In our rainy winters here in Oregon, it’s not unusual to see tarps on the roofs of some houses, inevitably ones with deferred maintenance. And they’re usually humble abodes. But running into this BMW 750iL V12 with the automotive equivalent of a blue tarp on its roof was a bit…unexpected. But then former top-tier luxury cars don’t always end up in the happiest of circumstances.
I’ve not yet run across this type of wrap job before. But I’d have to say it’s probbaly about as effective as anything. Although I do wonder what happens to the leading edge at higher speeds.
Does this car have a rear sunroof too, or are they just playing it safe?
Nothing like a E38 V12 BMW to depreciate as fast as it can go. And it can go pretty fact, what with its 5.4 L V12 that generated 322 hp as smoothly as any engine ever did. I’m sure it was limited to 155 mph like almost all of the top end German sedans.
And what did this 750iL cost when new? $93,400, or $143k adjusted. And what did these folks pay for it? Maybe a couple of percent of its new price? Hopefully not more.
Perhaps this is not your stereotype of a social climber buying a cast off image car that’s going to impoverish them. The rarity of the model and the care it’s receiving suggests an enthusiast bought it knowing full well what they’re now into and is doing what they can, with limited resources.
If so, more power to them. They’re the bedrock of the collector hobby. Who else but the enthusiast would rescue such an interesting older car.
I’m going to second your opinion. Somebody’s lovin’ on that car, and made the purchase with full knowledge of its pitfalls. The emblem upgrades, custom euro front tag and overall condition smack of an enthusiast owner. Here in the Sunshine State I see more than my share of older high-end cars owned by low wage wannabes trying to front, and they don’t look like this car.
Also, while those alloys may or may not have been original to the car, they look like BMW factory rims with real (if quite low-profile) tires rather than generic 22″ chrome pieces wrapped in rubber bands.
the bmw 5.0 v12 was the most underperforming lackluster V12 is recent memory. it’s two 2.5’s welded together. it’s like you’re driving two cars at once as this model as two of everything. in my humble opinion the 740 after it is much easier to look after. faster too. same with the 850 vs 840.
I personally know a few who would attempt such a rescue, but none of them have the resources to succeed.
For some people, its the act of the rescue thats fun . Tinkering and working on a project is often interesting and engaging . For them the project is never over. Sucess is in the process and not the end result.
Weren’t we just talking the other day about folks who buy cheap old high-end cars but who can’t afford to really care for them? At least this guy has an S-10 when he has to get somewhere.
Prewar exotica like the V-16 Cadillacs and Marmons disappeared quickly from American roads too, but they were durable things that were eventually saved and restored (to the extent that they lived through the scrap metal drives of WWII). I wonder if these will get the same reprieve eventually, or if their complexity and fragility will doom them to museum display status in the future.
JP, the 1930’s classics were essentially simple in concept analog mechanical beasts, albeit with more of everything, cylinders, etc, but as mechanical devices with rudimentary electrical systems they were fixable–but do you really want to drive them with modern traffic, on modern highways, no, not really. Back roads and secondary roads are the speed and braking environments for which they were designed, and that is where the smiles are.
Modern cars, lower production number cars like the BMW 750iL, modern Ferrari’s, V12 MB’s, and Porsches are very different beasts with enormous electric and electronic complexity in addition to mechanical complexity. Real complicated integrated mechanical/digital chimeras providing endless future challenges to keep them on the road when they age. The real challenges facing these cars will be the replacement and/or future manufacture of obsolete electronic components–the real digital “unobtanium”.
The mechanical we can fix, ah, the electronic, that is the challenge.
The cheap depreciated prices of these complicated old digitial/non analog beasts is just the entry price to endless, mindless, future frustrations and guaranteed endless expenses. No old car inner peace.
Imagine the joys of scouring the world’s exotic break-up shops ( aka junk yards) hoping to find the exotic parts for your car as others, the non-drivers, are cannibalized for parts. This is already occurring even with older analog exotics and will continue into the future with ultimately dwindling supplies of used replacement parts taking these car relentlessly off the road, some to die in museums. Digital electronics will only worsen this problem.
If you want to enjoy this old car hobby, to enjoy the fixable, just stay on the analog side of the digital/analog divide. As Jay Leno agreeably says in the current issue of “Octane”, his 1941 Plymouth flathead six will likely be driveable in 100 years, his newer more modern cars, his modern exotica, not likely. So, there is a place for the old and analog in our lives, after all. Who knew? Maybe the jewel-like Model A Ford, that Paul N. admired so much, will remain one of the once and future eternal and fixable collectibles delivering smiles to drivers long after we are gone well into the future.
Analog with simple mechanical components is good for the soul, for peace and contentment ( so says the Buddha, I like to think, with a smile). That Model A is looking better and better all the time!
I agree with everything you say. And this is one of the reason that I have been getting more enthusiastic about Studebakers as I get older. The last 1940s car built in the 1960s. 🙂
J.P., Last year my wife and I drove in a very down to earth, fun, BC car rally which started in Vernon during which I met and spoke with a very enthusiastic gentleman owner of a 1950 or 1951 Studebaker coupe into which he transplanted a later Studebaker 289 V8. It was a fast, really V8 fast and impressive driver, not a show queen, and he drove that coupe with real gusto during the rally through the mountains. Everyone loved that Studebaker’s bullet nose and rear skylight. Great car, seemingly indestructible, great choice, enjoy your enthusiasm for Studebaker. He was a Studebaker believer. His car made me a believer too. A great analog car. Another car likely to run in the next century.
My first drive was in my father’s 1953 Studebaker Commander. It was a V8 with 3 on the tree and OD. About a year later he trade it in for a pristine 1955 Olds 88. I drove that one too and it was like stepping into the future, automatic transmission, power steering, power brakes…etc. Man what a difference between those two cars and yet there was only two model years apart. By 1955 if not earlier the Studebaker was obsolete. Trumped by slightly newer yet analog cars.
It seems that you are spot on, and this is where the collector hobby is heading. Older, analog cars can soldier on, as repairs are mechanical, not electrical. Take an Aston Martin Lagonda. I love them, but the styling was polarizing and the electronics so bad that they are available for pennies. Fixing them would never recoup 1/10 of the cost. When the electronics on my 96 Miata bite the dust (and they are all starting to do that, as capacitors explode inside the dashes), the cost to repair will outweigh the cost to replace. At that point, do you go for very new, or very old? Those who love cars and working on them will go old, while everyone else will go new.
I’ll take a Stutz Blackhawk. Throw in Woodill [sic?] headlights.
Considering my Volvo 780 has lived under a tarp for the past year as I’ve not yet fixed the water leak coming from the quarter window…I have no room to criticize. At least this guy is still mobile, though like Paul I do wonder how much lift he’d get at 55+ MPH. I suppose it’s easy enough to replace, and taping it down can have adverse consequences to paint (ask me how I know!)
“Who else but the enthusiast would rescue such an interesting older car[?]”
Sadly, the answer to the above question is Naive dreamers without enough time, tools, or money to do the necessary work.
This car, despite the careful garbage-bagging, gives a warning of its “how the mighty have fallen” status by sporting the (mandatory?) pine-tree air freshener hanging from the mirror.
The aftermarket “M” badges are another give away.
IF the car is running (and the untaped sunroof garbage-bag leading-edge suggests it might not be), I can
almostguarantee it needs a tune-up. This model of V-12 is actually two linked-at-the-crankshaft straight-6’s with each bank having independent distributors and ECM’s. There’s an art to synchronizing them…. known mainly to now-retired BMW techs. It’s not something you can do with a buddy, a case of beer, and a Chilton’s manual.A sad end, but a common fate for these great cars.
Still, if you want to try to rescue one yourself, here’s one on the Dallas Craigslist for $2200
https://dallas.craigslist.org/mdf/cto/5923695423.html
I am one of those now-retired BMW techs.
Lokki hit the nail on the head. Those cars were/are a challenge to the pros. It ain’t no shade tree car.
I look at it and see nothing but a big black vacuum cleaner, which is going to keep its owner’s wallet perpetually empty. If he got it free, it is still a bad deal.
Lol. The seller in Dallas is quite the talker! Sounds like he can’t wait to unload it. If u like this style of BMW (which I like better than the 745i) then go for the 740. U will be so much happier.
And the Dallas Craigslist car has been listed for 2 months.
The pictured CC example probably just needs it’s sunroof drain tubes cleaned out.
GM is many times criticized on these pages for building post war Cadillacs into the 1980s that in many ways were not a lot more than well-optioned Chevrolets. On the other hand, those Cadillacs were not a lot more difficult to keep on the road for 15-20 years than a Chevy.
Personally, I find it a more honest and real endeavor for a company to build a vehicle that can be used until it is truly used up than a toy for the rich that can no longer serve as reasonable transportation for the average person after the warranty runs out.
While I like a lot about the product Cadillac is putting out now, the equivalent or near equivalent Chevy is also a very good product, and light years ahead of what any manufacturer offered a few decades ago. It is just hard to imagine wasting, opps, spending so much more money for the nominal functional differences in a Cadillac along with risk of parts availability and service costs. I think it is unfortunate that Cadillac has gone down the BMW route of what amounts to planned functional obsolescence.
Fortunately, it’s almost always fairly easy to keep the largest Cadillac in a good shape, maybe except model year 1997. ( if optioned right ) Before 1997, there were Cadillac Brougham/Fleetwood, and afterwards there is Escalade.
The downside is, if they used cheap parts on Chevys, the same cheap parts are likely to show up in Cadillacs, especially those parts underneath. I just can’t forgive how all of the power windows on my Fleetwood doesn’t work right ( just many broken cheap clippers, same part used by all B-Body ) when I bought it.
And yet massive cast aluminum suspension arms sufficient for a much heavier car were under the back of my 95 Seville. It had corners cut, but not all of them.
I can relate.
I saw my 91 Alfa Romeo 164S, on the back end of a Euro dealer lot.
Lived the Italian sport sedan fantasy for awhile.
Just finished a $600 tune-up?? Really?
Not even two weeks later, some city construction road debris, rips off the oil pan, on the Alfa.
Noticed after a mile or so, when the engine started to sound like a diesel Volkswagen Rabbit.
Pulled over, car still started… No oil.
New oil pan from Italy, $380-500…Not including the gasket or labor.
Used one on eBay, for $150(rare as ****)…Not sure, if it’s time to let go and not even bother, or take a chance and change the oil pan and pray the engine bearings weren’t damaged.
Love my Alfa Romeo. Don’t have Italian classic budget. 🙁
I would say a Soviet car with Italian influence could be more affordable.
If u like Alfa sedans the milano is a much better handling car.
I’ve seen dealers shine up a car real well and get it running good. So you walk up and check it out, it’s tempting for sure. I’ve seen more buyers lament than glory. Still it’s tempting.
I’m not optimistic about the fate of this one. As some earlier commenters observed, there are some bad signs here. Maybe it had an enthusiast owner at one point, but I’m betting that the current owner isn’t the one responsible for the euro mods or OEM big wheels.
Too bad. These are amazing cars (when working right). I know I can’t handle them, but it still takes a lot of willpower to ignore this siren’s call.
David, I agree. The fact that it is out in the elements is a very bad sign. A true enthusiast would have it garaged. Personally, having only a two-car garage is all that is keeping me from getting a big-boy toy. I just couldn’t face having either of our daily drivers sitting outside in our harsh climate.
This is when the BMW 7-Series was “King of the Hill” and beat and kept all the competition at bay. The E32 & E38 were flawless executions-to a slightly lesser degree the Chris Bangle 2002 7-Series. The bloated, heavy, land yacht, over complicated, and over priced, pig like Mercedes-Benz S-Class of the (1992-1997) Model got it wrong.
Compare this M-Benz to the athletic, low profile, aggressive looking, wide stance, intimidating beautiful 7-Series (1995-2001) model. They overlapped for just a few years.
I recall a C/D article from (I think 1995). Where they said the 7-Series dances around and on top of the S-Class so badly. That is was like comparing a Athletic professional athlete to a Sumo wrestler. That sums up how badly the M-Benz S-Class was executed then. Today it’s the reverse and the S-Class has gained it’s crown back (2016). The 7-Series edged out the S-Class from 1987 to say 2005 (IMO).
Even the all new 1998 S-Class was slightly beat out by the (revised) 1998 BMW 7-Series (740iL Sport) to be exact.
The 745i is one brute of s car. Ugly as sin. The 745 has a horribly weak transmission that Will fail. They all do. And the 750 after iy has bad valve seals. They all smoke blue. IMO the last 2 years of the 740 were great. After that its all downhill. The s class of 2000 newer- more to the point the 55 supercharge – is a far far better car than a 7 of its time.
An owner of a 750il should be happy if a leaking roof is the worst of its ills.
The overall garbage-bag coverage is probably utilitarian only and no different than if it were on an equally clapped-out (insert make and model)…so the rear doors can hold down the plastic…that way it doesn’t all blow off when a front door is opened. But at least it was done with some care, looking like it was carefully and tightly fitted. Hopefully it doesn’t have to last for a long time, as current garbage-bag material is degradeable so it won’t remain until eternity in landfills.
Sunroof drains can be really icky…mold, fungus, rot, all manner of detritus clogs them, and then the water goes where it is not supposed to.
I finally cleaned the drain hoses in my 02 Outback last weekend, Yuck. You’d think they’d make it easy, but no, I had to take apart a large portion of the side panels and floor of the cargo area. No wonder I procrastinated on it for about 4 years. (Lucky I live in Southern California…)
Lots of BMWs seem to end up like this broken and sitting on a lawn, FB car trading pages here are awash with people trying to sell BMWs or swap them for something thats legal and runs, a well used iphone will see you the proud owner of the ultimate towed machine,if you care to swap, they handled best in the brochures and were reliable as long as the warranty lasted.
Re: “Lots of BMWs seem to end up like this broken and sitting on a lawn.”
In the early 2000’s I had people begging me (for free) to remove their prized 2002’s, e21’s, e24’s, e28′ & e30’s, just rotting in their yards… usually a broken timing belt, or lost gears in an automatic.Why “for FREE”? Because they had an emotional attachment to them & couldn’t bare to see them go to the crusher. And, they couldn’t get squat for a trade-in. They wanted their prized possession to perhaps live to drive another day, or in parts to keep others on the road. I must’ve gather up 35+ “Ultimate Driving Machines”, & turned a nice profit in a little side business for 14 years.
Without seeing this specimen mechanically, I would say it’s not worth more than $2500.00 and that’s because BMW didn’t make an “M” 7 series.
And when it did finally offer a sport pkg…it appeared first on the 1999 740i. The sport pkg wasn’t offered on the (LWB) long wheel base models until the 2001 model year…and each model (740i/740iL/750iL) all had different things offered in its respective sport pkgs…with the LWB models sport pkgs being more cosmetic than performance related.
No question, these are definitely a financial and emotional commitment. The 8 series was a car I fell head over heels for the first time I read about it in ‘Car and Driver’ and even though I did my research and bought the best 850 I could afford a few months ago I still ended up replacing both batteries, the alternator and belt tensioner right off. Everything is two to three times the cost of what it would be on a domestic car of the same vintage but oh what sweet rides the 7 and 8 series’ are and the drooling gazes are quite rewarding. If you are committed to learning their nuances and are able to coddle them every now and then they can definitely be worth it.
The 840 is an easier on the wallet car the ,850 is the one I’d avoid
I’ve heard the argument before and can understand it. Maybe I was channeling David E. Davis who said everyone should drive a V12 at least once and figured this was my one chance. Anyway, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that, with only 28k on the clock, the bits exclusive to the 850 remain trouble free.
I’ve seen a few cars with the sunroof seams sealed shut with silicon seal. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. That is much easier to live with,(hard to remove though). I would guess that the owner is not driving it with the plastic on the roof. I’ve got my old convertible with holes in the top in my garage right now. A while back when I was working on my Mustang I had the car outside, with a tarp covering the roof and a car cover over that. Those twelve cylinder cars are amazing, especially the 850 coupes. I know that most of these cars will NOT be maintained properly, preserved or restored in the future. That’s too bad, but when there’s no resale value, there will be no investment.
Broken Motor Werke,
Big Money Waster,
Bring My Wallet!
Happy Motoring, Mark
I was lucky enough to own both a 750 (1990) and an 850 (1992) during the “entrepreneurial expensive foreign car phase”. The best way to buy them was two-three years old, off lease with very low miles and get the extended warranty. Got to enjoy both for half price and sold them just before the warranty expired, so the new owner had some protection. The maintenance and repair, even when still new was prodigious. I can’t imagine owning one out of warranty with 90-100k miles. Poorhouse.
Another over priced-when-new German uber luxo barge living out its last days in the automotive gutter, er, curbside. Its well-heeled original owners having long since moved on to the latest/greatest fashion statement from Munich/Stuttgart/Ingolstadt, its too-spendy-to-properly-maintain-for-what-it’s-worth worries have now been left to the hoi polloi, who will ride its faded and frayed glory straight into the shredder. Sigh…