Welcome the New Daily. BMW 1988 528e Super Eta!

Date: 06/12/11

Mileage: 296,101

So here it is, the new Grandpa status. 1988 528e Auto. White on Black. I had been looking for this car for the past 3 months and finally the right one came along. I was looking for a car that wouldn't break my back or the bank, have style, possibly get good MPG and something my fiance Jin could drive. Answer? SUPER ETA.

These shots were taken on the drive down outside a rest area on the 5 about 2 hours from SF in the middle of no where in central California. Let me back up. I had been looking for this particular model for quite awhile. It needed to be from 1988 and couldn't be black (schwarz) or beige (bronzit).

I emailed the owner and he promptly replied. He explained that is was a norcal car. Had never left the east bay area. He was the third owner from 2004-2011 after his friend owned it for a year. Before 2003  it was grandpa and grandma from Walnut Creek. He had already gotten the smog certificate and it was a clean title. He had also garaged it through his ownership as well did the owner's previously.

CA car, check. Smog, check. Clean title, check. Already three out of three. Not black or bronzit, Check. Auto, Check. 1988 Super eta, Check. 6 for 6. Great, let's do this!

The car was in Concord, CA about 40 minutes outside Oakland. My sister lives up in San Mateo so I did what any self respecting car guy would do and bought a one way ticket up there to see my sister and drive the car back down! I figured a clean title super eta from California with no dents, clean interior and clear coat remaining. I was already committed.

So I got to take a look at the car first thing Saturday morning after landing at the Oakland airport. It was sitting on some decent 15" Style 29s which are found on the e39.  Everything actually looked better than I expected. We went through the receipts and found a brand new factory drive shaft and muffler installed within the last year for a grand total for $1600....okay..this is good. What else. More receipts from the DEALER for front control arm bushings, oil pan gasket, head gasket, valve cover gasket, new P/S hose etc. He had also replaced the cap, rotor, plugs etc within the last couple years as well as the timing belt. Timing belt changes at 233k and 270k. Right now the car was sitting with 296,101 on the ODO.

All the maintenance records were just icing on the cake. I had pretty much already committed but this just made the decision even easier. Not too often you come across an e28, let alone a 528e, that someone took care of. I guess they exist! Just not in LA.

So you're wondering about the 296,101? Yeah I was too. I couldn't figure it out. The car drove amazing, pulled fine, no erratic idle. EVERY single button on the interior worked. All electrics fine. No crazy interior damage which is common on these cars. What gives? Was this thing just extremely lightly used? I took a closer look at the tach. It was a 7k tach out of a 535i. The super eta have a specific tach which ends in 6. So someone had switched out the original cluster. Something commonly done when BMW odometer gears stop working.

I tried to find out what the original mileage was but it looks like it's pretty consistent all the way back to 1998 according to the carfax where, unfortunately, the first recorded mileage is 190,000. So that is proof of about 110k miles at a minimum. What about the rest? That would mean on the average, gramps would've had to drive 19k miles a year from 1988. Is it possible? Sure, but at some point the cluster was changed and the mileage showing does not equal the condition. So as I'm putting this all together in my head, I estimate the car has something in 160-220k range mileage wise. Another bonus.

I looked at a couple others and they were all crap priced for much more. None of them were 1988 either. Big difference in that year as far as the 528e goes. My whole, "let the guy stew over $300" trick was starting to give me anxiety. Why didn't I just buy it? WTF is wrong with me? ARGHH. Luckily he was at work all day after I saw the car so there was no way someone else could come snatch it. The best I could do was call him first thing in the morning.

So it's Saturday night and I'm stoked to watch the 24 hours of LeMans coverage live all night. But at the same time, I can't sleep. Finally get a little sleep. Wake up, to watch the DVR of the Audi taking the checker, call the guy and thankfully of course, he still has the car. We agree on the price with an extra set of bottle caps. Which I learned later are often given away for free. :( oh well.

So I wasn't done yet apparently. As fate would have it on the way over to buy the car a coolant hose explodes in my sisters 2000 Ford Focus. WTF universe! AGAIN!! Why?? Three times now. I call AAA. I tell them to tow us 20 miles to concord and we find a shop there.

We get the repairs done at Big O Tire as I watch Jenson Button take the checkered flag over Vettel on a 13" little TV in the waiting room. Seriously I sat down for 5 mintues and that's the lap they were on. Couldn't have asked for a better car weekend. So it looked like the fans had stopped working some time ago in the Focus and the traffic caused too much heat and pressure. They replaced the hose in the Ford and we were off again without fans but with the heat on high. Good enough, where's my BMW.

When we got there the transaction went smooth. I put the spare tires in the back along with the tools I had brought with me, never can be too prepared. I followed my sis back a ways to make sure everything was all good with her car and then took off back to LA!

The drive back went really smooth. I couldn't have been happier. Man and his new car on a 72 degree sunny day in California, rolling through the hills of norcal onto the the 5 cruising with the windows open in my new daily.

My traditional thing to do, as it seems, when buying a new/used car is to drive it back from another city. It's fun and always a good way to see what all the issues are. So far the Super Eta needs a new windshield, alignment and A/C recharge and maybe a fan clutch. Also it continually blows heat on my crotch. Why is this? Because German.