How I got a £15,000 restoration for £2000

Question: when is owning one BMW 7 Series like having owned two? Answer: when you have owned the same one twice and discover that in between you selling it and buying it back, it has been completely restored.

- JOHN EVANS

Vip Kukanathan is that lucky man. He first bought his 1989 BMW 730i SE in 2016, when it was showing 85,000 miles. He used it for four years, during which time he drove it in triumph to the south of France, and then, when the repair bills began mounting, parked it up for another two before reluctantly parting with it in 2022. So far, so not unusual: a lot of people buy big, leggy motors only to offload them when the bills bite.