New Owner of an Older BMW.

I recently bought a 1991 BMW 325iX, coupe, 5-speed manual, red-ish...little faded. The car runs great, feels solid, doesn't look all that shabby outside, and the interior is in great shape. Price $2000.

I found a unicorn. I know this, and I don't want to screw it up.

Where can I find a list of the GRM issues that have had articles about the E30 chassis cars, and what is a "GRM Reader Approved" forum for these cars? Please help me fix the nut behind the wheel of this car.

(pictures added soon)

P.S. I was actually looking for an inexpensive SAAB 900/9-3 5-door when this car fell into my lap

R3vlimited.com is a pretty good E30 forum. Someone will chime in if GRM has done an article (there isn't a "list" anywhere that I'm aware of). They are pretty robust cars, just keep a good timing belt on it, keep rust at bay, and don't break the transmission (ix transmission parts are near unobtainium these days).

Nice car! I've owned several iX's, I currently have a 1988 model. There's an iX registry at http://home.earthlink.net/~hainesinutah/iX/ I think it's mostly inactive today (Gordon Haines who founded the site sold his cars some years ago) but there's still some good information there. In particular, read through the newsletters - they cover a lot of the quirks these cars have. Sounds like you got a pretty good deal; there aren't many of them left, particularly ones that are still in good condition.

My previous two iX's were red as well (the one I have now is white) and a good detail/buff/wax will really make the color come alive.

yeah, R3vlimited is a pretty good resource. Some of the usual forum BS, but overall a ton of knowledge if you stay in the technical sections and build threads section. I'm sure you can find a few IX builds in there to boot...

Be careful with the transfer case. I briefly had one before the days of the interwebz and got hosed by a BMW shop's interpretation of fixing the transfer case. Back then, that was the most prevalent problem with the iX

Thank you for the advise so far.

Stuart, that car looks exact like mine...except with much better paint...

Please keep the recommendations coming. This car will not really see duty beyond daily driving and some short-ish road trips.

Transfer case issues are still prevalent with them, especially if the central viscous coupling is busted. It'll still work(ish) in AWD, but you have an open center diff that's not going to do you any favours when you're driving on a slippery surface.

Oddly enough mine was also red.

I prefer the non AWD versions because they are lighter and simpler, but any E30 is a rad car in my book. Congrats!

Desmond wrote: I prefer the non AWD versions because they are lighter and simpler, but any E30 is a rad car in my book. Congrats!

95% of the time the all wheel drive is unnecessary, but it sure is nice to have for that other 5%.

stuart in mn wrote:

Desmond wrote: I prefer the non AWD versions because they are lighter and simpler, but any E30 is a rad car in my book. Congrats!

95% of the time the all wheel drive is unnecessary, but it sure is nice to have for that other 5%.

There are times... when it's nice to have.

Never stopped the RWD E30s

^^this

I had an automatic one a few years ago. Not the fastest car I have ever driven, but I was continually blown away about how sure footed it was in any slippery stuff.

I was constantly turning in early to anticipate the slide, and then having to correct out to not run over the apex because the car did not slide, it just turned in.

We always thought a 5 speed would have been the E36 M3. Good buy at 2k.