[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!