Gg.z495 said:
Rucky said:
For that Money and Mileage if its the E85 rag top in my experience having bought both a E85 04 2.5 and an 07 30si -
Tyres Discs and brakes - should all be good or replacement factored into asking price.
Check Rear coil springs intact - difficult to spot as they break right at the bottom and you would need a torch and lay on the ground.
ABS / DSC lights (Pump failure) and Steering angle sensor, wheel speed sensors - Any chance you could borrow a code reader and see if there are any faults logged - even intermittent warnings eventually become permanent. I use both a simple Icarsoft fault reader - fits in your pocket as well as INPA on a laptop.
Have a test drive, should be straight and true no wheel wobble , especually under braking
Dont accept any - "Oh yes it does that occasionally" without understanding what could be about to fail.
Does hood operate smoothly with the windows dropping partially and do the lights go out or still flash?
When was last oil change and what does it say on the miles to service in the speedo window on start up -are they recorded.
(Oil service indiacator) I had to replace VANOS solenoids eventually - car immediately went better and MPG improved significantly.
MPG on a warm engine driven steady should show about 35mpg dropping to mid 20's around town
On a good Mway run at steady 68/70 it is nor unusual to see 38mpg over a 300 mile run.
They are great cars but I would suggest can be very expensive if you are not a moderately good DIY er.
Plenty of advice on here though use it wisely.
I expect a few will disagree with my two pence worth but that is my personal experience.
The issues I speak about were partly why the cars I bought were negotiated on price at the time of purchase.
I accepted evidential faults as I knew I could fix them - but got the price discounted.
For £7.5K I would not expect to have to do anything until the next service due.
(But I would do an immediate oil and filter change anyway)
Good luck, enjot the paddles, buy a dashcam and pay attention to speed cameras!
Take it to Europe and have a blast!
Hi there Rucky!
Thank you very much for all of the knowledge shared. That's very helpful.
You mention that it can become costly if not a DIY’er... I must admit I am not the best at DIY, although, I have heard elsewhere that many tutorials are on YouTube? Do you know if that’s the case and would these videos suffice for a novice like myself?
Thank you!!
Greg
Hi Greg I was in your shoes when I bought my Z4 Coupe back in 2018. I didn't want to spend a fortune on servicing costs (or depreciation, hence the car choice), and can say that over 20,000 miles it has been inexpensive to run and fix.
YouTube videos and patience will definitely suffice for most issues. There are some niggly things that may crop up (as with any car this age) that if you are prepared to buy the tools for, watch the YouTube videos of and take the time to fix can be cheap to sort, but ruinously expensive at a dealer and fairly expensive at an Indy.
E.g. in order of "DIY involvement" if the ABS Motor goes, then a BMW dealer will want well over £1000 + labour to fix. An Indy will want about half that. ECU Tuning will want only £250 or so (but you will have to take the motor out yourself and send it off). However if you took the ABS motor out AND fixed the bushes yourself, we are talking less than £20 in parts.
Similar if you need something like a rocker cover gasket (valve cover gasket). Like with all rubber seals, they need replacing at some point. BMW dealer would charge 4 to 5 hours plus parts. Indy would charge the same amount of hours, albeit at lower per hour rate. Cost to you if you DIY'd would be best part of a Saturday plus £30 in parts and about £50 in tools if you had none to begin with.
In short if you are prepared to put in some time, you can save a fortune as the cars themselves are very easy to work on (when compared with more modern equivalents). This is especially the case for the engines - the N52 is fairly "simple" (no Turbo), and the engine bay is massive so you can easily fix stuff without having to take off loads of other ancillary parts (like you would have to with an X3, 1 series, 3 series, 5 series etc where half the engine is inaccessible).
My advice to you would be to go for it. Accept that if you can't DIY a task, then an Indy will be able to sort it for you without wrecking your bank account. Also, buy a dedicated code reader (e.g. C110 for £35). These can read all the computers in the car in detail, and provide you live readouts. This makes problem solving much easier (and cheaper than paying someone else to do it).
