Sorry its taken me so long to update my car situation on this board but here goes: my mercedes dealer got a pristine 95 BMW 540i in on trade with 75K miles. It has all the original books, tools, records, new tires, window sticker, etc. and is a one owner car to boot! For those of you in the know, yes, it has had the short block replaced with the new style alusil block in 2001(46K miles at the time). Well I bought this car and couldn't be happier with it. I had it checked out and nothing turned up except for a faulty auto/manual swith near the gearshift (38 bucks). I still love the 400E (and 124 in particular) and will probably own either a 400 or 500 someday but in the meantime, I am loving my new car. being an avid mercedes enthusiast (and 560SL owner), I will remain active on this board. Thanks again for all the valuable advice.

Hey, I don't blame you.

While I am a Mercedes enthusiast, I think I'd find it hard to pass up a clean 540i. I hear they are fantatic cars and the styling is pretty good, too (for a BMW ).

__________________
Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

That's good that you found an E34 540i with the new engine in it. When I was looking for a car that was one of the models I liked but that engine problem detoured me. I bought a 400E with 120k on it a little over a year ago and know have almost 150k on it. Besides oil changes I've spent only around $300 on repairs.

__________________
1992 Mercedes-Benz 400E
2002 Mercedes-Benz ML500

...the cleanest, low mileage W126 Series V8 you can find, probably spend a WHOLE lot less dough in the long run, and have a lot more car to boot.

IMHO the performance differances are negligible...

But I get my jollies goin' fast in other ways: as in "on two wheels"!

Cheers!

p.s. A "used BMW"? You mean "already been depreciated", don't you?

__________________
'91 420 SEL @ 199K, '92 SVX @ 181K, '93 SC400 @ 86K, '93 Kaw ZX-11 @ 30K, '87 F250 @ 181K , 2001 Valkyrie Interstate @ 6K, Y2K Honda NightHawk 250 with 1.5K, '88 420SEL I.@ 179K & the 2nd latest, an '88 420SEL II.@ 210K runnin' parts car, '85 F150 300/NP435