I went down a bit of a rabbit hole looking at the listing for this clean 1988 BMW 535is, as I previously owned a very similar car, right down to the color combo of Alpine White over Pacific Blue. The seller is a refreshingly honest eBayer with plenty of candid language pointing to the fact that he’s not a BMW fan and he’s listing this car on behalf of his daughter, who inherited it from her uncle. This E28-chassis 5-Series Iis a clean Colorado car with the preferred 5-speed manual and desirable Sport package, which gives is Recaro-like sport seats and an M5-style body kit. Find it here on eBay with bids to $2,325 and the reserve unmet.

The car I owned was a 1987 model, and you can find some ancient posts here on Barn Finds about it. In general, it was a bigger project than the seller let on, and I can recall feeling like the person I was buying the car from had never owned a project vehicle and was in over his head. It was a case of the individual not necessarily intentionally being dishonest about the condition of the car, but more just really having no clue how much work older vehicles needed. When it rolled off the truck, I was gravely disappointed by how poorly it drove, which was mainly tied to a very tired suspension and driveshaft center support bearing well past its expiration date. It eventually sold on Bring A Trailer for what was, at the time, a reasonable number.

The seller describes his 535is as a car that the long-term family owner began diving into as a bit of a build back in the day. His daughter’s uncle was an engineer by trade and apparently set out to build a massive custom stereo for it, and along with it, refreshed the interior with plans to move onto the exterior before the project stalled. The most desirable aspect of this car seems to be the brand new Pacific Blue leather sport seats. This is one of the rarer colors offered in the E28, and the sport seats are specific to the 5-Series. It took me ages to find a replacement set, and since these are powered seats, finding ones with working controls can also be a challenge. The seller would do well to include some better photos of the seats, and also explain if there are any issues with the power controls based on the switches being popped loose.

The M30 inline-six is a terrific engine and known to be very durable. Once running, it’s the sort of engine that just needs fluid changes to stay reliable. The seller notes that the idle stumbles a bit and he’s not wrong that there are myriad potential sources of vacuum leaks and other issues he has attempted to fix to no avail. He’s also correct that the seats, which were removed when the car was uncovered, are a bear to maneuver into their respective tracks and they’re also heavy as hell. Needless to say, there’s some assembly required with this mountain-dry E28, and based on the description, it sounds like he’s not holding out for huge money to get this project out of his hair.