Faults:

The car's biggest enemy is corrosion, as it is very prone to rusting on the lower edges of doors, fenders, sills, and the trunk lid area.

Being an older model, the carburetor requires adjustments and constant maintenance.

While oil leaks are not common, they are something to be aware of due to the wear and tear on gaskets.

Wear and tear on silent blocks, ball joints and shock absorbers, causing imprecision in driving.

Clutch and brakes changed at approximately 200,000 km, if my memory serves me right since I sold the car almost 20 years ago.

General Comments:

To sum it up simply, it's a German premium car. Near-perfect mechanics and top-quality accessories (no wear and tear in years).

While it's not a particularly fast car, it's not slow either, although it's true that due to the body style and weight, the engine is somewhat underpowered (even though it's reliable and practically indestructible; in the 70s and 80s, this was the primary consideration). Fuel consumption isn't low, but that's to be expected in a car of this type; it's not designed for fuel efficiency but rather for comfort, stability, and reliability, which it achieves perfectly.

It's a very spacious car inside and large outside as well, yet it's very easy to drive thanks to its power steering (one of the few cars that came with it from the factory in the late 70s). It's also agile and easy to park. You can drive a car like this with ease even today; its handling is perfectly suited to modern times despite being almost 50 years old.

The 520i's braking system, while theoretically unremarkable (discs/drums), delivers genuinely satisfactory results. It's worth highlighting the car's stability under sudden braking, which has always been a positive feature. At high speeds, stops are effortless and require no modulation of pedal pressure, and in emergencies, braking distances can be truly remarkable.

In conclusion, it's an expensive car, with very expensive spare parts, but anyone who has owned one can say that the expense is worth the enjoyment of driving one of these cars.

My experience with the 520 is more than positive.

Faults:

Many things went wrong during the 11 years and 200,000+ km I have driven it. But all minor. The most expensive things were the rear suspension, which broke twice, 5 years ago the compressor for this pneumatic suspension broke, and now the pillows of this suspension went too old and do not hold the air. Front suspension on the right side broke about 6 months ago and needed to be fixed. But I think it is OK for a 15-year old car which has run over 300,000 km.

General Comments:

I love this car. Simply it is the best possible car for me. Very pleasurable to drive and to ride in. Powerful enough (I have optimized it for 240 hp when I bought it via BSR), very economical - average on my odometer is 6.3 l/100km and I am almost always overspeeding. When driving normal 80-90 km/h it takes 5.0 l/100km. Which is excellent for such big and powerful car.

It is very spacious - it help us so much in our long driving trips with two kids, a dog and a cat. And again, it is really joy to ride in it - comfortable, sensitive, powerful, quiet, smooth.

I am now thinking to change it, but just because it requires quite some investment - rare suspension still needs to be fixed, some motor valves need to be replaced (it started to lose power), new winter tires are needed, oil needs to be changed in the transmission - albeit they say it is life-long, mechanics told me it is better to change after these many miles. Altogether maybe a 5,000$ investment needed.

One important thing - this car never let me down on a road during all the 200,000 km I have been driving it.