Bought a bmw, seller was a clown.

alexthecheese said:
We should have a mileage sweesptake.

I will be ridiculously optimistic and say that this has done 47k miles. Go.
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A £1250 330i, i would be surprised if it (shows) high mileage, but then i would also be surprised if the seller managed to retain any of the service history too ;)
 
To be fair, I'd have probably bought it at that price, assuming it appears to be running ok engine wise.

I fancy a project car at the moment, and miss my E46.

Part of me is tempted to buy back my 330d which I notice is still for sale a year later :D
 
Jez said:
This is uttered a lot on here.

Just what is it about a 330i which you suspect will cost the poster much at all to maintain, given the mentality of somebody running a £1250 example of a 330i?

He has already posted some significant repairs which have totaled less than £100 combined!
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None of the repairs mentioned are significant.
 
[TW]Fox;22232449 said:
None of the repairs mentioned are significant.
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He's bought a £1250 330i, found that a tyre for the 19" rim costs £67, did a rocker cover gasket for £32, replaced a rear lens for £15, and got drop links for £11.

Just what is it that you think will ever be spent on this thing given the level of costs already incurred? :p
 
I would totally love that for a track car project.

I agree with ditching the 19" wheels, they look shocking.

I know what you mean that the seller should have explained the scratches but you should have expected something wrong for £1500 and to be honest apart from the oil leak the other found faults are nothing major.
 
TBH, £1250 is an astonishing price. Well played tbh.

I'd love to have a project car like this and do as much as i could to return it to it's former glory (get rid of those **** alloys for a start). I'm guessing you could replace all the broken stuff in it for £100, make sure there is no underlying problems, give it a good polishing and wax, then turn it around for £2000+ (assuming it has the usual FSH/MOT etc).

If you're handy with a spanner, there really isn't that much that is going to cost your a fortune on a 330i. Apart from tyres but, ahem, i see you've got around that issue.

Bushes are a major problem with the 330i, so give them a check over. Rear shocks will set you back about £90 for a pair if you need them for Sachs OEM ones, about £150 for fronts. Springs cost £30 for a pair of rears. Bottom line is, if the engine is ok, the rest you can tidy up yourself with extensive use of eBay and ECP (with 30% discount).
 
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Cheers for that info. I'm useless with spanners but I have a friend who runs a garage who will do repairs for beer tokens.

The car is showing just over 126000.

Service book is stamped up until 111875 miles, that service was carried out in 2010 by Chandlers garage Brighton (dealer number 16225).
In 2011 receipts show it had a pas pump fitted, along with an air adjustment unit 3 months later. Last mot it required new ns and os front wishbone arms and bushes and front brake discs and pads. There are lots of receipts, a folder full.

Drop links arrived this morning. I'm collecting the rocker gasket kit after work today.
 
At 126,000 though i would get your mechanic mate to check the shocks for leaking etc. I would also have a look through the receipts to see if they have ever been replaced, because at 126k, they will need to be if they are still factory original. Also, get it a service ASAP, it's due for one and it'll allow you to keep the FSH.

TBH it sounds like a good buy!
 
I would also recommend ditching those alloys - some chav on an E46 will buy them off you. I'd recommend getting 17" alloys with tyres from eBay for £200 - at least then 17" tyres in the future will be much cheaper and you'll be able to afford some decent tyres rather than ditchfinders (which i would REALLY recommend you don't fit).
 
I was going to buy a set of the standard 18" staggered mv1 alloy wheels then sell these ones but for now they can stay on while I'm sorting out the important issues with the car.
My friend checked the car earlier this week at his garage when it was up in the air, he said all the shocks seemed fine and just pointed out the play in the passenger side drop link. I will have a dig through the receipts though and find out if these have ever been changed however just to be sure.
And its being serviced end of next week :)
 
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It sounds like a car you could potentially rescue from its previous owner. I'd be amazed if the fake wheel and fake aeriel fitter took his car to the main dealer for its service so I'd imagine he bought it some time after and then began to trash it. So, its recoverable if you take the right attitude towards owning it. The right attitude being not fitting 67 quid tyres :p Treat the fact its cheap as you getting lucky and spend what needs spending.

Though honestly by far the best thing to do is to get rid of those 19's - they are fake, they look **** and decent tyres are pushing 200 quid each which is just daft. Go for a set of 17 inch non-staggered Style 32's - they'll suit the car, are not hugely expensive on Ebay and you can fit quality, premium tyres to them for £100 a corner

Looking at the mileage there is a reasonable chance its last service was an Inspection 2 - you've lucked in if thats the case as thats the most expensive service on the 330i and it wont be due another for 60k or so.

Also, the brake fluid is almost certainly due now if it hasnt been seen by a dealer for 2 years.
 
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You can tell it hasn't been looked after. Paintwork looks dull and the swirl marks really stand out, the inside was filthy. No sweet wrappers or rubbish just dirty, my wife is a clean freak she's looking forward to tackling it.
This weekend i'll get the karcher out give it a good jetting over and clean it inside out then give it a polish (weather being decent I hope).

The cheap tyre was always going to be a temp thing until I can find a set of mv1 alloys locally. I had 18" style 32 on my previous bmw e46 coupe and I hated them tbh, really didn't suit the car but these are standard issue on the 328ci so I never changed them because I like to keep things original which is why i want to source a decent set of 18" genuine mv1's.

The last service in the book has the inspection 2 box checked and the oil service and microfilter so thats a bonus really with the inspection 2 as you said.

I'll ask my friend later regarding the brake fluid. I was going to ask him about the auto box fluid anyway so kill two birds with one stone this way.
 
People, on the whole, really don't know how to sell cars, and it sounds like the guy you bought from was one of these. People undervalue what giving a good polish and hoover inside can do to the value - it'd only take them a couple of hours!

It seems as though you have taken a chance on this one and it may well have paid off - only time will tell. I love the idea of doing this one day - it'd be so rewarding taking a car that i've always loved (330i), buying an unloved example and just spending a few weeks restoring it to how it should be. Then as an added bonus - selling it on for a small profit! It's just the risk of driving it away having parted with £1250 and finding that it had some terminal problem (knocking noise from the engine etc), but i guess you can give it a good inspection/test drive before you buy it.
 
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Gaygle said:
It seems as though you have taken a chance on this one and it may well have paid off - only time will tell. I love the idea of doing this one day - it'd be so rewarding taking a car that i've always loved (330i), buying an unloved example and just spending a few weeks restoring it to how it should be. Then as an added bonus - selling it on for a small profit! It's just the risk of driving it away having parted with £1250 and finding that it had some terminal problem (knocking noise from the engine etc), but i guess you can give it a good inspection/test drive before you buy it.
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It sounds like fun but in all honesty if you're buying a car to make money on you need to keep to a strict budget and know where to stop mechanically - It's easy to make a profit of sorts (if you don't put a value against your own time) assuming you know what to look for when buying and pick something up that's cheap and easy to work on but it's far better to do this with a car you're not really interested in.

In saying that, I still think that this could be fairly well sorted mechanically and rid of those stupid wheels for a few hundred squids - would be fairly confident that you'd make that back in say a year come resale
 
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