Yeah, have the Carfax. One owner with no reported damage. I called Eric at Auto-Werks and he said it wasn't profitable to do pre-inspections anymore, so he stopped doing them. He had a good friend, who he called "a BMW expert", who has a shop right behind his. So he referred me over there. I talked with him on the phone and he seemed pretty straightforward and legit. So the dealer took the car over the next morning and Steve at Taussig's Auto did the inspection for me. He drove the car, gave me the run down on condition, put the car in the air, removed a bunch of covers under the car to check for leaks, checked tires, brakes, SMG, checked electronics, checked for recently cleared fault codes, etc. Pretty thorough from what I can tell. He said "no one buys these cars to baby, so I was expecting to see some wear and tear when I got the vehicle in the air. But I cant find much; it's in really good condition." He put a scope on the pulleys and said he could hear a little bearing noise, but I assume that'll be covered under warranty if I have a problem later on down the road. So I feel better now. Just waiting on the dealer to receive the title from their bank, since they recently paid it off. Even though I can't drive it yet, the countdown to putting the Beast in my garage has begun! Thank you to all of the guys who took the time to suggest a place or offer to look at the car for me. I saw the Bavarian Machine Specialties' list of inspection items after I had my car inspected already. Man, that's detailed list of items! I wonder how much they charge?
P.S. I guess I'm in the wrong line of work, because $250 for 2 hours of work seems pretty profitable to me!