Early 90s 525 - any good?

[dern]

What sort of state will an early 90s 525 be in these days. Looking for something to replace my golf gti which can tow and will be reliable. Is this just the job?

Is the 2.5 going to feel utterly gutless or is it a good cruiser? Any big gotchas? Are they maintainable at home or do you need lots of expensive dealer only tools? Are parts readily available?

Thanks,

Mark

[dern]

No one has one of these?

[BMW343]

Dern

I have 99 523 SE Estate.

I love the car, comfortable, quick when it needs to be.

Will tow all day long and not complain (Use it for towing rally cars)

Average milage is 35MPG, around town not so good.

The usual applies, if it has a good service history then the cars are bullet proof.

[iguana]

525 pah dont be gay, e34 M5 touring has got yr name written all over it derny lad

[dern]

iguana said:

525 pah dont be gay, e34 M5 touring has got yr name written all over it derny lad

If you can get me an m5 for a grand I'll be there with the cash

[bmgm3]

Get the 24valve version and they are ok. The earlier 12v ones are not so great. I think they changed at around 1990- 1991

[derin100]

One of our cars (my wife's) is a 1995 525i Touring Automatic...so the multivalve engine.

It's pretty 'ok'...you're not going to win any Grand Prix...but it's not exactly 'slow'...manual may be a bit more 'spritely'?

Will cruise very comfortably and smoothly whilst returning pretty good mpg.

Only towing we ever do is very short distance stuff with a fairly light-weight but aerodynamically very unsound, high, box trailer with two Go-karts in it.
It does 'ok' with this but I don't think it would be best suited to towing a heavy caravan for example.

Good cars.

[tollytuff]

ive got an 89' 535, which ive owned for nearly 5 years, and in all that time its let me down once, albeit in spectacular fashion in a head gasket stylee... the power is superb, it pulls like a train, although a bit hefty round town. ive found parts very easy to source, loads on ebay and the specialists dont charge the earth (i dont really do much under the bonnet myself).

you really feel as though you are in a VERY well made car. i would recommend an E34 to anyone. top motor. although i wouldnt want anything less than a 3 litre car, they are a tad on the heavy side...