Guy replaced an 08 535i with new fuel/water pump, and thermostat before 40k- fishy?
 

Contemplating buying an 08 535i I found on craigs----guy says he replaced the fuel pump, water pump, and thermostat already and the cars only at 43k miles----isnt that extremely uncommon this early? I dont know that much about cars and this is my first BMW I am considering buying but aren't these things that dont need to be replaced until much later on IF they even need to at all? I asked him why he replaced them all and he said "why would I not when I planned on keeping the car until 100k miles and they would eventually need to be replaced"-----I plan on taking this to BMW for a $100 pre-inspection my brother was telling me about before I purchase but I was just curious regarding this

Not at all uncommon. I had two high pressure fuel pumps go before 40 K miles. At around 55 K-57K miles I had my DTML pump and water pump replaced. So the guy might just have been diligent or the car is a lot of trouble.

Get the pre-purchase inspection done.
You can visually tell if those parts have been replaced. Some of those bolts are painted blue. Replacement bolts aren't painted. Does he have receipts for any of those parts? Does he have maintenance record/history. If you get the PPI done at BMW dealer, they can look up and tell you about the history of the car and tell you if there are any open recalls/TSBs pending on that car.

im going to see the car later this week and im going to ask if he has all of the paperwork for those replacements----are those something that often need to be replaced multiple times?

Not sure about the water pump but the BMW N54 engines fuel pump are known to give a lot of problems. For more information about it try searching BMW HPFP.

welp ran an autocheck and the car has an accident anyway----its a clean title but has an accident listed which i didnt even know was possible but now ive learned

It'll have a clean title as long as the car wasn't totalled by the insurance company. It would have a salvage title if that was the case. Perfectly normal for a car that was in an accident to not have a branded title. If you like the car and the price is good, I would still get it checked out. Depending on what it was and who did the repairs, the accident may not be that big of a deal. On the other hand, there are tons of E60s out there so if the asking price doesn't reflect being in a accident, move on. You'll find something else.

sometimes an accident is just cosmetic fender damage.
The water pump is electric, so after a certain number of years and miles it seizes up. It's normal for an 08 car, happened on mine. Not a reason to pass on a buy. You replace the thermostat too, so that is normal. Should be good for another 5 yrs.
Same for HPFP which BMW will replace for 10 yrs or 120k miles.

Sometimes when you buy a used car with a flawless record, a bunch of items fail after you take ownership because they were due and hadn't been replaced by the previous owner. Keep that in mind. Btw the 2008 535 has forged internals. It is a very durable engine, you just have to take care of it. If you are not prepared to pay for preventive maintenance, then get a Toyota or Honda or similar. I don't mean that in a disparaging way, my first car was a Honda Accord back in 1990 and it was a great car for the money, very reliable. BMWs require TLC. Performance comes at a cost.

Oh im well prepared for maintaining the car. I have multiple relatives with bodyshops which is convenient. This one just scared me away because the guy said it had been in no accidents but the autocheck said otherwise.

A decent vehicle report should give you the $ amount of the damage so you can eval if the accident was anything to worry about, I just got a 2004 545 with similar issue the accident was a surprise to me as well but after realizing it was only a small fenderbender of 8K which is really neglible since it happend in 2005..........