Re: Checking out a '95 540i

[Nils Menten <nils@xxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings Kevin,

I'm the proud owner of a 95 540i 6-speed black/black, that I bought in 
October of 99. 
It is my first BMW. You've got fine taste in automobiles BTW ;-) 

I'll offer some opinions and experience, and of course YMMV.

On 3/4/01 8:12 PM, Kevin Ould <kevinould@domain.elided wrote:

>Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 18:26:15 -0500
>From: Kevin Ould <kevinould@domain.elided>
>Subject: Checking out a '95 540i
>
>Hello everyone,
>
>It's me again and yes I am still looking for that perfect car to call my 
>own. 

<snip>

>A few questions regarding 540's(I am totally new to bmw's). Do these cars 
>feel
>big when driving them? They look big. Heh. 

It is a big car, and as such it's very stable at high speeds, and quite 
relaxing to drive for long distances. Mine has the stock suspension, and 
it still feels taut to me. The suspension totally sucks up the little 
irregularities on the road, and the shocks do a nice job settling down 
the bigger stuff. The only time it feels 'big' to me is is in esses and 
on smaller back roads, where the weight transfer from one side to another 
reveals the mass of the car. If you like to blast tight roads, the body 
roll will intrude on your fun in stock form, and the front will plow if 
you're careless and shut off mid corner. Better springs/shocks and 
perhaps sway bars will reduce the body roll I'm told, but this is never 
going to be an autocross weapon IMHO, at least not in my hands. 

Big or not, it is surprisingly fast off the line and 0-60, and it's the 
fastest car I've ever been in from 60-100 hands down. The engine is a 
magnificent bottomless pit of smooth torque (300 lbs/ft!), with the 
exception of a small flat spot at 2800 RPM. My only gripe 
performance-wise is the transmission. It took me quite a while to get the 
knack of shifting it smoothly, and till I did I saw a lot of my 
passengers doing the front-back rock on gear changes. A short-throw 
shifter might help this, and I'm considering it.

I got mine with 42k miles on it from a dealer with a BMW certified 
warrantee, and I've been glad about it. They've replaced the transmission 
and flywheel, fan clutch, and one of two bad power window motors, and a 
few other minor items have acted up as well. I also got the car with new 
tires and brakes, and they perfomed the entire Level 2 major service as 
part of the vehicle prep for me, which is not a cheap service. Your deal 
sounds like a good price for a fun car, but I'd expect some significant 
maintenance bills from a car of that vintage just based upon my own 
experience. 

>Should I be concerned with the
>mileage or is 152k ok with lots of life left. Whatever I buy I want to 
>drive it
>for many years so I want to make sure it will last. How is maintenance 
>costs on these
>models? How much will the dealer divulge to me if I walked in with just the
>vin #? Would they give me a printout of the records so I could look over 
>them a
>bit better? What else was in the sport package for these cars other than the
>wheels/seats. Once again opinions/comments welcomed and appreciated 
>specially from
>owners of these. Thnks in advance. Oh and price quoted above is in Canadian
>funds. Which would probably be about 13,000 US.
>
>- -- 
>Best regards,
> Kevin                          mailto:kevinould@domain.elided


Nils Menten
Newburyport,MA, USA

95 540i (6-speed)

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