vanos

Sounds like the car has gremlins. Under CPO, the dealer must complete all inspections and deliver a car that meets spec. Touring's are difficult to come by, I would keep the pressure on with the dealer and tell you what needs to be repaired.

Theo

Not true I'm afraid, having seen several cases of it I strongly suggest checking both.

This is a common problem usually caused by either a faulty switch in the window lock or worn wiring in the tailgate hinges. Some experts believe the former is caused by the latter.

Good decision, it is a complicated car and you need a dealer you can trust. Keep looking though, it is one of the greater cars out there and you'll enjoy it immensely when you've found the right one.

One more point of attention I forgot in my previous post (use it at this or next e61 candidate):
- Open rear window, undo the screws that become visible underneath. Close the window and then slide the rear spoiler off very cautiously. Open the small black box that is exposed and check the insides for corrosion. If found demand a diversity module replacement.


Good luck.

Lotus99

Your link to the car doesn't work anymore, but I figured out it's the one from Elliot Bay Autobrokers with 53,885 miles on it. I did a search for 2008+ wagons on Autotrader (how I found mine) within a few hundred miles of Seattle, and 10 showed up actually. Most were within 200 miles. Quite a few 2008's too, if that's where your budget's at.

This Elliot Bay place seems to have 3 2008's for sale, interestingly enough. Have you seen the other two? One is an 2008 with only 18,000 miles, though they want $40k for it.

I saw a total of four 2008's within 10 miles of Seattle, around $30,000, and another one 100 miles away for $33k. As hard as these wagons are to find, I wouldn't rush it. There's enough out there, seeing that 99% of Americans don't seem to want their wagons, and so many are for sale (compared to Canada, where in 6 months, believe it or not, only ONE came up for sale in ALL of Canada!).

Good luck!

vanos

^^ True, I had to wait a long time for a local one. There are only two available in ALL of Canada in date of today.

Kell

I think you made a wise decision.

As others have said, it's prone to lots of faults (mine seems to have had all of them). ANd if you're getting stuff like that on a test drive, how much more will become apparent when you have it for keeps?

AS hard as they may be to find out there, I'd walk away from this particular one unless

a) you can get it cheked over by an independent BMW specialist or
b) they reduce the price dramatically.

Sounds like they'd be happy for you not to buy it, so that they can get it back and sell it to the next person who isn't as knowledgeable as you are.

Harg

You're absolutely right.

The dealer finally called me back last night after I called them several times. They took it to their shop, where they "reset the ECU" which they say will fix the rear window and passenger seat. (yeah right) They also fixed the alignment. The salesman was going to drive it home to make sure the problems were fixed, and told me to call him today. Shouldn't he be the one calling me?

He mentioned the ECU had a code stored, for low voltage, and said this was what was affecting the window and seat. I wonder if "resetting the ECU" means they just cleared the codes. Everything he says to me reeks of BS.

Either way I don't want it anymore, $32k for 54k miles with no warranty is too much anyway, I'll wait a few months for prices to drop. Hopefully there will be a nice lease return with a year left on the original warranty.

Out of curiosity, has anyone else had issues with their sport seats not doing the auto-adjust upon start up and shut down? (Side bolsters relax upon shut down, return to previous position upon start up)

cwickberg

I woouldn't own an out of warranty E61 unless you had a big wallet. the car is just to complicated to get fixed properly with out spending big bucks...Not much you can do in the way of self help with these things...just the leaking sun roof can set you back several thousand $$ in electrics alone.

Best of luck, however.

norsecarnut

I have had no issues with the side bolsters that I can recall. Last November I paid $39k out the door (which included 3% sales tax, tags, etc.) for mine on cpo. Mileage was about 29,000 but now it's 53000

norsecarnut

I think you confused some people in this thread by using the word "DEALER". Elliot Bay calls them selves an auto BROKER and thus their limited knowledge of the car and exactly why you got the "well, it is a USED car after all, everything won't be perfect" Which is sort of true, but also an annoying way for it to be spoken.

Your best bet, had you been on your game, would have been to use that precious overnight time to take it to the dealer without these broker folks looking over your shoulder. There are 2 dealers right in the area and another down in Tacoma so you have options.

Seattle BMW actually mailed me a letter asking to BUY my wagon after it was there for service

Good luck. Keep looking and feel free to give me a shout to go over mine if you like. I looked for a while but was only going to buy from a factory BMW franchise "dealer" so I could have the best situation possible with little things like you mentioned.

Oh, and over the years when I've been looking for various vehicles, Elliot Bay pops up and always seems high for a "used car lot" which is what they are, no matter how fancy they try to pass themselves off as.

Theo

Meh. Old women's stories... Before I bought it I made a list of all the weak points and for each of those the associated costs for both preventative maintenance and failure. I decided I could live with those and replaced whatever parts I felt being at risk of failing with serious consequences. The others I only address when they come up.

Thus far she hasn't blinked and neither has my wallet. Same goes for two previous E61's.

BTW I check the sun roof drains very regularly depending on the weather, no hassle.