E85 / E86 HIGH MILEAGE PARANOIA

135k miles on an 03 2.5i, still drives perfect and sounds spot on.

Recently leant it to a friend who was instantly hooked and is looking to purchase one. :driving:
 
The most miles I ever put on any motor was about 230k on the E36 323i coupe M52TUB25 motor that I kept in The Netherlands from around 2001.
That car was epic.
It took me to Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Spain, France on business on a regular basis and as it was a UK registered car back to the UK every year for MOT's, all without missing a beat! Cruising through Germany at a constant, steady 100mph was effortless and comfortable and with the fold-down rear seats I could load it up with a shedload of whatever.

I bought it with about 30k miles on the clock in '99 from a BMW re-seller who didn't realise that it had had a short engine replacement at around 11k miles and was a surprise to me when I found out. For 10k cash it was also a pretty good deal considering someone had paid the thick end of 35k for it originally.
It was on the original clutch, manual gearbox, diff and even exhaust system until some twod t-boned me in Amsterdam back in 2016 when it was showing 261k miles.

To be honest I'd thought about getting shut of it way before then as corrosion had started to creep in around the front and rear arches as well as the leading edge of the bonnet, so it was looking a bit scruffy externally. By then it was also suffering from a bit of an identity crisis as E36 Coupes were perceived as a bit chavvy at best and I used to get tailgated and cut up by tw@ts on a regular basis in NL. But everything still worked and functioned as new; the aircon, sunroof, all the lekky bits n bobs worked and the economy on long runs was also outstanding. I was genuinely quite sad when it got carted off by someone who actually decided to pay me real money with the intention of straightening and converting into a drift monster.

So I have every confidence that the M54B30 engine in my zed is going to see at least another 150k miles if looked after properly and unless some twonk in a Twingo tapping away on Tinder while tootling through traffic doesn't tw@t into me!

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Z4 odometer reading taken today
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Very much island mentality for sure around the 100k thing. Our 2L 58 plate qashqai is about to tick over 100k miles and runs perfectly fine.
The issue is that in the UK 100k is a mental barrier so its fine owning one, but selling one, thats a whole different ball game and you have to be willing to take a fair loss on the car if you have paid out a fair bit in preventative maintenance.
 
when i bought my E85 3.0i a couple of years back it was on 149,000 miles. it then got taken thoroughly out of retirement and pressed into duty as a track car - did 8 trackdays in it i think, and it was awesome. only thing that broke in my ownership was an alternator packed in, but that was it. Engine loved a good thrashing!

just checked the mot history, still going, now on at least 161k.
 
The 6 cylinder engines are brilliant, change the oil once a year and you'll easily see half a million miles. Go take a look at the American forum Zpost and you'll see the moon mileage most of them have. I'm fast approaching 160k with 30+ track days on top of that. :driving:
 
My 2005 2.5 E85 has covered a massive 58,000 miles and I read her bedtime stories every night in our watertight snug garage.. Wouldnt entertain a high mileage car myself
 
My wonderful 2007 4 pot n46 engine is currently on 99800 miles and running like a dream (maybe shouldn't have said that as it could waken the curse of the bmw fairies ) Just got her out of hibernation been for a blast and giving her a rub down before putting her away for a good night's rest
 
My 2nd E86 had done 91K when I sold it and ran just fine. The current owner posts on here from time to time so it's still going strong.

Current 330i has the same N52 engine, has done 121K and still drives like new.

My MC has only done 84K so far!
 
The mileage thing is silly really but we end up falling in the same trap of having the fear of having a limited market when it’s time to sell,
 
Well, mine is from 2003. E85 - 2.5 M54 engine with 218.000 km on the clock, which is around 135.458 miles. It is still alive :)
 
Mike6 said:
My 2005 2.5 E85 has covered a massive 58,000 miles and I read her bedtime stories every night in our watertight snug garage.. Wouldnt entertain a high mileage car myself
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"get outta here " :fuelfire: .........( only joking :wink: )
 
Yep genuine 58000 miles. I fully agree that you shouldnt get hung up on mileage but I notice these cars get used and abused which is fine but high mileage really affects a cars value when you sell so I always pay a premuim for low mileage loved cars that come without rust, engine wear etc etc.
 
I'll never understand why people treat E85s/86s like they are fragile, Italian sports cars.

The mechanical bits are identical to those fitted to 3/5-series repmobiles that are designed to clock up high mileages with the bare minimum of maintenance. Buying a high mileage Z4 (I've bought two at ~100k miles) wouldn't worry me in the slightest for exactly this reason.

For example, there's no need to go changing your oil every 3k miles, or buying the most expensive oil you can find. Just any half-decent synthetic oil at reasonable intervals will be absolutely fine.
 
I think it’s a pride thing. (Not that type of pride…..)
People don’t like to be saying they run a high mileage car as it makes out they can’t afford a costly motor.

That’s why I have a Porsche as a daily driver 🤣
 
There are several things that determine a cars value, age and milage are just 2 and there is no argument that a high milage car is less desirable.
I’ve just bought my second Z I didn’t look at anything over 80k because lower milage cars are affordable, a good car at low milage has got to be a better bet and when I sell it any buyer is going to think the same. Anyone can look up trade value these days, there is no warranty on private sales, so you need to be prepared to spend cash on it at some stage. Even a car that runs well and has a recent MOT may develop a fault next month it’s a gamble however well it’s been maintained.
 
chanlon1 said:
I think it’s a pride thing. (Not that type of pride…..)
People don’t like to be saying they run a high mileage car as it makes out they can’t afford a costly motor.

That’s why I have a Porsche as a daily driver 🤣
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It’s the telling others that the car you’ve just bought has 120,000 on the the clock. Yes it’s daft I agree but it goes back to when cars only lasted 80,000 miles if you were lucky.
 
My Porsche has 15k, the M has 15k, the Jeep has 30k, the Abarth has 9k, the Golf has 30k, you can see why I had an issue getting a 91k Z with the SNP's missing money as rust attached to the bolts everywhere :lol:
 
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