Every now and again you come across a car that you just have to take home. My thought? When will I ever see another? The answer is ‘never’. So I bought the car and am glad I did.

The DVLA database tells me there are 8 BMW E28 5 series from 1986/87 taxed and available to use today. I can see 4 on the various websites but only one of those is manual and its listed as a £49995 M535i. The others are all auto.

BUT that’s not the best thing about this car. This is a one owner from new car bought from Wellsway BMW of Bath and kept by the same owner residing at the same house since 1986. The car is a huge credit to the only owner and I hope to meet him one day and say ‘thank you’ for keeping this car in such amazing condition. This is a MANUAL gearchange car with full service history that has received NO remedial paintwork at all and presents superbly in metallic cirrus blue. The trim is incredible and essentially unworn. Over mats over the BMW over mats. Mats in the boot! Considering it has a recorded 147k miles the car is in incredible condition. All of this reflects very positively on the one owner who only sold the car due to his ill health.

To drive the E28 528i is a joy. The engine is smooth and responsive more like 47000 miles than 147 and the gearchange is a superb assured snick snick and exactly as I remember it from when I used to drive my bosses 528i back in 1985. Electric sunroof and windows where luxury for me back in 1985. All those memories come flooding back. The very comfortable sprung seats can move to find the perfect seating position. The dash and supporting dials and gauges are so clear and concise and frankly perfect for the ‘ultimate driving machine’ BMW claims in its marketing today. I’d like an M535i of course I would. BUT for a fraction of the price I can engage my own BMW warp drive in the silky smooth 6 cylinder 528i and have just as many smiles.

On the road the BMW is still incredibly ‘current’ and ‘modern’ to drive. The road holding and steering is precise and confidence inspiring. There was a problem with tyre supply for these metric alloy wheels some years ago but not anymore and the car is shod with new correct sized metric tyres. The spare wheel is unused as in it has never been removed! Same for the jack and tool kit which are complete and unused.

Back when the car was supplied the owner had BMW fit a tow bar and that remains on the car today. I was going to remove it until I realised it was a BMW own product. Never seen one before and it is part of the cars history. On the date of collection Wellsway BMW supplied a courtesy pack and medical pack together with the document pack. All of those items are still with the car. Even the key number fob is in the pack. Honestly, it’s remarkable and as though we are transported back to 29th November 1986 when the owner collected his pride and joy that was to be his transport every day for over 130k miles before the MOT record and service record tell us the car became a ‘special’ day car. Covering a few hundred miles per year. Still serviced every year by the same people and always MOT’d at the same place too. The first thing I did was take the car to that MOT station and of course it passed with no advisories. It’s that kind of car. A car for life that was the daily driver so cherished that nearly 40years on it survives in remarkable condition.

It’s been a privilege to prepare this car for sale. I am in no hurry to sell the only manual one owner E28 528i I can see in the UK today. If it stays with me for years I will be very happy to use and enjoy it. However, if you believe you deserve the chance to take on custodianship of this piece of our automotive history then phone for a chat.