[isleaiw1]

The E39 still looks so right after all these years. Mind I really like the E61 now, couldnt stand it when it first came out!

[Bryans69]

Originally Posted by isleaiw1

No its a Bugatti Veyron Estate....

Hows your Tata Nexon going?

In fairness, they did the Skoda Superb Sportline in a very similar green for a while

[F30Andy]

Prefer Verde mantis myself

[JD6]

Originally Posted by mikeoz

Ah ok yeah. One in Pic is RHD with UK plate and UMWELT Enviro tax sticker which Forces personnel get free. Could be well off mark but looks like a BFG car?

I wouldn't recognise a BFG car, but you could be right. My M5 stayed on temporary Belgian plates for a little longer than it should before I registered it in the UK. I used to import my BMWs from Europe just because it was a lot cheaper at the time. The Treaty of Rome meant that they couldn't refuse to supply a UK spec car at a European dealer. VW tried to stop people buying in Spain and were hit with a massive fine.

[DaveA]

Ah, yes, the old days when you actually had a fairly decent set of colours to chose from...

[JustChris]

Originally Posted by DaveA

Ah, yes, the old days when you actually had a fairly decent set of colours to chose from...

To be fair the G8X colour range is very good.

X cars and many other lines it's grey, blue and the classic AW and black!

[mikeoz]

Originally Posted by JD6

I wouldn't recognise a BFG car, but you could be right. My M5 stayed on temporary Belgian plates for a little longer than it should before I registered it in the UK. I used to import my BMWs from Europe just because it was a lot cheaper at the time. The Treaty of Rome meant that they couldn't refuse to supply a UK spec car at a European dealer. VW tried to stop people buying in Spain and were hit with a massive fine.

I use to buy Mercs in Holland when I lived in Germany with Forces. Mainly SLK & SL. Tax free plus 15% Nato discount drive for free for 1 year and then sell in UK 5/6k profit in those days on a SLK...10 to 12k on a SL...Totally legal ..

[TouringPleb]

Originally Posted by JD6

I wouldn't recognise a BFG car, but you could be right. My M5 stayed on temporary Belgian plates for a little longer than it should before I registered it in the UK. I used to import my BMWs from Europe just because it was a lot cheaper at the time. The Treaty of Rome meant that they couldn't refuse to supply a UK spec car at a European dealer. VW tried to stop people buying in Spain and were hit with a massive fine.

Only a lot of people didn't understand or realise that the cars only had a one year warranty as years 2 and 3 were put on by BMW GB.

As a service advisor in that era I told many people that the repairs on their car weren't covered under warranty. For some this negated any savings they had made importing the car.

Plus the warranty would start ticking away as soon as the cars were registered in Europe, sometimes months before they were sold.

When I worked at Mercedes, we had a customer come in with a M Class with the V8 diesel which had sat in a field in Belgium for 15 months before he bought it. He was shocked to find this expensive, complex car had no warranty.

[mikeoz]

Originally Posted by TouringPleb

Only a lot of people didn't understand or realise that the cars only had a one year warranty as years 2 and 3 were put on by BMW GB.

As a service advisor in that era I told many people that the repairs on their car weren't covered under warranty. For some this negated any savings they had made importing the car.

Plus the warranty would start ticking away as soon as the cars were registered in Europe, sometimes months before they were sold.

When I worked at Mercedes, we had a customer come in with a M Class with the V8 diesel which had sat in a field in Belgium for 15 months before he bought it. He was shocked to find this expensive, complex car had no warranty.

Yeah that's correct, it kind of all fizzed out but you could get BMW tax free forces discount etc from Park Lane or MB equivalent in the end.

All my MBs were sold to Big dealerships like Lancaster Motors MB so would of had some sort of AUC warranty when they sold on and normally had less than 10k on...It was silly season back then. Remember those Fiat Coupe Turbos...people made daft money on them

Anyway "Service Advisor" ...i knew you had a dark past but christ...

[JD6]

Originally Posted by TouringPleb

Only a lot of people didn't understand or realise that the cars only had a one year warranty as years 2 and 3 were put on by BMW GB.

As a service advisor in that era I told many people that the repairs on their car weren't covered under warranty. For some this negated any savings they had made importing the car.

Plus the warranty would start ticking away as soon as the cars were registered in Europe, sometimes months before they were sold.

When I worked at Mercedes, we had a customer come in with a M Class with the V8 diesel which had sat in a field in Belgium for 15 months before he bought it. He was shocked to find this expensive, complex car had no warranty.

It was a while ago but I’m pretty sure that my 1998 540i from Germany and 2000 M5 from Belgium both had 2 year BMW warranties. I sold my 540i after 18 months so didn’t extend, but I bought the third year warranty extension from BMW for the M5 for about £1k from memory. I ordered the cars and they were registered on the day I collected them, so no warranty issue there.

At the time I ordered the M5, the price difference was pretty wild - I saved £15k relative to the best U.K. price I could find, so the warranty cost didn’t make a lot of difference. I did have to deal with the worst car dealer I have ever used though - take a bow BMW Brussels!

It was a bit of a leap of faith though, so you had to know what you were doing to avoid the pitfalls.