aNo94

I have been in the market for a highway vehicle for the past few months; some of the vehicles I have considered/still am considering are the Cadillac CTS, Ford Taurus SHO, Mercedes E350, the newest Chrysler 300 and of course a 535i. So far, I have driven everything except a CTS but from what I have driven, the 535i has been the most memorable. I drove two 535s...an auto and a manual. 3 minutes in to my test drive of the manual one, I got a reduced power/check engine warning; this leads me to my apprehension about the 535i. I have found a nice 535i with the options that I like. The carfax seems clean and it looks good in pictures but I still have my reservations about the vehicle especially after my not so ideal first encounter with a 535i. The vehicle is in Houston and what I would like to do is have it checked out by a respectable indie from Houston; also, is there anyway to get a more detailed service history aside from what Carfax provides? Oh, and is there a way to find out exactly what options are on the vehicle?

KLR4LIFE

You can get the service history from the dealer, you can also get the options your car has from a dealer or you can provide your vin to some of the nice people on this forum and they can decode it for you. Find out what the reduced power problem was, it could have been somethign simple like a misfire or bad spark plug.

tonyb635

When I purchased my 535 the reduced pwr light came on during the test drive with no loss in power. I was a bit shocked and after taking in account the rest of the car and the fact I still had a long factory warranty included it didn't really matter to me. I had the reduced pwr light checked out after I bought it and the dealer repair it under warranty. I don't remember exactly what it was but I vaguely recall something as in a sensor. There was no actual loss in power and the light was intermitent. Since then I have had that light again which turned out to be a HPFP and a low pressure fuel sensor. Other than that the car has been perfect.

aNo94

Here is the VIN for the specific vehicle I am looking at: WBANW13528CN57422

This vehicle isn't the one that I test drove with the warning light; that vehicle was a manual 535i and while I enjoyed the stick, I preferred the auto for the highway driving that I will be doing. I'll echo what you said about there being no appreciable loss in power though.

aNo94

I found this site to decode the vin: BMWVin.com

I now know what options the vehicle has. To find out the service history, I will need to contact a BMW dealership, correct?

KLR4LIFE

Yes, BMW will give you the history but if your not the owner you need the dealer to get the history for you.

aNo94

Are BMW dealerships generally willing to give out the vehicle's history if the vehicle is not on their lot? The vehicle I am looking at is at an Acura dealership and obviously they cannot get the report for me.

On an aside, is there specific build dates that I should avoid or be looking for? Or is build date largely irrelevant?

KLR4LIFE

The Acura dealership should be able to get the history from BMW. Just get a good warranty and you will have nothing to worry about.

pjinca

Build date is irrelevant, newer models have fewer issues, but still have issues. The good news? BMW does warranty the most common cause of the issues - the High Pressure Fuel Pump for 120k miles or 10 years. Still, as stated, get a warranty with it.

aNo94

Awesome! Thanks for the help gentleman. I will keep you all updated.