2001 BMW 740iL

[aap1966]

Considering as the daily driver for my wife. A few around with less than 100,000 km (60,000 miles).
Comments?
Any personal experience?

Thanks.

[Nostril Cheese]

avoid like the plague. unless you actually enjoy staggeringly complex electrical system failures.

[HardDrive]

Dear god, no.

[dewolf]

You'd be better off with an E39 530i/540i. My wife has a 540i that I just cannot get her out of. Had it for 4 years maybe. Only has 110,00kms on it. She loves it. The fact that around town we still get 11l/100 or so is a bonus. 8-9l/100 on the open road. Not bad for a 300HP V8.

[sketchers356]

Are the electrical systems of the E38 that much different from the E39?

[Sarc]

A distant family member had a 740i sport (the sporty shorty) up to 180k miles and still looked like new (aside from some seat sag) when he sold it. Looked fantastic in anthracite. I've heard the horror stories as well (don't all luxo barges have them?), but his was pretty stout. Of course it was an open checkbook car.

I've always like them and have bookmarked comments on them when the question pops up from time to time. I read them occasionally, then quickly decide I'll keep driving my E30 a little more.

A couple highlights (not my comments):

"An poorly maintained or rusty E38 should just cause you to walk away. Well maintained E38's can be expensive to keep up. Once that aren't would be the money pit of BMW's of that age group. There is lots to read about common problems with the V8. In addition, there are HVAC issues, window regulators, transmission and diffs (without fluid change) issues, and obviously, the entire cooling systems need to be replaced every 60k. I would find the best car you can afford, and if a good one is not in your price range, move along to another choice. The difference between the sport package and non-sport models, in terms of actual driving pleasure, is significant. One is fun, one is not. "

"As some one who writes service, wrenches on and generally observes all makes and models on a daily basis. The E39 is just as expensive to service and repair as a 740i. All of those listed above have gastronimical repair cost associated with one or more systems on each particular car. V8 BMW's are quite expensive just in the sub systems, but really suffer from neglected maintenance. I would suggest a 530 or 528 Sport wagon, just to avoid the nearly $1300 water cooled alternator (that does fail) of the V8."

There's a decent buyers guide from Bimmer magazine that touches on the these cars. A quick search could probably yield a downloadable pdf.

[kaisen]

Gastronomical repair cost?!?

[Jim Richards]

So expensive it gives you an ulcer?

[Sarc]

Originally Posted by kaisen

Gastronomical repair cost?!?

I hear some service shops now have a shrimp plate next to the Mr. Coffee

[speeder]

That sounded like a smart ass iPhone.

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by speeder

That sounded like a smart ass iPhone.

Siri has a twisted sense of humor

[Rufblackbird]

I LOVE the looks of the E38's, and would one day love to get one (most likely a '01 Sport). Had a '03 540i M Sport 6 speed and loved it until it got t-boned earlier this year and I assume the cost of upkeep is similar. If you can do the work yourself, it's not THAT bad...the cost of the watercooled alternator has come down in price, but the V8's certainly have cooling issues. The waterpump job wasn't too bad all things considered, at just over $500 in parts two years ago.

One major thing that I've noticed from researching E38's for sale is that a lot of the older ones (and some newer ones) are for sale with transmission problems. I'm not sure the reason behind it ("lifetime" ATF?) but definitely something to be wary of.

[chapo]

Run Away! I own a 98 740 il. i love the car. I have replaced the cooling system, most of the window regulators, and most of the hvac system to name a few items. It now wont pass smog because the check engine lighht is on and no one can get it to go away. It has new cats and o2 sensors as well. A short maybe somewhere in the electrical system. IO got five years of fun out of it, but they cost a fortune to keep running. The electrical system is a nightmare. i have an 346 as well, a lot simpler and cheaper to fix, plus 30 mpg on the highway. Same crappy cooling system though.

[95avblm3]

I owned a 2001 740iL that I purchased in 2007 with 67k miles on the clock and sold in 2009 with 100k. It had a lot going for it but also a lot going against it... I'll start with the pros:

The ultimate highway cruiser
I got pretty decent fuel economy for what it was
Timeless styling
The E38 7's have a sort of cult following, at least here in the states (DFW7's, Seattle 7's, etc)
Mine had a $3000 interior package known as the "highline package". It came with one of two unique exterior colors... mine was Midnight Blue (similar to Orient Blue), the other being Orinocco, which was green. The package featured upgraded Nappa Leather in oyster beige with contrasting piping. In my car it was blue as was the dash, console and carpets. It was an absolutely beautiful car.

Here are things to consider and ultimately why I sold the car after only two years:
1) They are plagued with the standard BMW window regulator failures... all 4 of mine went in the course of a year. They are a relatively easy DIY but are not cheap. IIRC, cheap knockoff regulators were still pushing $150-$200 apiece.
2) They have a tendency to cook the DSC module (traction control) due to its proximity to the exhaust manifold. Mine went which caused the dash to light up like a Christmas tree. The solution was a used (not rebuilt, used) part to the tune of $1300 since it had to be coded to the car.
3) My MAF was bad when I bought the car. For some reason, the BMW part was a small fortune, of which I don't exactly recall the price, but I discovered the exact same part in a Range Rover box (since the RR's used the M62TU B44 engine for a period) for about have the price. It was still over $100.
4) The front end bushings will wear and need to be replaced. My car developed a pretty annoying creak in the front end when they gave up the ghost. This I did not DIY and it set me back $1200, which included an alignment.
5) I had one coil go bad which was a $90 part and a simple DIY.
6) Overtime, the valley pan gasket will start to leak coolant. You'll notice a small amount underneath the car around the rear of the engine when it happens. The parts really aren't that expensive but it is a pretty involved DIY. Total wrench time was probably a good solid weekend but in reality, the car was down for two weeks because while I was in there (and you'll want to do this too if you by a 7) I replaced the leaking valve cover gaskets and sent the valve covers out for powder coat because the original finish was flaking pretty bad. Between gaskets, belts, hoses, powder coat and a few other misc items, I think that was a $1200 repair.
7) My sunroof leaked through a couple of rivets on either side of the tray. The evidence was two wet spots in the middle of the headliner on the sides. This was a free repair because all I had to do was spend an evening dropping the headliner and encapsulating the rivet heads in regular silicone caulking. Never had another problem.
8) Over time, the pixels in the instrument panel may start to fail (I know this plagued E38s but don't think it was unique to them). Mine was perfect for about a year and a half and then I started loosing them. Fortunately, over in bimmerforums, someone had posted a person to contact at BMWNA with instructions on what to say and the instrument panels would be replaced for free or at least the part was covered. It worked and my instrument panel was replaced for just an hour of labor, which at the time was $99. I don't know if this unspoken goodwill was unique to the US or worldwide.
9) This never happened to mine but I feared failure of the alternator. Prior to 9/98 (M62 engine), the alternator was a normal aircooled unit... under $200 if I recall correctly. From 9/98-on (M62TU), the unit became water cooled and a $600+ part.
10) I can't say that I really ever had any electronic issues in mine. The Sat Nav was an old CD-rom based system that was pretty dreadful, but it did work. My car was a 2001MY but an early one, so I didn't have the wide aspect ratio (16:9) monitor, unfortunately.
11) Never had a problem with the AC but fan speed never seemed to be real strong. Replacing the AC filters helped... and there were 4 of them. 2 fresh and 2 recirc.

Have I helped or hindered? Too much info?

Bottom line. I paid $17,400 for the car in 2007 but after owning it for two years, I was close to $24k invested with all the repairs. One thing I would recommend, if it's even still a possibility on a car this old, is to invest in a good quality aftermarket warranty. Shop carefully because a great deal of them are crap, but I think the mistake I made was thinking that I would skip that part and just DIY everything that went wrong. The warranty would have more than paid for itself and left me with more time to play with the "fun" cars, not my daily.

Cheers!

[aigel]

I have worked at a place that checked IDs on the drive in past a security gate. One had to scan the card, that means open the window and stick ones hand out with the badge.

Studying cars in the line ahead over the years was a clear indicator which model cars had frequent window regulator failures. I made note of the BMW drivers being the ones most frequently had to open their door and step out of their cars just to scan their badge.

I could deal with window regulators, actually, some of the other stuff, not so much. Even if you have "open checkbook" maintenance, don't you get annoyed by spending time juggling shop time with your schedule?

G

[asphaltgambler]

What I know from experience. I loooooooove these cars! I used to work on them everyday. They are the best most of the time and the worst some of the time. I've actually made a grown man cry once when his engine's electronic thermostat shorted, took out the DME and the NAV unit and fried some of the engine wiring before blowing the fuse. He had just bought the car after I did a PPI on it. It was one of the nicer 38's I had seen in some time, well maintained, all kinds of records. A real cut above.

BUT - he was a first time BMW owner and I said remember this........................a V-8 BMW is a great car but it WILL break down and it will break your wallet if you are not prepared so be forewarned. I said count on an average of $2000 per year for maintenance and break downs.

When the above happened he had only owned it for three weeks. Est for repairs @$2800. He actually started crying ...........