New to 90's BMW's - Advice wanted!

[Earl]

Needs low like me=) Not a horrid price. Check the underbody and if you go look at it, remove the carpet over the rear wheel wells and check the towers. I din't know to check, but I got lucky and have a crazy solid car. The reason the price seems high to me though is only because mine had 145,000 miles and i only paid $2,200;) But If you want something more reliable, I'd get an e30=P It seems like they can handle anything you throw at them. E36's seem like they'll take it for a while and then they'll tell you that they don't like it, and they'll start falling apart.

[Bayerische Bombe]

Ryan... said:

... and an M bumper on that would be teh seks..

lol sauce was telling me that yesterday. Even if I didn't agree I suppose he'd find a way to make it happen.

[Bayerische Bombe]

mystere30 said:

good god it would need new wheels though...lol

I knew someone would have an issue with that, and I do agree.

[Earl]

Ryan... said:

I think it looks nice, fair price too but I'm sure they can be talked down! I like the color, and an M bumper on that would be teh seks..

Or my bumper;) lol

[rampelsauce]

If she gets a ti, its going to have an ///M bumper and all the suspension and wheels and goodies money can buy. Its gonna be wicked.

[Ryan...]

rampelsauce said:

If she gets a ti, its going to have an ///M bumper and all the suspension and wheels and goodies money can buy. Its gonna be wicked.

This is what I like to hear

[Earl]

Wanna have a competition to have the most wicked Ti then?

[Bayerische Bombe]

then it's between you and Zach. I'll be poor till I finish college this year and get a real job. Relatively few changes will be made using my own funding. lol.

[Ryan...]

Bayerische Bombe said:

Relatively few changes will be made using my own funding. lol.

Those are the best kind

[Snyperx]

Link isn't working:-( I wanna see...I wanna seee....

[camarok]

Snyperx said:

Link isn't working:-( I wanna see...I wanna seee....

+1

[Bayerische Bombe]

it must be gone. The search goes on. You can peep my current interest here: http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp?tracktype=usedcc&csDlId=&csDgId=&listingId=75776187&listingRecNum=3&criteria=prMx%3D5000%26sf1Dir%3DDESC%26prMn%3D0%26mkId%3D20005%26stkTyp%3DU%26rd%3D100%26crSrtFlds%3DstkTypId-feedSegId-mkId-pseudoPrice-transTypeId%26zc%3D53219%26rn%3D0%26PMmt%3D1-0-0%26stkTypId%3D28881%26sf2Dir%3DASC%26sf1Nm%3Dprice%26sf2Nm%3Dmiles%26isDealerGrouping%3Dfalse%26transTypeId%3D28112%26rpp%3D50%26feedSegId%3D28705&aff=national

The bad news is miles aren't posted. I just emailed requesting to know how much. I gotta start posting my Talon up on Craigslist this weekend too. Gonna try to time it so I can sell and buy in a pretty close time frame.

[Bayerische Bombe]

http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/cto/2646614279.html

This may also be a possibility... I just don't know if it's manual.

[wasnt m3]

Please don't settle on a beater like either of those. There's much nicer cars out there!!

[Earl]

Bayerische Bombe said:

http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/cto/2646614279.html

This may also be a possibility... I just don't know if it's manual.

^Eww....one piece headlights and G-Bay tails.....Why not snag one of the under $2000 e30's thats floating around?

http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/cto/2656883581.html

http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwi/cto/2671132039.html

OMFG look at this=O http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/cto/2637059793.html

And if you want a race car: http://chicago.craigslist.org/sox/cto/2666244615.html

[Bayerische Bombe]

someone said:

^Eww....one piece headlights and G-Bay tails.....Why not snag one of the under $2000 e30's thats floating around?

http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/cto/2656883581.html

http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwi/cto/2671132039.html

OMFG look at this=O http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/cto/2637059793.html

And if you want a race car: http://chicago.craigslist.org/sox/cto/2666244615.html

All of those have questionable things in the description, have more miles than I'd prefer, or in the case of the third one is considerably out of my price range.

[Blaine0002]

well, how many miles is your cutoff? i mean, tbh they can run forever without dying with proper maintanance. And even if the engine goes out you can swap in a new engine, they are so easy to work on.

my e30 just shit the bed at 220,000 because i neglected the timing belt, but i didnt really care much anyways.

my e34 rolled over 240,000 recently and is still running like a beast.

[Blaine0002]

and tbh http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwi/cto/2671132039.html sounds great.

[mystere30]

i want the race car...its cheap...only thing that scares me is the pictures have snow in them...which means they were taken last year. what does it look like now??... hmmm

[Chadley]

You wants knowledge of E36s? Listen up. Grab some popcorn. Semi-long post ahead.

First off. As with any E36, expect to spend 500-1k in maintainence items within the first 3 months of ownership. The exception to this rule is if there is documented service records, and said parts are in good condition. This money will give you a new front end, a new cooling system, and new bushings all the way around. Once this is out of the way, you should have a fairly reliable car, no matter what the mileage.

Second. Mileage. E36s are kinda like E30s, except different. But they're the same in the fact that they will last, when properly maintained, for 300k+. If you get a car that has had 1 or 2 owners, you probably dont have to worry about the engine crapping out,because it probably didnt live its life at 7k (unless the 2nd owner was a ricer. then run away)

Third. E36s have the worst interior known to man. Holy crap do they suck. The door panels were designed by Satan himself, while God designed the rest of the car. The plastics are so cheap-feeling. It creaks, the headliner will eventually decide to move from the ceiling to the floor, the seats will quit folding forward one day, and just when you've had enough, the door cards will be like FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU and then fall off.

Fourth. E36s are like E30s, kinda, but not really. Electrical gremlins arent as big of an issue as they are in E30s, but ghosts are. Every day you will hear a new noise that you think could be bad, but then never hear it again. You'll think something is broken then realize, after you replaced it, that in fact you wasted your money because the part that is 10X cheaper/easier to replace is at fault, and the car will be laughing at you. Thats how E36s are. Kinda like moody, teenage girls.

My E36 drives me bonkers. Sometimes I just wanna sell the stupid thing and get an e30 again. But then again, I do enjoy my E36. IMO, its a cross between an E30 and an E46. Just enough to make it nice and comfortable, but not too much to take away the driving element of any driving luver. Make sense?