E39 540i Manual

[Peter-E36]

I don’t know why I do this to myself, always wanting cars that aren’t available or trying to sell cars that nobody is interested in

Nevertheless... I’m looking for an e39 540i (ideally manual) and ideally not needing a ton of work. Willing to spend up to 10k for a well sorted example, which I believe is very generous as any more than that and I could be in a much younger / very nice car.

Anything out there....?

[JohnH]

I don’t know why I do this to myself, always wanting cars that aren’t available or trying to sell cars that nobody is interested in

Nevertheless... I’m looking for an e39 540i (ideally manual) and ideally not needing a ton of work. Willing to spend up to 10k for a well sorted example, which I believe is very generous as any more than that and I could be in a much younger / very nice car.

Anything out there....?

Have you looked at any of the Japanese auctions?

[Peter-E36]

Have you looked at any of the Japanese auctions?

Nope, how does it work with the Japanese auctions?

[JohnH]

Nope, how does it work with the Japanese auctions?

I've never done it but you need to use an agent who is registered to bid at the auctions and who has someone on the ground to check out the car for you.

I spoke to this guy when I was thinking of bringing in an e39 a few years back and he was very good to deal with. https://www.facebook.com/theclassiccarfinder77/
In the end I bought the e46 m3 (which is a perfect family car btw :-) )

Here's another Irish agent but I've no first hand experience http://www.jdmauctionwatch.com/

[dergside]

Oh, and a lot of more interesting foreign brand cars sold in Japan will be LHD, apparently its a prestige thing there.

And it helps if you like white as a car colour!

[Peter-E36]

Thank you kindly! Will investigate

[dergside]

You have a better chance of finding a manual Unicorn, tbh. There are a few around but other than in the introductory year or so, the numbers of manual versions didn't extend much beyond a bakers dozen in any of the permutations and combinations of body style and manual. The example below is probably one of the better auto's at the moment in the UK. In Ireland the numbers of 540i sold in e39 were tiny (a senior manager where I work had one back in the day as a co. car).

As for Japan, that's where many of the better ones being offered in the UK at the moment are coming from (see http://www.gmscars.co.uk/ for some example). I had a look at what was to be had in Japan about 2 years ago as I was heading to Japan on a trip in late 2016 and toyed with the idea of brining something back (didn't pursue it at the time, but not for lack of opportunities). Have a look at https://www.smilejv.com/auction/login_01_form.php - you'll need to register to see anything worthwhile. There were a reasonable number of low mile 540i's popping up, but, based on what I saw, I'd say a manual would be unheard of in Japan.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...to=2003&page=2

The one that got away, for me, was a 2001 540i Sport manual in the UK with a little over 1k miles about 10 years ago. It had been bought and kept in an underground car park in central London - presumably by an oil squillionaire who spent August in London or something. VRT at the time would have been about €21.5k as it would have been treated as a new car. Heading on a meandering trip to Bordeaux rather than Dublin, filling it with fine wine and taking the long way home would have brought the VRT down to €5.5k (plus the cost of the wine!). At the lower VRT figure it would have landed for low 20k's.

[kdevitt]

This is the only E39 540i listed in Japan that I can find - its auto, but its seriously low mileage, its a good spec apart from not being an msport (imo) and its RHD - and its less than 2.5k. You'd have it landed for a little over 4k.

http://goo-net-exchange.com/usedcars...001/index.html

[ginoc]

This is the only E39 540i listed in Japan that I can find - its auto, but its seriously low mileage, its a good spec apart from not being an msport (imo) and its RHD - and its less than 2.5k. You'd have it landed for a little over 4k.

http://goo-net-exchange.com/usedcars...001/index.html

Have you any more experience buying through that site?

Looks to be some good value in the older stuff.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

[kdevitt]

Have you any more experience buying through that site?

Looks to be some good value in the older stuff.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

Was looking to buy something listed there a while back - didn’t go for it in the end. If you spot a car there you like, it’s likely to be listed as a one-price sale with any of the agents such as jdmauctionwatch. You can then get them to do the inspection / report and sort out the purchase and shipping.