1992 BMW 5 Series 520i review from Australia and New Zealand

The car was missing slightly under initial acceleration, replaced all coil packs at 150,000km, which fixed the problem, a little expensive at A$125 each.

The 5 speed automatic transmission will often drop into fail safe mode and lock in third gear, it seems to be a quirk relating to very cold temperatures.

Since changing to fully synthetic oil the rocker box gasket has started to weep slightly, keeping an eye on it before changing the gasket, apparently a slightly expensive task.

I can't seem to adjust the low beam headlights, no up/down set screws to be found!

I'm the second owner and am expecting to replace a number of parts in a car of this age.

This is a great touring car, I regularly travel about 1200km in approximately 12.5 hours with one stop for fuel and a bite to eat, and I never feel uncomfortable. The car is very quiet and smooth, soaking up some seriously bad roads here in Australia.

Air-conditioning and heating is excellent as is the all round vision. I normally achieve about 34 mpg using 98RON fuel at a steady 120kph, the 80litre tank certainly gives good range.

I would prefer a different instrumentation colour for night driving, the red just seems to fluoresce too much.

I just love the sound of the engine under hard acceleration, and have to have the window down when travelling on mountain roads.