TheRab

I got my 535xi without cpo warranty last year 10/2011 as a 2010 model for $32,000 out the door (tax incl.).

it has similar features as what you described but know the cpo warranty adds at least 1.5k-2k on to the price.

Use my purchase as a sliding scale metric because I feel like I got a great deal while other opinions radically differ. My vehicle for example was used as travel business car by one person so the interior was mint but he managed to put 51K miles on it in 9 months lease time which he returned the lease early. I happened to be standing there as it was brought back, not even cleaned and I wanted it.

The main feature that it had was:

-Manual transmission (huge for me)
-Comfort Seat (huge for me)
-HUD (again huge)
-Navigation (huge)
-L7 sound (huge)
-Interior color, beige I loved (Sold me)
-Rear fold down seats (unbelievably useful/huge)

-It also had brand new Michelin's (which to bring up to CPO certification would need to be changed)
I wish it had comfort access or pdc but I think I was asking for way too much at this point

but the drawbacks (things I would have liked but considered) were:

-no warranty
-no pdc
-no nightvision .....I'm really asking for a beat down now lol
-no comfort access


Another thing to note is last year when I was looking for 2008 models (lease returns mostly) some had CIC and some had CCC. A 2010 definitely has CIC which is a great win.

Lastly thing look at the overall condition of the vehicle relative to the miles. There is a huge difference if the car is used by one business guy leaving the rest of the interior pristine whereas if is used by one guy, 2 dogs, and a swarm of baby seats/toddlers.

You have to balance what is important to you and when accept a feature combo you're not likely to find again. To me features on this car is what makes it [AWESOME] to be the driver/owner of it (i.e. HUD, L7, manual trans, and comfort seats). Often time features are what are mostly forgotten about when pricing a pre-owned vehicle in contrast to when buying it new it really impacts the final sale.



But I think the coolest feature that nobody ever talks about is the

S127A Weapon mount on passenger?s door
S129A Weapon mount in headliner, front
S130A Weapon mount in rear center armrest
S131A Weapon bracket


Options.

I hope this helps

johnd.

Hi TheRab,

$32K is a great price for your car! May I ask you what your exterior color is? I had a feeling that a CPO warranty adds to the overall price, thanks for giving me how much. You are very lucky that you were standing at the right time and place. The car was meant to be owned by you! I would love to find a manual since I have driven them since my 88 535is. I am telling myself that if I install a SAT with paddle shifting it might be ok as compared with a manual. I would love a HUD, Logic7, rear sunshade, rear folding seats in case if I start building things and getting stuff at Home Depot or Lowes. I saw a 2007 yesterday with night vision just for the hell of it I would like to see it but the dealership is about 1 hour and 38 mins away and I don't want a 530. The issue of CCC and CIC I agree with you I want a 2010 for the updated idrive version 2. Now I have read on this forum how people have modded their CIC to CCC. Cost $$$ but I know it's there when I want to do it if I don't get a 2010.

Thank you for the following options that I thought the car never had:

S127A Weapon mount on passenger?s door
S129A Weapon mount in headliner, front
S130A Weapon mount in rear center armrest
S131A Weapon bracket

I will go to realoem.com to get a price on these options.

Thanks again,
John

cryptical

I have to ask...was this through a dealer, if so, why no CPO? Are you sure it wasn't in an accident? That's generally the reason why they don't CPO cars that are eligible otherwise, if it's been hit or hit something, then they can't. Just curious though...mine was only a short lease, and went in service of 10/2008, so it was sort of "leftover"...pretty stripped except for Cold weather, premium, sport, PDC, but that's what I was looking for...just wish it was a manual! But, Cobb AP, makes the 6 speed auto's shifting much more responsive anyway, so it works for me until I get my M5 someday!

johnd.

Hi cryptical,

You raise a good question concerning why no CPO. I ran a carfax and a autocheck and according to them it's clean. I have the service records and would like to email you the records so you can review what has been to the car and leet me know your thoughts. If your open to this just send me a PM. It's funny, I brought up a lower price, which I said $27K. The sales guy said "if I can get $27K can we sell the car to you today"? I said hold on, one step at a time. I said see what you can do with the price first. But this tells me they want to get rid of the car. I did confirm that the there is no CPO. Now I know it would add to the price but on the other hand, a dealership would want to add this to raise the price and have a warrenty with the car vs. no warrenty. Thanks for telling me that even though it's an automatic, if you do a Cobb AP, it makes the car more responsive. I do hope you get that M5. I am curious would you get a e60 M5 or F10 M5? I saw an 08 e60 m5 and said what a car since I read the specs on the car, 400 hp normal driving, press that button (which I think is labeled M on the steering wheel and I saw Jermey on TopGear do this in a review of a e60 M5) 500 hp. I am not a hp guy, I like low end torgue since there is so fast you can go on most roads. Now on the track I guess it's a different story but I have never been on a track but would like to see what's it all about.

Talk to you soon,
John

TheRab

Johnd, in reference to the SAT with paddles vs. Manual trans., ABSOLUTELY wait for a manual transmission. It's not even close to being the same thing.

In the past when the modern transmission style (the current AT we see today) shifters came out around late 2007 - 2008 I leased a 528xi with the HUD and everything but said to my self "nah I don't need it in MT I got everything else" all because my mother who is living with me was like "what if I need to drive your car" blah blah blah [guilt trip city lol].

And I gave in because I thought it wasn't a big deal. I really regretted not getting it at that time and ultimately handed the vehicle to my brother.

but wait for the car with MT it's well worth it (esp a 535i).


Cryptical, as the story for my car goes is that I was at the bmw dealership in NJ (Paul Miller) and while looking around at the new cars (dreaming wow these are all really nice) I meandered over to Paul Miller Rolls Royce dealer right nearby (apparently Mr. PM owns like 10 dealerships everything from honda's to RR to lambo's) While window shopping outrageously expensive (but really nice) cars outside I saw the bmw albeit out of place but HEY whatever. and then I inquired about it. That's when I found out it was a return the previous owner brought earlier this morning it back to trade for a RR and the RR department was planning on selling it because otherwise they would have to CPO it. So I requested it be transferred to bmw for detailing and other little knick-knacks I can get from bmw. But the rest was history but i found it prior to being CPO's.

I did make sure however to negotiate a price prior to transferring the vehicle over to Bmw sales. When I brought the car back to BMW (prior to final purchase) they offered to CPO it but at a cost of $1500 + tires & install.

I'll tell you though those guys at the RR sales were like "ew get this scrub vehicle out of here" when negotiating a price they really REALLY didn't care.

Mike_K

I would say that's on the really high end of pricing. I bought a fully loaded 2010 535 sport/ Mtech yesterday for $33,500. The other car I was looking at was a fully optioned (HUD, Night vision, etc) 2010 535 Xdrive and that was $30,000 with 60,000 miles. I had that Xdrive for a night before I bought my car and I quickly learned that the HUD isn't nearly as cool in the non-M cars. It's a speedometer, that's it. If you're using navigation then it's awesome but after having it for a night I realized I was limiting my options by making HUD a must have feature. It was a lot nicer on my old Grand Prix and more useful on the M5.

With respect to drivability, I've owned a 2006 M5 SMG, 2006 550 6MT and the 535 with the SAT that I bought yesterday. They are three different cars obviously. The M5 is raw, almost rough but just ridiculously powerful. The 550 with the manual transmission was a blast, probably my favorite car overall and the transmission really makes the car fun. That said, I was itching for the modability of the 535 and my wife was itching for me to have an automatic transmission in case she ever needed to drive the car.

The SAT Transmission is absolutely awesome. I can't praise it enough. I'm a huge fan of SMG, even with it's normal driving shortcomings. I also loved slamming my own gears in the 550 but the SAT gives me 90% of the fun of the manual and the ability to go full auto for those rush hour drives on Chicago expressways. Another reason I wanted to stay away from the manual transmission on the 535 is the turbo drivetrain. You have two choices on the ZF manual: Shift gently and smoothly but not quick or shift quick and hard. Anything in-between results in lurchiness, even if you rev match. With that in mind, unless you're really smacking the car around you're going to bleed boost between shifts.

Anyhow, I'd keep an eye out for something cheaper or something newer. If you're willing to spend that kind of money you can get a 2010 with the CIC idrive. After dealing with both the old non-NAV iDrive and the CCC iDrive it would be hard to back to the old system. Once I drove the first 2010 I eliminate anything older from the running or added $2000 to the price so I could compensate for the price to upgrade to CIC.

RMcoolX

Talk 'em down about $1500, use half that to get a tuner, hang on to your hat and enjoy! Tuned SP w/SAT 535i's are an absolute blast to drive in sport mode.

troc

I hope you find what you're looking for and will be happy with the price. My two cents: I would never buy a car from Carmax. It's good to do your research online, but before dropping 30k on a car and having it shipped, drive it first! It took me two months to find my 07 550i. I was coming out of my 07 335 lease and bout the car with 1 month left remaining because they moved quick. I knew I wanted the 550i (I really wanted an M5 but couldn't justify it), it needed to be black/black, sport pkg, have HUD, PDC, be a 1 owner car and have low miles (think it had 27k). I bought the car the first day it was listed. I paid private party pricing at a dealer. It was not a BMW dealer but the car still had a factory warranty and was well maintained. Car fax came back clean and I had BMW run the VIN and they confirmed maintenance, etc...

Anyways, it sounds like you know what you want. Don't forget to save a few $$ for mods :-)