purchasing 2001

Hi everyone, i am new to this site and new to BMW cars. I always loved the E38 and now am getting close to owning one. I found one about 10hrs away from a dealer on internet. He is a small dealer which sells used highline cars. He has a nice 01 with 82k on it , but he has no info on car as he purchases cars from auction and resells. He did mention to me that he had to replace mas sensor. And he said car drives excellent now. He also offered to take car to local bmw dealer to have car checked if I would pay for the inspection. That seems fair to me. Now for my question, can I trust dealer to perform a pre purchase inspection being I am fron out of state? Also what cost should I expect to pay for checkout? Lastly, do you think dealer would run vin while its there to give me history of service?

Thanks for any replies.

Frank

the inspection will probably cost you about 200$...when i bought my e38 i got it from a bmw dealer outside of chicago and still took it to my local bmw dealer for an inpsection. You shouldn't have any issues even being out of town. they may not, however, give you the service history. They didn't want to give them to me for some reason when i bought my e65, but i refused to purchase without seeing them--so they gave them to me.

On the E38 i would find a local indy german specialist as they do these inspections from a different point of view. I just did this and it cost 100 dollars. They are also the ones doing most of this work as of late as most e38 owners do not still go to the dealer. When I did mine they were well versed on common issues and very helpful. If you get the vin take it to your local dealer and ask a service advisor to get you the service records from when it was in warranty.