328i or 325i? [E36]

digitalwolf

digitalwolf

digitalwolf

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Hi there.

My mate has decided to go German for his next car and has £4k to spend.

I pushed him in the direction of the E36 6 pots.

Which one is best out of the 325i and 328i?

(3 door sport)

Cheers.
 
have the 328i's not had their engines replaced due to nikasil problem or something?

If so, may be worth getting the 328 as it will have much less miles on the engine?
 
try and get an e36 328i sport with LSD (earlier models iirc) much easier to control and dont be put off by high milers as long as there serviced they will go on forever :D
 
I quite like the idea of the 328, i.e. it's a nice car, cheap and pretty fast as I understand it, but I can't bring myself to do it as they do look a tad old now, mind it might be that the brother had a e36 318 coupe a while ago and so familiarity. Or maybe I'm just talking poop.
 
They dont actually do a 325i Sport so the decision is rather easy, 328i Sport.

328i replaced 325i in 1995 - so for your budget they will all be 328i Sport's anyway. Get a proper minter for that much money, a nice late 98-99 one.
 
Anything post March 1998 should be Ok anyway...

A safe new alusil block with have a metal tab. need to look into the engine bay, from the passengers side of the car, and down the side of the engine toward the middle of the engine where the cylinder head meets the block.

The metal tab you are looking for will be on the face of the block casting that is facing upwards towards you, just along from where the gearbox meets the block.

Be worried if it's missing!
 
I can't see them costing loads more to run, obviously more in every area (especially tyres :p). Don't quote me on this though, as I have read other peoples opinions that they cost about double the amount of the 328. The non-Evo is meant to be the car to go for if you want to avoid the associated reliability foibles of the twin-VANOS system. You definitely want a nice big contingency fund though- they're old cars and could get very expensive.

Insurance may be a killer though. I currently own a CTR, have had quotes on E46 328CI's at about the same as my CTR (450 notes). An M3 Evo comes in at over a grand.

Oh and yes, £4k is pretty stupid on anything other than an M3.
 
danza said:
I can't see them costing loads more to run, obviously more in every area (especially tyres :p).
Click to expand...

Tyres are only 17"s I've found them to not be any more expensive for me than tyres for the Leon. There aren't many "huge" costs with the e36 M3, even tax is based on the "am I a large engine or not" tax bands.

danza said:
Insurance may be a killer though. I currently own a CTR, have had quotes on E46 328CI's at about the same as my CTR (450 notes). An M3 Evo comes in at over a grand.
Click to expand...

Same price on an M3 Evo for me as it is for the Leon.[/quote]
 
M3's are considerably more to service and if anything goes wrong with the M specific parts, they are expensive to repair. You keep making the mistake of thinking that just because you are able to replace an engine in a day on your drive using a spanner and an empty toilet roll tube, everyone can.

M3 ownership is, for most people, an expensive proposition. £4k will buy a very average or particularly old M3, or one of the very mintest E36 328i Sport's.

So it's not quite as cut and dried as you might think.
 
They aren't "considerably" more to service, from the research I have done, and whilst the ///M specific parts carry a premium, use spares are a-plenty. Also, I think your view on my skills with a socket set are skewed somewhat "just because you are UNABLE to change one shock absorber" doesn't mean everyone is the same ;)
 
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