850 in Santa Clara

I know next to nothing about the 850. What are the pros and cons of this 12 cylinder BMW. A brief tutorial would be welcome here.

Steve
 
Santa Barbara

Oops. Typo. Thank you for correcting me.

This is a purchase for my wife's 40th birthday. She has loved this model and cannot drive a manual. As to the V12 vs V8, she could care less and although I've heard from some that the V8 is a more straightforward car to maintain, I've heard some compelling arguments from the other side that the V12 is not the nightmare it's often made out to be. Also, given the few thousand miles a year I think she'll drive it, finding a well maintained car that can spare another 10 miles without too much trouble is my objective.
 
Get on an 850 message board and do TONS Of research.

These things are not cheap to repair or maintain.

I would be partial to the 840 if you had to have an automatic.
 
I've had one for two years, but it's the V8 automatic. Given the ubiquitous presence of the M60 motor across the BMW lineup, I felt very comfortable purchasing one with >100,000 miles as it's a tried and true engine and it is familiar to BMW mechanics.

$29K for a low-mileage automatic is probably priced near correctly, given its condition.
I paid <$7K for a well-maintained black/black 840 with 115,000 miles, but it also had OEM throwing star wheels and dark yew trim (a la 850csi), which are very hard to find. To date, it's been pretty easy to maintain.

I love this vehicle that Claus Luthe designed. You can get great help on the bimmerforums 8-series website and there's a terrific bunch of people in the BMWCCA E31 club.

I hope you go for it, or one like it.

Here's another V12 automatic for 1/2 the money, but only 76,000 miles... (no affiliation)
http://phoenix.craigslist.org/cph/ctd/5544215842.html
 
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Rob's article

That was great, thanks for linking to it. Makes me wish I had that "regret" sometimes. I'm only up to 5 but I have such trouble parting with them. My blood is literally in them.
 
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