1994 BMW 5 Series 530i from North America - Comments

The cylinder is losing compression badly. Problem was with the BMW design. Engine block made from Nikisil which reacts poorly with US gasoline. Scars the inside of the cylinder and causes leak down. BMW replaces engines if less than 100,000 miles or 6 years. They would not repair this model.

For a $50,000 car, this car is a piece of junk. Poor reliability, engine that blows up at 83,000 miles.

Poor acceleration. Reasonable handling, but rather heavy and clumsy.

Seats are completely worn out and hurt my back.

You paid $50,000 Dollars for a 1994 BMW 530i in this year??? I don't think so.

If you take a look at http://auto.consumerguide.com, you will see that your car in good condition costs about $11,000-$12,000. In average condition it costs about $9,900-$10,800, and in poor condition it costs about $5,900-6,500. And without a doubt you bought a BMW in pretty bad shape once you had a problem with the cylinders with only thousand miles. So I don't think you really paid all that price, for a Used Car in pretty bad shape. In fact, I don't think that you really own a BMW 5-Series and you are just another American and jealous Ford Taurus owner, that still cannot accept the fact that the German Cars are the best.

That's right bud! I own a 1994 BMW 530i Sedan metallic silver that my wife gently calls "German Silver Arrow", which I bought in July of this year as a replacement for an old, expensive, overrated and unreliable 1993 Ford Tempo GL 3.0 V6 sedan 4-door.

My Bimmer has never let me down so far. It's one of the most reliable cars, I have ever owned, although I have known that German Cars are generally expensive to maintain, but they never break down. I hope I will never have any kind of serious problem with my BMW despite its' age.

I purchased a 1994 530i 5-speed with 53K miles for $9275 in May 2004. I subsequently learned of the problem with the motor. My car runs OK, now. I have been told by a BMW service professional that the motor could become defective at any time. Also, I have been told by a BMW auto broker that my car, with the original motor, is only worth $4000 because the motor has not been replaced by BMW. This is all very distressing. What can I do to get BMW to replace the motor??

Go to the dealer and demand a fix if the mileage is low enough. If you have higher miles on the car, demand some sort of compensation such as BMW cutting the bill in half. According to my research, BMW does not like for problems on their cars to go without being fixed. I own a '94 318i which had the famous faulty water pump, head gasket, and timing chain cover gasket at one time. All of these items were fixed with updated BMW parts at little or no cost to the previous owner. The head gasket and timing chain cover were updated when the car had a warranty and the water pump was a cheap upgrade. Kudos to BMW for not sweeping their little mistakes under the rug.

When the original author of this review stated.

"For a $50,000 car, this car is a piece of junk. Poor reliability, engine that blows up at 83,000 miles."

The author is not saying that THEY paid $50,000 for their car.

They are merely saying that the BMW 530i sold new from the dealer for around $50,000 and for that price, the quality is not up to par for that dollar amount.

Dude this car is not a piece of crap.. I think you bought one and found out how much parts are for them... I have a 94 530I and the engine blew at 210,000 miles.

I'm in the process of purchasing a '04 530i at a very reasonable price, then I stumbled on to your comments; some good, more bad. It seems to run and handle well, and it's a classic looker. I realize there's a sucker born every day; hopefully not on my birthday. Wish me luck!