I've kept it conditioned, but the dye is cracking and has damage (it's 25 years old). The leatherique product would make the dye look like new.
I shouldn't have to say this because it's a 25 year old car with close to 200,000 miles, but the car is not perfect. It looks more like a 15 year old, 100,000 mile car because I've taken good care of it, but it is nowhere near new or perfect. It's a quirky, old cult classic car that has a cult following. It has "patina". Quality things get cooler with age and they age well. Poor quality things age poorly and just become junk. This is a quality thing and will get cooler and cooler as the years roll by. I know one of these is going to be used in a movie at some point, then they'll be mainstream cool and I'll regret selling it.

On Jun-09-18 at 23:08:08 PDT, seller added the following information:

I was really hoping to get it waxed before I left for New York, but I fly out tomorrow and ran out of time. The red turns pretty faded pretty easy...maybe it's all the layers of wax from over the years, but it bounces back super easily with a coat of nu finish. Usually takes about an hour. Need to hit the black plastic with either mothers back to black or chemical guys trim restorer first (black trim looks pretty dry at the moment) otherwise the wax will soak into the black trim and look cloudy. Hit the trim and rubber with back to black, then wax it with nu finish and the car always looks amazing. I waxed the hood at the end of the summer last year and you can tell the difference still.