B7 wrote:My grilles are the facelift ones. They are wider around the edge.
Yes mine has alcantara. It's actually really nice. Very tactile. I had leather in my last 39 and that was nice too. The alcantara worn really well considering it has 102k up now. I've seen leather in worse nick. Cleaning it is a pain though as itf you're not careful, it goes bobbly.
it's not been a bad car over the year I've had it. It is quick and they handle well. Only this morning it shat it's water pump!!!! Barrys bringing one home from the dealer. It's had a few issues this year. All par for the course for later BM's it seems.
The wiper motor blew it's beans in the ice (220 quid!)
The heater hedgehog went awol (60 odd quid)
Cam cover gasket spewd it's lot (common M54 issue by all accounts and another 30 odd quid)
The PDC went mad although thats rectified it'self for the time being
and now the water pump! (£70 odd quid)
Add that to a heavily reduced oil service and gearbox oil change (another £240) it's been a dear 3 months of 2010.
Give me an e30 or an e34 in build quality any day!
Looking at the niggles this one has, and also the prices of even second had parts they do seem expensive to run, but then you're getting so much more car than with E30's.
They have a 'true' luxury feel to them, handle well, and even this 2.8 suprised me as to how well it goes considering it look like such a heavy car.
I'm wanting a bit more luxury at this stage of my life, and this cars ride is a comfortable as i've driven for some time (and i'm comparing this to new cars not my E30!).
That combined with an interior that is a real nice place to be, nice and comfy seats, great looks on the outside and (in my case anyway) 140miles to around £17 great economy as well.
Once all the little niggles are sorted it's going to be a very nice car, and my brother looks like he's going to be keeping this for some time, and if not then i may take it off his hands, but i was looking for a later model personally.
Still for the money we paid (about half what you'd expect to pay for one of these) and the fact that most of the electrical niggles seem to be simple (all be it time consuming) fixes, most of it isn't too bad.
The bumper really lets it down, but my brother hasn't decided if he wasnt to replace or fix this so i'll leave that one to him.