BAT Zinno 535is

[garageboy]

Man, this is a tough crowd.
There are no perfect, used, unrestored 535is’. This car was nice. I’d own it in a heartbeat.
I’d wager it’s a nicer example of a 535is, even with its flaws, than 90% of everyone else’s cars.

I have an exceptional eye. I can tell factory paint with the naked eye most times. I think I'm pretty good at figuring things out from photos, but compared to some of the folks on this site, I'm just "good". These guys are exceptional, and I have learned from them.

The photos showing the filth in and around the trunk (55,57,58,59, and 61), in addition to the condition of the trunk seal, carpet, etc., tells me that this trunk is filthy, with rust, that is more extensive than what this seller was carefully trying not to reveal. Once I can see photos taken to prevent revealing problems, it makes me suspect for EVERY photo. There was no photo with the trunk carpet removed. That was a huge red flag. And the most important thing is that the condition of the car clearly does not match the mileage (101,000).

So you may describe these things as "flaws", but you would be sadly mistaken, and if you had bid/bought this car, you're be very disappointed when you received it. Those of us that have been looking at E28s for 30+ years KNOW what they look like at various stages of their lives. If that makes us a "tough crowd", so be it.

[austin8753]

i'm a realist; if that means i'm part of a "tough crowd", fine. i can see past a set of crappy looking wheels. what i can't see past, is 30 years of neglect, rust, and poor quality paint work.

that's a fine car, as far as "driver quality" e28s go - that isn't the issue. the issue is, someone paying $26k + fees, for that fucking thing, thinking they're getting a cream puff, solely based on it having covered only 101k miles. the low miles cars, in my experience, are ALWAYS the most neglected. they never got driven, they never got maintained. they sat around and looked pretty. i guess that's all people see.

but what do i know, it's not like i do this for a living.

[athayer187]

We all should be pumped that this car sold for this $$. I will say that it looks like a trip to the dry ice blaster or steam cleaner to remove the cosmoline/dust/grime/etc. from the undercarriage and the engine bay would be money very well spent. I agree, this is a nice starting point, but I'm surprised it's a $26k car. Good for the seller and for all of us!

[muleskinner]

We all should be pumped that this car sold for this $$. I will say that it looks like a trip to the dry ice blaster or steam cleaner to remove the cosmoline/dust/grime/etc. from the undercarriage and the engine bay would be money very well spent. I agree, this is a nice starting point, but I'm surprised it's a $26k car. Good for the seller and for all of us!

Agree 1,000%. If a mediocre car brought that amount, I'm psyched about what mine might bring once I get it ready to sell (it's almost ready....I'm just lazy).



It reminds of when I was selling my '73 Bav in 2007. I was on a Bav forum at the time, and these crusty guys on the board mocked me when I told them my reserve on ebay was $6K. It sold for $8,200. I'd paid $4K for it a couple of years earlier, so I was happy. Now look at Bav prices....mine was just as nice as this, and had a 4 speed. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1972-bmw-bavaria-13/

[Justin_FL]

I agree with a few of the contrarians and think it is a decent car. Not as in it requires no mechanical work or is mint, but a solid foundation. Flawless, turn key E28s rarely trade hands. Spending a ton of hours cleaning the car top to bottom would really do wonders and given the BAT crowd tends to reward eye candy, I'm a bit surprised it went to $26k as presented. The car appears to be almost all original and I'm sure hasn't had much servicing in the past 20 years. Someone could be $8-10k into it pretty quickly if you have exacting maintenance standards, between parts, labor and throwing a few enthusiast upgrades on it. These cars are much too old for the $2k rule to apply to catch up on deferred and age-related maintenance.

Outside of the front air dam, the rest of the paint looks decent and seems original. Obviously, the trim and bumpers need some attention so the exterior isn't perfect. The interior is looks fairly clean outside of the front seats-- a cleaning & dye job on the seats would do wonders. Probably need to take apart the driver's seat and bend/fix the bolster frame. If I was considering getting into the E28 game, spending a decent amount to mechanically sort this car and make it drive 100% perfect is could be less than you'd spend buying a well-sorted and high mileage, but cosmetically needy E28, with what quality paint, body and interior work runs these days. The final bid price makes this a less appealing candidate to me if I was in the market to tackle mechanicals vs cosmetics (at ~$15k this car would make a lot more sense to me personally in that scenario), but if the buyer is gambling that clean and sorted, low-ish mileage 535is may trade at near original MSRP in the future, this might be a good buy after sorting out. Values seem to be inching up each year.

The area of rust on the tail panel is strange, though I do not really see rust on the rest of the car. The supposed rust someone thought they saw on one of the fenders by the VIN sticker in all honestly looks like a blobs of old, dingy cosmoline. The front passenger door (pic 49) at the lower corner could have some rust at the crimp seam of the door skin to the door frame, but it might just be grime in the seam? If the trunk seal land was rusted in a concerning manner it usually would have spread out from underneath the rubber and would be visible. That seal looks pretty damn old and tattered so it could be the original, which likely seals better than any of the replacement junk from BMW today!

I do wonder if it was bid up just because of the odometer, considering the car reportedly has 100,000 in 1995. Has it really only moved 1280 miles in 27 years? There doesn't seem to be any records or explanation by the seller. Judging on condition alone is difficult-- I've been around E28s for a very long time and I've seen genuine 100k mile cars that look worse than this one and have also seen all original 200k mile ones that look significantly better.

[Fanclutchnut]

I know everyone is in this for different reasons, but I don’t get hyped when the prices on these cars start skyrocketing. I feel the same way I do about my homes value. Who cares? I doesn’t matter unless I’m going to sell it (which I won’t) and I don’t need the cocktail party fodder.

It’s more important to me that these and other driver grade cars remain accessible to those who are getting started wrenching and contributing to the culture/knowledge base.

That’s why this place is gold.

I used to like BAT but it’s become a perfect storm of arm chair speculation, boredom, emerging middle age affluence, short term (we hope) inflation, put a price tag on everything I own, oh and other peoples money (professional buyers).

That’s all fine and mildly entertaining at times, but it’s influencing the market way outside of BAT.

Not looking to ruffle anyones feathers but have been thinking about this for a bit and discussing it with buddies and thought I’d share.

[sefb222]

I was also surprised to see that car hit 26k, but I can’t say it bothers me, as all too often I’ve lost a ton of money when it’s time to sell one of my cars for whatever reason; having a kid, need to pay taxes, want something different, etc. If this and other recent sales are any indicator, I may actually break even on my 535iS when it’s time to let it go. This time, for the sake of remodeling my kitchen.

[Spen]

If gas was 2 dollars a gallon in mid 2020 and in early 2022 its 4 dollars, in gas terms this e28 would be worth about 12.5k in 2020 dollars no?

Same with the houses up 30 plus percent per year etc.

Any teeny 25bps raising of interest rates (price fixed at nearly 0 percent since the collapse back in 2008 etc) will likely quickly be reversed as the stock market pukes.

I believe the fed is backed into a corner and people are literally taking their dollars and bidding for anything they like and think may hold some value. Including these NFTs and other virtual nothingness.

That said I think you can have a bubble in basically anything including of course classic cars or collectable cars etc and you could have price spikes elsewhere (in dollars) with E28s going down simultaneously in dollars even with continued money printing.

If our crystal balls were perfectly clear, we'd know.

But I believe that we are witnessing a definite dollar price increase of these cars many of us on this forum are interested in due to mainly a huge increase of dollars in supply relative to the same quantity if not less of these cars available. I see an e28 in a local junkyard about 2x per year now. Typically pretty clapped out or was sitting under a tree. So we have less E28s and more people fighting over less and less e28s, let along nicer original ones needing more and more expensive or hard to find or buy new parts. Prices really took off after the trillions printed recently in my experience.

I would be interested in E28s priced in precious metals plus their over spot current market price.

The dollar may cease to exist in any meaningful way purchasing power wise in the next few years, and it will be extremely interesting to watch from our wifi enabled refrigerator boxes while licking out the remains on the inside of a can of baked beans while feverishly checking our cell phones every few seconds!

[garageboy]

The dollar may cease to exist in any meaningful way purchasing power wise in the next few years, and it will be extremely interesting to watch from our wifi enabled refrigerator boxes while licking out the remains on the inside of a can of baked beans while feverishly checking our cell phones every few seconds!

Not sure if you are aware, there's a section of the forum called "The Tailpipe" where this kind of ruminating can be appreciated better.