^ yeah, that 5.0 V12 is a dud. You'd expect amazing performance figures out of such an engine from BMW, but really its quite a tame, high maintenance beast.
God forbid when it needs a rebuild, as BMW stopped selling parts for that engine some time ago.
The whole car is heavy, mediocre performing and very high maintenance. I too was very interested in an 850I many years back; but came to my senses after doing a bunch of research.
If you're thinking of importing a nice German sports car from Japan, go with an SL500. Its lighter, significantly faster and much less maintenance. That 5.0 V8 has hordes of F1 technology invested into it as well. It can spank the 850I in terms of pretty much everything.
Since both cars were also sold in North America; getting it legal for registration south of the border shouldn't be very difficult. IM pretty sure it has to be registered in Canada first though, you cant just bring it from Japan to the US, although I'm not certain on that clause.
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