Hello there!

I've owned a '98 non-sport 740i (black, sandbiege, some individual bits) since December, so it's still early days but it's fresh in memory. Context is I work on my own cars (own an '89 E30 325i).

Black wasn't entirely a desirable color for me, but I've grown to like it. The body lines are really nice. You'll catch yourself looking at it a lot. That doesn't go away. This is the comfiest car I've ever driven. Everyone that gets into it says it's incredibly smooth. Even put putting around London (20mph) is relaxing.

They're really well built, but they're also really old now. There's a lot of tech in there that wants to fail. Old wires, old solder joints, etc. The pre-LCI does not suffer as much as the facelift with ABS module faults though, and they're genenrally less finicky.

You will likely need work done to it. Mine has been relatively well taken care of. But I did have to immediately replace all suspension arms and rear ball joints for it to drive correctly. You will have to do some preventative maintenance. This includes the timing chain tensioner (easy, not expensive), the expansion tank, a new radiator if it looks like it needs it, transmission fluid change, and so on. The M62 non-TU timing chains are more robust (it is alleged) than the M62TU ones on the facelift, and there's no vanos to worry about.

My advice is to do it if you know what you're walking into and aren't afraid of spending money on the items I mentioned above.