Seller Submission: 1995 BMW 540i E34
In 1993 BMW finally added a V8 to its executive class platform with the E34 generation 540i, and while it wasn’t the first V8 from BMW, it was the first in a mass produced luxury sedan from Bavaria and it set the stage for years of rumbly sedans. They are fantastic vehicles to drive and offer a great experience if you don’t mind burning a bit of fuel. Find this 1995 BMW 540i offered for $7,500 via craigslist, located in Vancouver, Canada. Seller Submission form Jillian J.
This white sedan is described as a garage kept garage queen and looks the part. The wheels are plus sized and it rides on a set of Bilstein shocks/springs, but the overall result is that it looks like an M-car and casual observers won’t even notice.
Under the hood is the original BMW 4.0 liter M60 V8 that is rated at 282 horsepower and 295 ft-lbs of torque. The M60 is an all-alloy DOHC tour-de-force that uses all sorts of technology that today we take for granted (coil-on-plug) but for the time was fairly advanced. Repairs can be expensive if anything goes wrong, so be sure to get one that has been properly maintained.
This 107k mile example looks good on the inside in the pictures provided and these cars do survive the years well. The automatic transmission may be a negative for many drivers, but don’t forget that automatics can be fun to drive too, you just need to know how to properly prepare them.
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+1 on the redeeming value of the lemony autotragic, BAR. The 928 estate uses the same Merc slushbox it left the factory with, sans kickdown. It rocks.
As for the features ride, these have the steering box and not the R and P setup, no?
Yeah, all e34's have the steering box, and it develops some play over time. However, someone in the e34 section of bimmerforums has recently discovered a better way of adjusting the box than previous instructions. It is said to return the tightnness to near new, which isn't as good as a R&P, but damn better than the average e34 on the road today. Hoping to adjust mine soon.
Wait, so you guys talk about the Nikasil issue in a posting about an e39 5-series (a model that did not have the issue), but don't bring it up on a car that was the poster child of this problem? I DEMAND JUSTICE!!!!
FTB — Kinda felt like I'd been beating a dead moose with the Nikasil comments and from what I understand is if the car is running okay today, likely it was fixed or will never develop the problem because sulfur levels in US fuels have gone down to acceptably low levels since introduction of Tier2/3 Sulfur standards. This could be total crap and every Nikasil coated M60 could blow up tomorrow… Fortunately, this car is in Canada where they use M10 gasoline, (up to 10% moose droppings by volume) and it interferes with the sulfur corrosion. Read more about Nikasil issue here.
EIC Vince
No worries—my post was a solid 90% tongue in cheek. You're right about the "if it hasn't died from sulfur yet, it isn't gonna" adage. The bigger issue is this auto box. You could set your watch to transmission failure on these at roughly 125k miles.