I bought my 840 Ci (in Brilliant Red) for £10,000 in May 2004 with 79,000 miles on clock. I have had it checked-over by BayMoW in Hazel Grove who have given me a list of needed work. WWWWWWOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!!!
It needed a NEW ENGINE. BMW have replaced the Short Block and piston rings under Good will Warranty. THANK YOU BMW!!
However the car also needs a new Cat, (my daughters 3 series is the same age, has 111k miles on clock and the cat is fine, so why this??)
MOST annoying is that it needs new suspnsion struts, which BENHAM BMW will not sell me unless I buy modified Hubs, at £140 each!!
NO ONE CAN TELL ME WHY?? Does any one know why the Wheel Hubs have had to be modified? and has anyone had a warranty replacement for this part??
What is this then? A BMW is a 3 series or a 5 series or at a push a 7 series. Where the hell does this 2 door super coupe come from?
The generous amongst us will say that it the 90s rendition of the super looking 6 series, the less than generous view is that in the grabbing eighties BMW saw rafts of Porsches being pushed out to the image conscious yuppies, and decided to get in on the pie and came up with this large and very expensive posing motor. Unfortunately, by the time the car came to market, the grabbing 80s had become the caring 90s the economy was in melt down and the market for super coupes went down the drain.
So nowadays when you think of BMW coupes, you think of the worthy 3 series coupe, but this underrated supercar is well worth a look, a car for the connoisseur, much rarer and far most interesting than the 3.
This is a superbly styled aggressive looking motor car, full of wonderful touches many of them expensive to make but oh so wonderful to behold. Check out the pop up headlights that come thru the bonnet, or the very eighties boat style flared wheel arches, or the huge and fabulous split rim style alloys with monstrous 265 tyres. But best of all check out the windows. Pillar less coupes are fairly rare in Europe, but they have always been popular stateside and in Japan, you only have to look at his piece of rolling sculpture to see why, when done right they look ohhhhh sooooo goooood.
The windows work great to. Party trick number one is to drop by an inch when you activate the handles, so you can slam the doors without knocking them out. Trick number two is the rear windows which tip and slide into the rear panels. Open the electric sunroof and you get about as near to topless as you can get, without getting damp in winter (or deafened).
This one was finished in light metallic silver, with a light grey leather interior and just oozes class and sophistication, and not a single tree had to die to trim it. (Though a fair few cows probably did)
The front seats are not only good to sit in, but pretty interesting technically too. Being pillar less mounting, the seat belts become somewhat of a problem. Lesser companies may have just hung them from the roof, but BMW obviously thought this would ruin the lines somewhat and built them into the seats. (Actually the early Range Rover was the first to bring out the belt attached to the seat idea so the Germans dont invent everything first. ---- Protestants, Printing, Cars, Diesels, Jet Planes, Rockets, Atom bombs, Motorways etc etc etc anon and on and on excepted -----)
The silver paint seems to shrink it a little as it doesnt quite look its size. The cabin is tight and rear legroom sparse, but the boot is large and the bonnet long. You would swear it was shorter and smaller than an XJS, but the reality is that its got terrific ergonomics and once youre in the driving seat you can always work out where the extremities lie. This makes up for the fact its actually the same length as an XJS and a damned sight wider.
Sitting in the drivers seat gives you a view of the only obvious disappointing part of this car. The dash board binnacle. Boy is it staid. If you got it in a thirty grand motor you would be very disappointed in a car this expensive your dismayed, its the art of minimalism taken to the extreme, which is strangely at odds with the sheer hedonism of the rest of the car. The rest is beyond reproach, unfussy but fabulously classy without a hint of any retro cheese.
Of course we can sit and stare at a car all day, and in the 8s case thats not too onerous a task, but driving is believing.
The big V8 motor churns into life with a smooth purr rather than a growl, European noise laws may have taken away the headline decibel figures, but they cant take away the V8 signature beat, and they can't legislate out the way engine sits there at tick over, saying go on you know you want too! This may only be the 4 litre Economy version, but it still sticks out some fairly massive horsepower figures, it needs too as well because the kerb weight figures are somewhat on the portly side, all this trickery and trim comes at a cost.
The Autobox is perfectly matched to the engine; changes are sublime almost telepathic, sharp swift and smooth, seemingly always with the right amount of thrust constantly on tap. When the box is this good you dont need a mode switch, but here, you have got one anyway but you dont have to use it unless youre in a very serious hurry. The transmission had lost its marker board to say which gear you are in, so I didnt bother trying to manually shift it, but I dont think I would want or need to bother even if I knew where the gears were.
On paper the performance wont set your trousers on fire, but really you have to look at its competitors in the rarefied air of the up market super coupe section.
There isnt much to be honest mainly the XJS, some odd Mercs, maybe the occasional Maserati or even the odd 928. In this kind of competition the Beemer is fairly competitive, and anyway thats just paper talk. On the real road things are a whole lot different, performance accessibility is the key and this BMW has that in abundance. If your main aim is outright performance then a whole host of Jap Super cars are available for much less dosh, but 90% of people will be more impressed by a BMW than a Nissan and the word Skyline will mean nothing to them. More recent versions have of course now got to compete with the XKS and XKR, but strangely the Jag, which should have been the coupe de grace on the 8s production run, has instead re-ignited interest in this market sector and pushed 8 series sales back up.
For such a big heavy car to run low sevens zero to sixty, with an auto box, pays testament to the engines sheer grunt, though the trade off is probably the rear tyres living a short but glorious existence, and fuel economy that would make an oil company shareholder smile. But wallet bashing considerations aside, you cant take away from the BMW the sheer grace with which it supplies the performance. It supplies huge power from tick over to red line, take your foot off the brake and it doesnt creep forward as such, more sort of trundles around merrily. I could probably negotiate the average traffic jammed trip to work, without touching the accelerator, just by dabbing the brakes on and off.
On the handling front it would be difficult to find fault with the outright grip supplied by the massive sticky tyres, and even then ride is on the good side considering the width of the rubber. The only real downside is the slightly dozy steering. The action is fairly slow around the centre but supposedly sharpens up as more lock is applied. I cant say that I noticed the sharpening, just the fact that compared to BMWs own lively steering 5 series, and its rather inert slightly heavy feeling. It does at least engender a positively planted stable feeling through faster bends. What ever its downsides its light years better than the finger tip light systems used in the XJS.
No matter how hard the Motors working outside, on the inside you stay becalmed on you own personnel comfort bubble. The seats are low and laid back giving a racy position without any Italianate body contortions. The gearbox and engine are quite intrusive (size wise) into the cabin but there is still plenty of room for your feet with just two pedals.
The steering adjustability sounds limited with only reach adjustment, but for me at least the steering wheel was perfectly positioned if a little on the large size. The electric seats by contrast allow you to adjust infinitely in every direction. Even with the seat dropped right down you can still see over the bonnet end, and the large glass area helps visibility down the flanks. This takes most of the stress out of parking and town driving as you can judge the extremities of the car very easily. This isn't something which all pricey sportsters can manage so extra marks for that.
Even in this low end version of the eight series BMW managed to supply a rather un-germanically long equipment list, electric everything bar the cup holders and they are probably working on them. The main question in summer will be: do you open all the windows and sunroof catch and the breeze as the Multi-player CD soothes you along, or do you shut the windows and turn on the air con?
The real question for people considering this class of BMW is maybe whether to go for an M3 coupe or one of these.
On paper its an easy choice. The M3 is quicker, has sharper handling and is more economical. But in the real world they are both quicker than the plod will allow you to use, both handle and grip to levels way beyond the point at which your starting to get rather silly, and if you can afford to buy and service one, fuel consumption is probably the least of your worries.
Now before you buy that expensive 3 series coupe, just park it next to an 8 series, then check out the sharp low nose as against the 3s saloon on steroids appearance, wind the windows down check the sensuous pillar less curves, and if you still not convinced check out the quad piped squat rear end. The choice is yours do you join the land of 316s body kits big alloys and prised off badges, or do you go for the real class act that needs no disguise.
This is a simply fantastic motorway cruiser, eating up the miles in style and comfort. Makes long runs a real pleasure. Yes, it has no room in the rear, it is expensive on fuel and insurance, but then frankly, who cares when you glide past the traffic turning heads as you go.
Owned for 6 months.
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed February 2002.
Performance
Reliability
Parts Availability
Overall Value for Money
I AM 28 YEARS OLD AND I HAVE JUST GOT MY HANDS ON AN 840 CI IN SILVER ON AN M PLATE FOR £13500. IT IS ONE OF THE BEST CARS I HAVE EVER BEEN IN, AND TURNS HEADS MORE THAN THE TRI-ADDS BIG BORE SKYLINE BOLLOCKS. YES ITS HEAVY ON GAS BUT YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR, 300 HORSE IN A CAR THAT LOOKS ON PAR WITH DB7'S. I LOVE THE SECOND HAND MARKET. CHEERS EASY.
Owned for 6 months.
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed December 2001.
Performance
Reliability
Parts Availability
Overall Value for Money
nice to own a car thats not commonly seen on the road,also great watching the speedo go up,not so nice is the fuel gauge going down.
Owned for 1 year.
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed October 2001.
Performance
Reliability
Parts Availability
Overall Value for Money
Best car Ive ever owned!
Owned for 3 years.
Showing reviews 1
to 7
of
7.
Important Note
All ratings and reviews are submitted by visitors to this web site, and represent their own personal opinion. They do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Preloved.
You use this information at your own risk. Preloved can not be held responsible for any damages or loss resulting from the use of this site. Please see our Terms and Conditions for more details.
