[bmw] 1990 525i questions

[Robert Chase <beostar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello everyone,

Im a pretty active member of the diesel-benz forum but I have lurked for 
a while in the BMW digest.  I am looking at a car for a freind and have 
some general questions.

I drove the car today and it handles and rides very well. It shifted 
well but sometimes it was a little tricky getting it into gears but I 
think that is more my lack of 5 spd driving than the car.  The car had 
some strangeness going on with the idle though it would sometimes go up 
to 1000 to 1200 rpm and want to stay there.  When you blipped the 
throttle the rpm eventually came down. As well the car at idle seemed to 
"hunt" a bit for its idle rpm.  The car had a noticable exhaust note but 
I think it was normal. It was quite faster than I had expected being the 
base engine of the 5 series at the time.

The car is black with tan and is in OK condition.  The interior has a 
few seams that have come out of the leather but no damage has occured 
yet from the seams.  The leather is dirty but I have experience 
restoring leather and it will probably come back to life rather well. 
As well one of the rear door panels needs replacment as the leather is 
coming away from the panel.  The exterior paint is in great shape with 
few issues at all.  The wheels however have been the unfortunate victim 
of a driver that can't stay away from curbs.  One is bent and the spare 
is badly curb rashed.

The car has 188k on it and needs some general cleaning on the inside and 
some replacement of interior tidbits to make it perfect.  The dealer is 
asking $3900 but I have purchaced 2 diesel Mercedes Benz's from him in 
the past and he cut me a discount right off the bat to $3700.  The car's 
airbag light is on and covered up by a sticker as well.  The A/C seems 
to work and the car drove well other than the engine issue. It will 
probably need some tires sometime in the future. Is this car a "good 
deal" or something to run screaming from?

As well what might be wrong with the engine to make the rpm abnormal?

The inside of the engine compartment looked well serviced and it had a 
recent timing belt change (written on the fuse box cover).

What is the life expectancy of one of these cars?

Thoughts?

Robert Chase
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