Good luck and I hope you get it!!!!

If you are not doing the work yourself, repairs on a 4.6 will eat you out of house and home. People will say don't listen to him because he is always posting the negative thing about BMW, but I also happen to tell the truth. The fanboys will tell you to buy it, but they won't be around to tell you how to fix it.

+1.. If you have to take an old Bmw to a shop for repairs, you will quickly realize you've made a mistake purchasing one.. Ask me how I know. Had to learn the hard way.

I know a guy who works on M cars from the M3 forums. His forum handle is Kaiv.. Look him up.. Also, there is a youtuber cslled 50's kid. He has a bunch of videos on e46 and e53. Hit him up as well..

Like what others said, you should be wrenching on the car if you want to keep maintenance or repairs up to date.
Cost of upkeep will add up quickly over value of the car if you take it to shop.

I can do some routine maintenance and have replaced a few belts and brake pads before. But with a full work schedule and family stuff I simply don't have the time and energy to take on big projects now. That and the garage at home is full!

My plan is to make sure the car is capable of doing at least 10 to 15 k in the next few years.

With the results of the PPI I'm somewhat confident that I can probably get away with doing just the drive line fluid changes and the ccv hose change.

Big ticket items like the timing chain guide and the vanos refurbish will not be on my list. If these 2 faults start occurring I'll just store the vehicle and just keep it for a while. Who knows, maybe after the kids are out of college I can take a short break and dive into the big projects!


Not using it as a daily driver will allow me to extend the usable life of the vehicle much longer otherwise.

if you don't have time to wrench it yourself then expect a lot of dough for the repairs, bmw's are not just about routine maintenance.. they require more than that and if you have a shop do that expect them to replace a lot of things even when it's not necessary (just to get it out of the door) for example you have a lean code or misfiring... things will get expensive because the shop will recommend to replace everything that's suspect.. they won't spend time investigating under the hood what's the real cause of the problem is.. bottom line is you have to foot the bill..

most people that own used/older bmw either have lots money to spend and/or knows how to fix them.

This is my fifth bimmer so yeah, i'm quite aware of the pros and cons.

Still need a good shop because the owner in my old one retired...

Well, e53's have a tendency to present problems regardless of how much you drive. Beyond the timing chains, the tranny is another major issue that you need to consider. Not an easy or cheap fix and it's not a matter of if it goes out but when. Then you have silly little things that are just annoying; window regulators failing, various leaks, buttons not working, dead pixels, the list goes on. Mines not a daily( I put maybe 5k on it in a year) and I still have to wrench on it more than I do my jeep I drive everyday. Right now I'm looking to do valve cover gaskets and some other little things. It will be a couple hundred just in parts for me to DIY, if I took it to a shop I'd be looking at almost a grand. The only way to survive e53 ownership is either really deep pockets or a labor of love to DIY. If neither of those are an option I'd suggest something else. Don't get me wrong I love my 4.6 but if I couldn't do the work myself no way I'd own one.

:iagree:

You ARE overly negative, but the information you dispense is invaluable. Certainly one of the more accomplished contributors in terms of quality information on the forum. I've learned to just skip over the other negative opinion parts that used to bother me.

But I think you are wrong that the fanboys would recommend he buy it if it weren't prudent. If you can't work on a car (and have an extra one), or have extremely deep pockets that you don't mind dipping into frequently, you shouldn't own certain flavors of BMW's. The e53 is definitely one of them.

If you think I'm overly negative here, you should see my comments on the PORSCHE forums and Lotus Forums.