When most people get to a point in their lives where they feel they deserve a car like today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe BMW 740i it’s because they want to be swaddled in luxury, not have more work to do. That makes this car’s six-speed conversion kind of a puzzle, but will its price make everything fit?
High miles means a low price, right? It’s like the supply and demand curve you learned way back when in Econ 101. If you needed further proof, yesterday’s 2003 Acura CL Type S was a textbook example, presenting high (278,000) miles and a relatively low (three-grand) price. Those both intersected at the point where it came away with a solid 68% Nice Price win. See, economics works!
I often think that a manual transmission on a big luxury sedan is sort of like the children’s menu at a fancy restaurant. You know, tiny cheese pizzas, chicken tenders, gloopy mac & cheese. No “adult” would ever want anything to do with that.
Of course, I’ve been known to hold opinions that—at least according to my wife—no other individual with half a brain would deem rational. With that in mind, here we have a 1999 BMW 740i in black on black that has been imbued with a six-speed stick late from an E39 540i.
Now before we dig in I want you all to get out your calculators because this car is located in Canada (ehh) and so unless you’re reasonably comfortable with the way they measure things everywhere outside the U.S. there’s gonna be some convertin’ to do.
Let’s start with the mileage… er kilometer-age which is 256,000 on the chassis and 156,000 on the M62 mill. In miles that’s about 160,000 for the car and about 96,000 on the V8.
When the replacement engine was fitted it apparently received new seals and timing chain guides. Also, the cooling system is claimed to have been overhauled at the same time. This was all done within the last 5,000K/3,000 miles.
The car is claimed in the ad to be an M-Sport and it does have Parallels and what looks to be Shadowline trim.
More Mmmmm however is that six-speed stick conversion, which according to the ad has a short shifter kit. Other modifications noted in the ad include coilovers at each corner and what’s said to be a “Dinan tune done by parkshore BMW to remove the speed limiter.” Yeah, okay.
It’s difficult to really judge the car aesthetically as most of the pics of it in the ad where taken in a relatively dark parking garage and black cars under fluorescent lights don’t look all that great. Hell, anything under fluorescent lights usually looks like crap. Yours truly included.
We also don’t get much in the way of interior shots. We can see that the car has wood trim and that the shift boot is mounted with exposed screws. Other than that, there could be a family of refugee Americans living in there for all we know.
Something else we do know is that the price is $8,000. Those are Canadian dollars—Loonies if you picture the amount in coinage—and that means we need to get our calculators out again. That eight-grand Canadian equates to about $6,100 in American money. Alternatively that would be about 5,700€ or somewhere around 352,485 Russian Rubles since they seem to be in the news these days.
The seller says this car will turn you into Jason Statham (The Transporter) and whether that’s a good thing or not, we now need to decide if it’s worth $8,000 to do so. What do you think, is this big-ass sedan with a joy stick worth that kind of Canadian cash? Or, is this a pieced-together Bimmer that’s just not worth the sum of its parts?
You decide!
Vancouver BC Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Canuck Mike for the hookup!
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