sot: beign offered a true english M535 right hand drive...

[PatAllen]

in exchange to my white turbo 02...

the car is begin converted to left hand drive, recently imported from england. I am wondering what theses M535 worth ??

and the car is inka orange, and looks maaaaad.

any thought ?

[74tiiGolf]

If it's in the same condition as your '02 (and that is to say GOOD) DO IT! It has the dogleg tranny and LSD, right? I drove an M535i and it was SILLY fun. And in INKA?!?!? That would be a VERY welcome addition in my garage... Pics would be great.

Matthew

[02Les]

Watch out for the British Racing Rust!

[JohnH]

There is nothing special about an M535i. Its just a standard 535i that has been fitted with an M-tech body kit at the factory together with a few packaged options that were available from the standard options list. Any E28, from the lowliest 518i through to the M5 could be ordered with these options and fitted with an M badge by the factory. M in this case stands for Marketing and not Motorsport unfortunately.

Now that said, An E28 is really, just an updated 2002. The body design and underlying suspension and other mechanical components are very similar and they rust and fail in exactly the same way that a 2002 does. The M-tech body kit exacerbates the problem however. They rust above the front and rear jacking points, the front floors rust out, and the add-on arch lips cause the rear arches to rust as well. None of these are terminal problems and can be easily repaired.

There are three significant suspension wear areas. The rear suspension subframe mounts and the trailing arm pitman links fail leading to a general sqirmyness and instability and a belief that there is a problem at the front of the car. It never is and is always the rear. The other failure point is the front Upper Control Arm inner bush. When this fails you get straight line vibration at 55mph and violent juddering under braking leading the uninformed to replace their "warped" front discs and eventually every other component that they can think of. All of these suspension components are easy and cheap to repair.

The final area to be aware of are general driveability issues related to various electronic fuel injection components failing due to age. Again none of these are terminal and a competent electronics bod such as your self should easily resolve them.

One final thing. Genuine M535is were only available in a limited range of colours, and orange wasn't one of them.

E28s are excellent cars and represent the pinnacle of engineering before the marketing men took control of BMW. I use one as my daily driver and would never consider replacing it. I don't however think you should exchange a 2002 for one. E28s are a dime a dozen. Good 2002s aren't.

[PatAllen]

There is nothing special about an M535i. Its just a standard 535i that has been fitted with an M-tech body kit at the factory together with a few packaged options that were available from the standard options list. Any E28, from the lowliest 518i through to the M5 could be ordered with these options and fitted with an M badge by the factory. M in this case stands for Marketing and not Motorsport unfortunately.

Now that said, An E28 is really, just an updated 2002. The body design and underlying suspension and other mechanical components are very similar and they rust and fail in exactly the same way that a 2002 does. The M-tech body kit exacerbates the problem however. They rust above the front and rear jacking points, the front floors rust out, and the add-on arch lips cause the rear arches to rust as well. None of these are terminal problems and can be easily repaired.

There are three significant suspension wear areas. The rear suspension subframe mounts and the trailing arm pitman links fail leading to a general sqirmyness and instability and a belief that there is a problem at the front of the car. It never is and is always the rear. The other failure point is the front Upper Control Arm inner bush. When this fails you get straight line vibration at 55mph and violent juddering under braking leading the uninformed to replace their "warped" front discs and eventually every other component that they can think of. All of these suspension components are easy and cheap to repair.

The final area to be aware of are general driveability issues related to various electronic fuel injection components failing due to age. Again none of these are terminal and a competent electronics bod such as your self should easily resolve them.

One final thing. Genuine M535is were only available in a limited range of colours, and orange wasn't one of them.

E28s are excellent cars and represent the pinnacle of engineering before the marketing men took control of BMW. I use one as my daily driver and would never consider replacing it. I don't however think you should exchange a 2002 for one. E28s are a dime a dozen. Good 2002s aren't.

humm, so if i follow you right, following the same logic, a 2002 turbo is just a 2002 tii that the factory grafted on ugly wheel arches and some random turbo components, so the car is "just" a 2002 with no real value ??

i saw the car all apart, with no mechanics and carpet, i swear by it is it a real M535 inka orange, imported from england with right hand drive.

but jeesus christ, do i realy care about that...the car looks soo maad.

it is the cat-less type with higher compression ratio, dog leg and lsd with oil cooler iirc. small bumpers, fron spoiler and alpina wheels. i must post a picture when i get one.

[John_in_VA]

but you could find one Hennarot, an orangey-red. The Euro engine had more output than the USA version, but, as stated, this M wasn't much more than the aero package & specially-styled TRX wheels. Still a desired model, with that kit and the Euro bumpers!

EDIT:True, there are fewer E12s, as most have gone on to the great rust-bucket in the sky. Similar to the E3 market - not many nice examples, but not much love. You need to drop a DOHC M-gine in there!

Much info here:

http://www.m535i.org/main.html

And a great forums here:

http://www.firstfives.org/

http://www.mye28.com/

[PatAllen]

but you could find one Hennarot, an orangey-red. The Euro engine had more output than the USA version, but, as stated, this M wasn't much more than the aero package & wheels. Still a desired model, with that kit and the Euro bumpers!

Much info here:

http://www.m535i.org/main.html

And a great forum here:

http://www.mye28.com/

i am 99% sure its an E12 btw...

[JohnH]

i am 99% sure its an E12 btw...

If thats the case then it's a whole different matter. A very rare animal these days, but still not worth a great deal. It may be worth a good 2002 but not a Tii. They still never came in orange.

[74tiiGolf]

I was talking about an E12... iirc, there are only 6-10 of them in the U.S.

Matthew

[PatAllen]

like this one...same color.