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

[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?

[Bayerische Bombe]

Chadley, super informative, and yes, that does make sense! Thanks! Definitely some food for thought as I continue my bimmer shopping. Totally lmao-ed at several of your points too.

[Earl]

Any car you buy is going to poitentially have problems=) You just have to go and see them in person an take them for a spin

[rampelsauce]

Yeah, I want to get a day setup where we can go out and do some serious recon. Some hot hot recon...... We really need to sell that shitty DSM though. I want to set it up like I did my car, sell it, then go buy the new one a couple hours later.

[Celina325is]

Coming from a guy that bought a beater E36, and attempted to make it nice, The advice I have for you is get something with a clean body, or at least clean enough that it doesnt need professional help. I spent like 1800 on body work on mine, and granted, now it looks darn nice but I could of had a sweet wheel and suspension setup for that instead.

I have owned a M44 ti. Coming from a 240 hp Prelude, and a 280 hp 540i, I began to dread climbing in the thing. Also, people will tell you that the ti is a nice commuter car. That was not my experience. No good gear for highway, I thrashed the thing just to get around. If you havent driven one, do so. I think you will quickly cross it off your list after also having driven a 325/328.

If I could play the E36 game over again, I would get a 328ic with a hardtop. The hardtop look on the vert is sick and there is no reason a person couldnt drive it that way in winter. Maybe not with the hardtop, but you could get a 328ic for around 5k. you could also get a moderately sad 95 M3.