1989 BMW 6 Series 635 Highline review from UK and Ireland

So far all the things that have gone wrong with this car were all there when I bought the car and I am slowly fixing them. They aren't major items - just a couple of cheap repairs that probably weren’t picked up on before.

1. The rotor-arm and cap needed changing as they had obviously not been changed recently. A maintenance item.

2. Bonnet struts are no longer strong enough to always hold the bonnet open so they will be replaced soon. On a 16 year old car you can expect gas struts to have leaked and weakened as a result.

3. BMW torch from the glove-box seems to have a bad battery. The charging prongs still charge, but the battery won't accept any more charge.

4. Nearside rear window was out of alignment and needed re-setting. This is fixed now and was just an adjustment.

5. The idle control valve is worn out so the car can be very slightly lumpy when idling. Not really a massive problem, but I'm going to fix it anyway. The idle control valve is a Bosch item so blame them for the failure - not BMW. Lots of cars use Bosch idle control valves.

I think the reason this car has only the 5 niggles mentioned above may be down to the fact it came with a full BMW service history and has been very well maintained - if a car does not have a full BMW service history then you should make sure it has been well looked after and that there is evidence that the service schedules have been stuck to. Especially oil changes, if oil changes have been missed you could end up with some very expensive bills for broken engines or gearboxes.

This car has the BMW sports seats. This option seems to be on about 50% of the cars I looked at when I was buying the car. The 'comfort' seats don't look as nice and don't have the side bolsters so it's easier to fall out when your going round corners. The sports seats are very comfortable. I am the only driver so I used two of the electronic pre-sets to set seat positions (one for motorway cruising and one for town use. This has to be one of the most comfortable cars I've ever owned. Mainly because of the brilliant seats - usually fitted to the later models.

The performance: I'm surprised that it is a group 20 car because it isn't that fast around town. It's fair to say that the car is faster than most other cars on the road, but I'm no longer surprised by it's performance and I would like it to be faster. Once your on the motorway however this car comes into it's own. From about 80mph onwards nothing can stop this car, it goes like a bullet. When you put your foot down you feel this almighty force thrusting you forwards as the speed rapidly builds. This motorway performance is very useful for overtaking, manoeuvring and quiet effortless cruising. The setup on the later cars is much better than the older models with camber adjustments and optional limited-slip differential. Around town it is possible to drive at a reasonable pace without ever exceeding 2000 rpm - you can try that in other cars and find that there isn't enough power in the engine to really drive like this - when you consider also that the car is a 4-speed automatic with long gear ratios you start to realise that it is a truly powerful car. (i.e. not turbocharged)

If you are going to buy one of these cars there are a lot of choices to make. Firstly make sure you look at a few of them. They are lots of tatty cars on the market and you shouldn't really buy a tatty one unless it is really cheap and you don't mind having a tatty car or it is really cheap and you plan to spend £10,000 rebuilding it. The second choice is old or new? The car was produced for a long time and the cars range from early chrome, 3-speed and really classic looking right up to non-chrome late 80's spec with big bumpers and most of the features of a modern high spec car, only missing out on things like satellite navigation and climate control. The third choice is engine and transmission type. There are 4 main combinations to choose from either a 5-speed manual or 3 or 4-speed automatic gearbox linked to either a 2.8, 3.5 or the 3.5 twin-cam M-tech motor. There are other variants available and the choice you make should depend on they type of driving you do. I chose the 3.5 litre engine with the 4-speed automatic because it is the only car I can use at the moment and the 4-speed auto is good for traffic as well as a more relaxed ride. The M-tech is the other option I might have considered, but the m-tech only comes with a manual gearbox and that does not suit me right now. If you buy the 2.8 litre it won't be fast and you'll still have an awfully uneconomical car so the 2.8 represents poor value for money.

When looking at these cars look out for options. There was a long options list with this car and the more of them you can get the better.

A couple of bad points: fuel economy is poor - but this is offset by the performance and you can easily get 25mpg on the motorway (I mean without driving at 50 mph) - the other bad thing is that the windows don't go all the way down into the front doors. They stay raised about 1/4 of an inch - this means you have to rest your arm on the ledge just inside the window and you can't hang your arm out of the window without being uncomfortable - not a major problem and not something that should stop you from buying one.