acomplish03

Hey Guys so I've been looking into buying a BMW for a while and finally saw something and went to go look at it. It's a 2004 525i with the cold weather package (and premium package I think) it has the orangish leather seats moonroof heated steering wheel and seats. I'm getting it from the original owner who claims to have all the service records from the BMW dealership. The car is in good condition has very minimal scratches and chips. Here's the part that gets my though the car has 133k miles on it, however the transmission only has about 66k as bmw replaced it with a brand new one all under warranty and he says he has the paperwork for it from bmw as well. I drove the car and it drives good its a older guy that's selling it and I got it down to $5800 but he won't budge from there. Im wondering if its a deal worth taking or if I should pass it up. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and the sooner the better.

Thanks in advance

JayArras

If you're leery, ask him if he'll be willing to let you take it to an independent BMW mechanic for an evaluation. Expect to pay $50 - $100 for the inspection. Also ask to see the records he claims he has.

acomplish03

thanks for the suggestion I may take that into consideration. My concern is the price do you think somehting with 133k on the car and 66k on the trans is worth $5800. In general I would assume no but then again this is a 2004 525 we are talking about here so I honestly don't know what to think.

JayArras

One of the things that experts warn about when car shopping is falling in love with a car. Make sure that you have at least a couple of alternatives in mind to compare this 525 to. Go to AutoTrader.com and find a couple of comparables. The 525 was the bottom of the 5 Series line in 2004, and it was the first year of the redesign from E39 to E60, so it came with "kinks" that were worked out in later years. What I'm trying to say is to come up with alternatives so that you'll be in a stronger negotiating position with this seller and not have any qualms about walking away should he refuse to budge on the price.

tex_phil

It depends on your budget I guess. I don't know the current prices right now but part of the reason why I still have mine is how I can't stomach selling it for so little. The car is generally kinda underpowered, although sprint booster helps alot. I have almost the exact same mileage on mine. I'd be curious to see what he has already replaced on the car. My car was pretty expensive for various things that occured. I was lowered quite a bit so I don't know if that puts alot of extra stress on things. I had a oil leak and transmission leak at one point, they had to replaced the oil pan and a bunch of other stuff, that costed me over 3k. I've had to replaced the water pump early on, AC compressor and a number of other things. Overall its not that bad though. I think if you have all the paper work its a pretty good deal for that price. I don't know how much the 530i's go above that. I know the 545's can be very expensive. I've seen 550i's for under 10k with unknown records.

EddieboyS

KBB private party price for the vehicle in very good condition in central Jersey is dead on.

Boost7

what can you really get for 5800 these days that look as good as a clean E60? I'm with tex_phil, because my wife has asked me to sell my 545 and get something else, but my car is only worth about 8-10k max, and I really can't replace it with anything in that price range that still looks good and drives nicely.

So have the car checked out, and it all comes back well and you really like it, buy it. You can't even get a late model civic for that price.