1994 525i BMW 5-Series e34 "Classic Bimmer" (Many New Parts, New Tires)

1994 BMW 525i e34 5-series

. July 9, 2016 - I have just recently had this car serviced at BMW of Alexandria. They performed an oil change and checked the car over. I also installed new Bosch spark plugs and this e34 is running great! ****

Description from previous listing (everything else is still accurate)
THE GOOD
I appreciate your time in reading my crazy "Bimmer" fan sales ad here on Craigslist.
Has expensive HID headlights upgrade kit. The low beams have a blue tint to them and the high beams are very bright. Professional install on the HID upgrade kit with special power modules, one per HIDlow-beamlamp. Really cool looking to see the HID lamps in an old school circular e34 bulb.
-NEW Tires (Front)
-Two rear tires are almost full tread
-full spare tire in trunk with good tire.
-NEW Battery ($130) H-9 1000 cold cranking amps
Fall 2015, shop that specializes in German cars replaced a lot of parts:
-new lower control arms front and rear (front end)
-new AC/heater blower motor
-new driver side window and window regulator
-new front car seat covers
-new battery w/ 5 year warranty
-new Front Grille Frame Outer (already installed)
Spent over $1500 on restoration to fix all safety related issues. It really needs nothing at all as far as drive-ability wise. The next thing I was going to replace was the front suspension with aftermarket more advanced M5 suspension. This car has been my current "hobby" and if I don't sell it I plan to full restore it with quality similar to this M5 from the same e34 era: m5owner dot com
The only thing that needs to be replaced based on milage (maintenance) but nothing is broken, suspension is fully functional. If I keep the car I want it to be even better than OEM, so that is why I have been considering an upgraded M5 grade replacement for the full suspension.
I Left it with BMW of Alexandria for 3 days and they said there is nothing at all that it needs safety wise. In fact they were impressed with how great of shape it is in for a 94' 525i. This shows how well this car has been cared for and loved throughout the years and previous owners. It hales originally from Germany and spent most of it's life in PA before I brought it to Virginia last summer.
This BMW fires up with a new starter motor and purrs like a e34 bimmer should. This is the second e34 I have owned. The last one was an 88' 535is and this 525i is really awesome!!! Going to miss her! ;-(
Car is in great shape and will run strong for ever. The e34 525i model is famous for it's reliability, and well if you are a serious buyer then you know about these cars and I do not have to keep harping about how awesome they are. I really do not want to sell it to someone who does not appreciate it's class BMW heritage. In a practical sense is ideal if you can fix small things yourself to save money. I will include the full Bentley Factory Repair Manual (PDF format). The same repair manual is used by BMW expert mechanics and costs $50-90 in print form. I prefer to use it on a computer monitor to study the diagrams and search for keywords.
VA inspection sticker from July 2015, also passed VA emissions. I drove the car 3 hours home from PA and brought it for inspection the next day. Passed emissions and I had to replace the control arms to get it to pass safety inspection. As mentioned, all the safety related (normal maintenance) repairs have been done so that is why I was planning on keeping this car for a while.
It has roughly 185k miles on it but runs great. There is never any oil or fluids on the ground when parked. I checked each time when I first purchased it last summer. NOT A DROP! The valve cover gasket could be replaced (regular maintenance). If someone pays my asking price of $3,000 then I will repair the driver's side seat, change the oil, spark plugs and valve cover gasket before you pick it up. The gasket on the valve cover is an easy replacement job and I have done it on multiple BMW engine top ends.
Just drove the car over to National Harbor and back to Alexandria earlier this week and it performed flawlessly!
I was actually planning on eventually rebuilding the entire engine top end myself with a piston bore, and high end CAM upgrade. No reason to do all of that yet though.
My loss is your gain. I had planned on fully restoring this e34 and eventually selling it for at least $5k. These e34 model BMW's fully restored can go for well over $5k easy! The body is in great shape for a 23 year old classic car. It is more of a hobby for me and I am not looking to make anything from selling this car. I prefer to just break even (not counting the many hours I have spent working on it)...but prefer to see someone buy it that will continue to appreciate and fix it up than someone just looking to make a quick profit.

THE BAD

(these items are all easily fixable)
The driver side seat has the common issue of "bmw e34 seat tilt". There is a free fix for this on YouTube because it is something that happened to most of the 525i e34 bmw's from 88-96'
It is a $0 fix just go to the YouTube video above or Google: "e34 seat twist fix"
-I just have not had time to fix this and only drive the car a few times a week so it does not bother me.
There is really nothing else wrong with this car. It is really a gem of a 23 year old classic. Please keep in mind that it will need some TLC if you use it as a daily driver. It is not perfect and I am not claiming it is like a new BMW. It is from 1994! I only got so far this far (explained above) with the Full Restoration. It makes a great (affordable) and safe daily driver (in current state), Dual front Airbags and many other safety features that BMW pioneered the auto industry with. This car has so many bells and whistles that most cars you buy new in 2016 do not have.
Driver's heated seat does not seem to function, but it is going to be summer soon in VA! Passenger side heated seat does work and gets hot very fast. I am sure the driver's side heated seat is an easy fix. Might just be a wire is disconnected, because I did take the seat out to replace one of the power adjustment motors from a parts car last summer.

Trunk lock cylinder needs to be replace. This is just the small tumbler part of the locking mechanism. I confirmed with BMW that it can be ordered from a warehouse in New Jersey for $130 to get an exact match to the master key that also fits the Ignition, glove box, and door locks. Carfax shows a fender bender as the only accident ever on this vehicle. Previous owner I purchase it from neglected to tell me that the key for the trunk is not the same as the key for the rest of the car. I am assuming that just the trunk was bent in the fender bender. Looked like a truck backed into the car, because the very small dent mentioned below 1/2x1" is just below the trunk lid. I am not sure if that dent is related but I am guessing solely based on the Carfax full report showing the one minor accident to the rear of the car being the only ever accident report. (Click on FREE Carfax report on this auction that eBay offers to see for yourself). Based on the master key not matching the trunk lock, I am assuming that the previous owner replaced the trunk with one from a matching car in the same color. The trunk does not appear to be painted at all. Entire car is all original paint and looks AMAZING FOR 23 YEARS OLD! ;-)

The complete set of owner's manuals, bmw apparel catalog (super cool 1990's gear and clothing:-)
ALL INCLUDES - This e34 BMW had all the features from the factory, even a car phone! The antennae for the car phone is left on the car for nostalgic purposes because it is really awesome! I planned on restoring this car because the only thing that is missing OEM is that car phone! Dang!!!
THE UGLY (not that ugly at all) This car looks AMAZING for 23 years old! Drives better than many new cars! It's a Classic Bimmer...
There is a few very minor nicksand scratches here and there. Again the car is about 23 years old! For the age it looksvery nice considering it is all original cosmetically. From not too far away, and with a fresh wash and wax, it really looks very nice still.
There is a small dent just below the drunk lid. It is about 1/2"x1" in size but could be easily pulled out. Again 23 YEAR old car so I am not gonna say it is perfect. ;-) but I only noticed this dent the other day when looking very close, and I have had the car for almost a year.
Please don't waste my time just to test drive it and kick the tires. Serious buys only, NO LOWBALLERS...WILLING TO CONSIDER REASONABLE OFFERS. Please just ask over email, phone call, or text. Tell me upfront what you would like to spend and I promise to give you a very straightforward answer quickly. For $3,500 I will take care of the items listed above, seat twist, oil change, and new Bosche Spark Plugs (basic tune-up).

I am being as straightforward to list any and all information I can. I hate buying cars from people to find little things they must have known about and just did not mention. You will not find a nicer 90's e34 anywhere for less than $5K!