Yeah fair point on the costs.

I haven't spoken to a wrecker yet so don't know what costs I'm in for, but will get a list of OEM part costs for comparison's sake before I do. That, and compared with the cost of a similar aged 4.8i, which goes for about $4500 USD here. So it'd need to be pretty cheap to be worth it for extra costs for the 4.8i look. But we come back to buying a car that will likely have a horrible service record and will end up costing a lot more than the $4500 I paid just to catch up on servicing.

In my head the comparison costs are basically the costs of all this vs. $4500 for a 'new' car + probably $2000 USD in servicing catch up, which is about what I spent on mine in the first year, and mine had a full logbook.

I do plan on keeping this car until it dies, just like my last car (Toyota, 18 years). If something else does catch my eye (E70 X5 M!) then this car would go to my wife anyway, she likes it, so I hope it stays with us a while yet.

Mine is also black like yours. That's the look I'm going for!