In The Market for a Old School M6

[Jackcat559]

I'm looking for a late '80s M6 in Cinnabar red. After almost 5 years I have the space, time and a little extra cash to add another car to my stable. I have had a constant longing for this car. Is there anything to look out for? Good, bad or otherwise.

[evlgt85]

Do a search for all my posts about looking at various M6s. LOL! Seriously, within those posts, I wound up finding out nearly everything I needed to know about searching one of these out. However, it took me a long time and a lot of let-downs to find the RIGHT car.

Figure out what you want, what your budget is, stick to it and just keep searching. It took me months to find a very nice, but NOT perfect, driver. Well, it's a perfect driver, it's just not a 'perfect' car.

You'll have a much easier time finding Cinnabar than I did finding Royalblau, so you do have that in your favor.

Rust is the #1 enemy. Although I have a former California car, it was somewhat near the coast and has bubbles on the sunroof panel. I suspect there may be a little more to come at some point, but currently the car is VERY presentable, and even better than I expected to purchase given my budget.

My standard list of questions were, roughly:

Clean and clear title?

A/C functional and cold? (As cold as 80s German cars can make it, anyway)

Miles?

Timing chain replaced? (Especially over 100k miles, although they're now all OLD enough that these things should be seeing attention regardless of miles, probably)

Last valve adjustment?

Is the self-levelling rear suspension still in tact?

Last oil change?

Records available, if so, how extensive?

Any known accidents?

Reason for selling? (This has given me interesting insight when asked)

Be prepared for very misleading ads. If someone can't give you a straight answer, walk away. If they claim 'service records' in the ad and then have only a year or two's worth of receipts, walk away. If they claim to be one-owner and you find out they are NOT the original owner but seem to think that a brief ownership period doesn't really count as second ownership, walk away. All these things do not bode well for a good M6 purchase.

Here's a couple of links to the question and answer sessions I had here:

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=407488 (Mostly regarding Euros)

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=454443 (Car wound up purchased by another BF.c member)

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=487873 (Euro I was considering...briefly)

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=492632 (One I considered due to low, low price)

Those might help.

Do NOT hesitate to ask for opinions on a car here. There's no real risk of anyone trying to buy the car out from under you and you'll get lots of very good advice. Call on all the ones that strike your fancy because you'll wind up learning from the experience at the very least.

Most of all, good luck to you. Although it can be a tedious search, it is a worthy cause and the payoff is absolutely worth it.

[Jackcat559]

Thanks for all the advice. I don'tknow why I dindn't use the search function first. My other BMWs are newer, and I've never bought a 20 year old car before.

[evlgt85]

This is my first BMW, although I've been around this site forever and a day. When I purchased this car, both the shop that I had do the PPI as well as the seller's 'helper' mentioned that I asked all the questions that someone who'd owned a few of them already would ask. The credit for that goes to the helpful folks here.

Another way you can get lucky is to find experienced enthusiasts near the car to get a feel for it first. That happened to me, although the 6er folks I leaned on were from another board, and now I've got some great new Bimmerphile friends to help me in my ownership journey.

The E24 owners really are a unique group, very helpful, very supportive, and very honest for the most part.

[Jackcat559]

Have you heard of any oil leaks between the head and block? My service advisor said something about there being no gasket and a severe reoccuring problem with oil leaking.

[e24mpwr]

You shouldn't have ANY oil leaks in these cars. The S38/M88 motor was a really good one if maintained. It is a hole in your finances if not. I'd also go make friends over at Roadfly's E24 board. A big group, broad technically and geographically and very, very helpful.

Search a lot, ask questions and don't get buck fever without knowing the deal on the car, unless the money really isn't an issue...

The Roadfly Classifieds is a good place to look, too. I've purchased several cars (including my M635) from there.

There is one worth checking out there right now (http://www.roadfly.com/bmw/classifieds/cars/detview.php?view=36951&sortby=_DATE&dir=DESC). There are several excellent guys in the bay area on Roadfly who could probably give you the scoop or check it out.

Good luck! Feel free to PM me - I'm Lee in NC on Roadfly.

[bmwe28boy]

Ooo!, Ooo! Here's one, and go figure, it's just right down the road from me. It is a little pricey and I have bought cars from these guys before.

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?car_id=205420305&dealer_id=553819&car_year=1988&model=M6&num_records=&bkms=1153365641617&lang=en&isp=y&start_year=1981&mod_bookmark_id=null&certified=&search_type=both&distance=25&make=BMW&min_price=&address=23235&advanced=&end_year=1999&max_price=&cardist=4

http://images.autotrader.com/images/2006/7/13/205/420/707473516.205420305.IM1.MAIN.565x421_A.561x421.jpg

[e24mpwr]

ROADTRIP!! Hey - I wanna go look at it!

[Jackcat559]

Ooooooo, that's the one