BMW E36 328i Sport Guidance.

ardy89

ardy89

ardy89

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6 Dec 2005
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871
Hi,

I am interesed in purchasing the above car, do people have any advice on the sort of price I should be paying for one with 90000 miles on?

Also whats likely to go wrong on it.

I have seen a 96 P registered one for £2500 but the owner will not drop below £2200 for it. It has full service history and only had two owners!

Rob
 
Sounds like about the right sort of price for a genuine Sport. Buy on condition, not mileage. Check for rust around the arches etc. Biggest concern on these is Nikasil - it is a Nikasil affected engine so check its had a replacement engine under warranty.

At 12 years old and 90k miles the suspension will have had it so if its not had recent new suspension budget replacement - just under a grand should get 4xdampers, control arms etc. Other things to go wrong include bits of the cooling system, etc. Subframes rust on these as well.

Insurance at 19 will be ridiculous and you'll wrap it around a lamp-post within a few months of owning it :p
 
It is a genuine sport and I have asked the owner regarding the engine, it had a replacement engine at 15k miles. It's in excellent condition except it has started to slightly buble on the rear arch, I think this is a haggling point though.

I'm pleased with what you said regarding the price.

Here's the ad:

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/717930.htm

Rob
 
New engine will be because of Nikasil so it sounds ok there. Crap colour but otherwise utterly standard example which is very much what you want.
 
Nice colour. Just to add to what Fox said, the BBS corrode, and all bushes will probably be coming to the end of their life. Front arms and bushes, sub frame and trailing arm being the most common.

Water pumps break up and head gaskets are common. Cooling system is one of the biggest let downs.

Diffs tend to nock, but again, in my experience almost all of them do this to a degree. Can sometimes be down to a worn prop coupling. Remember if its an early sport it will have a LSD, and would probably benifit from an oil change (make sure its the right oil though or your kill off the LSD)

Not that much to maintain any more, will do 30mpg.

I owned one for for a while, enjoyed it, but spent a fortune getting it to drive how it should. Most of them are now pretty nackered on the suspension front.
 
I have asked him if it has had any suspension work done recently, there are others for sale which interest me incase this one turns out to be a dog!

Rob
 
I've got a sport of the same vintage, nothing in particular to look out for apart from the usual. If the back end feels a bit odd over bumps it will need new bushings, check for a whining noise from the back end that could indicate a worn diff. A good owners club can be found at www.e36coupe.com with some useful forums hanging off it. Check the wheels very carefully, salt and grime can get underneath the lacquer and corrode them, and due to the complicated design and split rim they are complicated (expensive) to refurb.
 
Cheers for the advice matey, how do you find the fuel consumption to be on town driving?

Rob

P.S. have signed upto that forum!
 
[TW]Fox;12561168 said:
£1600?! Blimey thats a very good quote.
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thats not that good? i live in an uber bad area and only pay £1700 at just turned 20 on a quicker higher powered more valuable newer 330i, with 0 real ncb? turning 20 didnt really affect quotes much either
 
rG-tom said:
quicker higher powered more valuable newer 330i,
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Great. Put your e-peen away unless you've something useful to offer the thread other than insurance quotes on a car with lower claims stats insured when you were a year older.

He is 19, it's a 328 (Probably not really any slower than your SUPER AMAZING UBER 330i), £1600 is a very good quote.
 
My N reg sport with the larger inlet manifold and TB never seemed that far off my good friends 53 plate 330 coupe;)
 
[TW]Fox;12562120 said:
Great. Put your e-peen away unless you've something useful to offer the thread other than insurance quotes on a car with lower claims stats insured when you were a year older.
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e peen? wtf has that gotta do with anything? and as i said it turning 20 made about £60 difference in reality on the quote, and Hull is almost all group B and C postcodes where as i live in an E, £1600 is about what id expect?


also where have i said it's super amazing? i actually quite like the e36 and if i had to get rid of the 330 to free up some cash id probably look at getting one :s stop trying to bait me
 
[TW]Fox;12560751 said:
Insurance at 19 will be ridiculous and you'll wrap it around a lamp-post within a few months of owning it :p
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hardly, I'm 19 and my brother left me with his 328i as he realised he can't drive in london. After driving it for a year i've now cancelled the insurance (which was cheaper than my civic) and tbh found the car not nearly quick enough to do any damage. Unless you really try and floor it round a turn and i mean REALLY then the fact it has no t/c doesn't matter a bit. I found myself wishing it would let go a bit easier. And now moving onto a 330i, not all 19 year olds are inexperienced, he may be one of the few who are safe and know their stuff.
 
Your post is irrelevent - £1600 for somebody who is 19 and has been driving less than 2 years on a 200bhp 3 Series with a patchy claims history (The car not him) is an excellent quote - its only about 400 quid more than I paid for a 2 litre Mondeo at that age!

The way you phrased it just sounded stupid, you know as well as I do that value has little if any bearing on insurance quotes (Go and run a quote for a £35k 330i M Sport and a £10k one and it will be the same).
 
Qeffects said:
tbh found the car not nearly quick enough to do any damage
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Was it broken? A stock 328i Coupe in good health will do 0-60 in 6.8 seconds thereabouts. It's not exactly a hypercar but it's certainly not slow by any stretch of the imagination.

Otherwise it would be in Insurance Group 6 rather than 16.
 
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