New to us '10 AW 535i M-sport Intro

[RobZR]

As you all have seen we have been on the lookout for a replacement for our trusty E38 after a decade long love/hate relationship.

The saga of the '10 AW 535i M-sport had begun on a calm 40deg. morning of 24th of Feb. with a 9am hop from Mitchell to Santa Barbara via a tiny layover in Denver.

Outside of the usual Alpha female berating her spouse, and rearranging the overheads to fit her overstuffed "should have checked" carry-on, was an uneventful 5hr flight.  Even the 3mo. old 2 rows in front was happy and quiet the whole flight.

Upon landing at 1:30pm. I was quite disappointed in the famed southern California weather since it was only 52 deg. out. “frigidly cold” as per my Uber driver to which I chuckled and informed her of my origin.

After meeting the PO and inspecting the car. I found everything as expected and a solid one owner example with all the gadget SWMBO requested. After a brief negotiation, we sealed the deal and I was off on the trek to the great white north.

With a detour for a small photo shoot near the beach, I started my way through The LA suburbia by 6pm heading east to the desert. By midnight I hit the Arizona border area with the first of 2 heart attacks. Announcing itself with a loud ding “Oil level Low”. Instantly clearing any cobwebs from driving and fueling an instant panic. I pulled over and instantly looked to verify the sensor reading, to my surprise no dipstick to be found.

Checking the display confirmed the low level and started the hunt for a quart of compatible oil at midnight in the desert. Limped her to a truckstop 5mi down the road and found the oil selection to be less than ideal. One last quart of Mobil1 5w30 called my name from a dusty shelf. I thought “good this will work” until I hit the counter and was greeted with “That will be $14”. What for a quart of oil? I thought. I guess you got to take it like a man you got no choice. Only to find out that my CC company decided that my last 2 gas purchases looked suspicious and locked my account grrrrr. Another thing to do in the morning.

Now topped of and car seemingly happy, I continued down the road. Another 10 min went by before another “Ding” and a yellow triangle with a round whirly thing shows up in the cluster. Instant panic and blood pressure spike!! Is this the infamous Water Pump warning? A glance at the other display relieved my panic with a Freezing Temp Warning.  After another hour hit the Lake Havasu area and found a rest area to crash for night.

With 6hrs of shuteye under my belt I woke Sun. the 25th. to a sunny crisp morning and a nippy 31 deg.  After a supersize cup of Joe and a jelly filled something or other was acquired, I headed east through the southwest scenery.  Beautiful sunny weather all day through Arizona and New Mexico with temps bouncing from 32 to 48 deg.  With a few fuel and purge stops along the way, made it to Albuquerque by the afternoon and OKC by night. Finding a place to crash on the OK turnpike turned into an impossibility, and I pushed on into Missouri by 2am. That’s 5 states in one day.

Monday the 26th was just as the day before sunny and crisp. The trek continued through St Louis and Springfield IL. Arriving in Milwaukee by 8pm.  For a total of 2288 mi in 50hrs with 33 hrs of driving time.  The 535i performed admirably with a 29mpg avg. cruising @ 82mph. and no need to lift a wrench the whole trip.

 A couple of small issues were noted and a list of preventative maintenance was started. Another BMW road trip adventure completed and a E60/N54 service/support adventure just beginning.

[jc43089]

Looks nice! and sounds like a great drive.

[B C]

I enjoyed reading that. Looks like you gotta unload that Red E34 now for a reasonable price (pleaaaase!!!!)

[suspenceful]

Beautiful car. Welcome to the N54 life.

[Jdesign]

Nice score!

[RobZR]

snap said:

I enjoyed reading that. Looks like you gotta unload that Red E34 now for a reasonable price (pleaaaase!!!!)

A Sliver E38 and an E34 will be unloaded but not the Calypso your thinking off.

The fleet is getting a bit large at the moment with 2 E34's,  MZ3,  E38, E46, now an E60 and "the Big Red Bus".

[Earl]

So what's this other e34?

[RobZR]

Hellrot 540i/6 I drove back from Monterey in '07 she has 205k on the clock runs like a top but has typical hellrot clearcoat failure and is rusting around the edges. Doors,trunk lid, wheel well corners. Been waffling on selling it for 2yrs. Since Calypso is to nice to drive through the winter.

[i_love_cars]

Good read, and yet another successful cross-country journey for a car with a roundel on it. I always chuckle when I see how many people talk about BMW reliability and how you "can't trust those cars to travel anywhere"

[Daggerty]

i_love_cars said:

Good read, and yet another successful cross-country journey for a car with a roundel on it. I always chuckle when I see how many people talk about BMW reliability and how you "can't trust those cars to travel anywhere" 

They are so unreliable and expensive to fix.

[Daggerty]

I drove out to San Francisco but not back. I feel like the drive back would be so depressing. Going from nice terrain to corn fields.

[RobZR]

Daggerty said:

i_love_cars said:

Good read, and yet another successful cross-country journey for a car with a roundel on it. I always chuckle when I see how many people talk about BMW reliability and how you "can't trust those cars to travel anywhere" 

Daggerty said:

They are so unreliable and expensive to fix.

Have done this 6 times now. I'm only 50/50 on reliability. I had one alternator fail. Had to replace it in an AutoZone parking lot, Limped home another alternator with bad bearings, and had a thermostat stick open on another. All just on the trip back. For non car folks that would be terrible.

[RobZR]

Daggerty said:

I drove out to San Francisco but not back. I feel like the drive back would be so depressing. Going from nice terrain to corn fields.

It's actually nice to tie off the wheel set the cruise and zone out through Iowa and Illinois. After 25+ hrs driving.

[i_love_cars]

RobZR said:

Have done this 6 times now. I'm only 50/50 on reliability. I had one alternator fail. Had to replace it in an AutoZone parking lot, Limped home another alternator with bad bearings, and had a thermostat stick open on another. All just on the trip back. For non car folks that would be terrible. 

agreed in terms of being disastrous to non-car people, but to me something like an alternator failing in some way shape or form has nothing to do with BMW. That's something at risk for any car with any decent amount of mileage on it.