no doubt a bentley motor in that bad boy, right??

Turbo as well, most likely.

Coway builds custom bodies (station wagons, hearses, limos, etc) for Rolls and Mercedes vehicles. They used to do Turbo Bentleys. Haven't seen a station wagon, but it can't be too different than building a hearse.

Or it could be a fake, but why find an obscure badge from Coway's?

Damn, that car is ugly as sin!

yes but it is as comfortable as it gets .
the front end looks better , it is a Bentley Mulsanne Turbo, just a bad colour .

Bigger turbo, slight suspension change, clear corners, ditch the chrome roof racks and the two-tone paint...then we'll talk ;) Don't get me wrong, I like sleeper wagons (I'd still love an E34/E39/SC'ed 540i Touring), but that yellow on brown is just terrible.

I drove a few more cars today.

First - looked at a E500 wagon. No love for that. Smooth cruiser, but can't call it a drivers car in any way. Pass.

Next - looked at the silver / black 01 740iL shown above. Car was clean. No body work. Almost everything worked. Carfax was clean and 3 local owners. AC didn't work very well - needed a recharge. Which is no biggie. But - was making a whine that changed with engine speed, so wondering if there is also some vacuum leak or problem somewhere in the AC system beyond just needing a charge. Plus - R134 really shouldn't leak out of a system unless there is something wrong. My X5 needs a recharge, but it still functions correctly 90% of the time. So that was off-putting.

Went to look at a 2000 740i sport at a BMW dealer. They have been working to recondition it for a couple weeks, so it should be pretty fresh and mechanically solid - likely some new suspension bushings and so forth. They want too much for the car - $14,900. But it is clean, and depending on what was done may be worth paying some premium for. I need to see it post detail - it was coming along and looked very clean and nice.

Also a black on black 2001 740i with wide screen Nav - I think 2/01 build also with 90K miles that I need to go check out. Asking price is $12,888 which is more in the right ballpark here.

The 2 owner 00 740iL sport w/ also with 90K mi at the lexus dealer will be finished prep later this week. Its about same price as the shorty at the BMW dealer, probably not quite as reconditioned, but that is the one w/ the service records and water pump and valley pan have been done plus a few suspension items too.

I drove a 42K mile 2000 E55 too. I really like those cars. The motor / trans is just so sweet - so much torque from that 5.5L mill. It is a true hot rod, yet very composed on the highway. I could see picking one of those cars up too. Maybe not this one - had 1 accident reported and I could tell one of the front fenders had been off before. Very tight car tho - everything worked, rode great, zero issues. They want too much for it, so depends how badly they want to sell it. I wasn't impressed with the dealer and it is in a really bad area. But it's an auction car. I would rather buy one from an owner. One major advantage of the benz is they are much more bulletproof than a E38, so cost to upkeep would most likely be lower. Always a bit of a calculated gamble with any of these cars which I fully understand.

Plus there is a nice looking 2002 S6 up in Portland with 90K miles that I have my eye on. I'm torn on that one - wagon would be more useful for me. And I have winter tires left over from my S4 that would fit it, meaning for winter ski trips I could take that instead of the X5 - especially when the wife needed to use the X5. So in both ways it gives me max flexibility. I would rate reliability / cost of upkeep to be on par with a E39 / E53 / E38. And my parents live in Portland, so I could make that happen pretty easily too and I will be up there in 2 weeks anyway.

And like James said - I could go back to the dealer with the E39 and give them an offer with a contingency for fixing the tailgate latch and rattle. That would still be a pretty good option.

Save the leather backseats...get the touring. It looks so nice with the M bumpers on there as well.

The black 03 touring sold yesterday. I closed the deal on my car today. Case of bad timing.

I found a couple S6 wagons that look pretty interesting.

There is also a 2001 540iT supposedly 1 owner car with 88K miles down in SoCal for $11.9K. But to even go see it I have to jump on a plane. I like the color combo tho - it's dark red / maroon on black, and has better equipment than the 03 I was looking at such as premium pkg and nav, heated seats too. Also the 03 had these stupid plastic baby seat anchors in the middle of the back seats - seems to me that would make it uncomfortable for normal sized humans. Babies is nothing I need to worry about anymore hopefully..

Oooh...I like that color too. Create a post asking some local members if they'd be willing to go check out the car for you, then copy and paste it onto Bimmerforums, Bimmerfest, 5driver, DTMPower.net, etc and see who's be willing to go eyeball it for you. Just like all those random stories I read about in Zundfolge, you'd be surprised how many people are willing to help out a fellow BMW owner. Just make the title of the thread obvious - City, dealership, what you need, then go into the details on the thread itself. Heck, maybe someone will even know the car and it's history.

Talk to the dealership, see if you can negotiate the price of the ticket off your purchase price (Sobi did that when he bought his FX35 in Kentucky, and then the dealership shipped it back via transport) and MAYBE consider an aftermarket warranty. Most of the time they only cover big ticket items that aren't a problem for us, but you'd be surprised how much I used the one in my 740iL...$1400 paid for itself a few times over.

I am a little late here, but for family comfort get the 740il. My parents have had a 1989 750il for years and the back seat room is priceless. It has reclining rear seats! Not to mention those cars eat miles on the highway like our X5's eat window regulators. I love the e39 and have considered one for myself, but I drive alone the vast majority of the time and don't have any hauling needs. Both are already modern classic BMW's, so you cant go to wrong with either.

What about the 750? Super smooth V12 power!