Another "should I" thread.....
Found a 1998 328is in what appears to be good shape. Interior looks perfect, very nice paint and a respectable undercarrarige for a 20+ year old Michigan car. $3400.
All I can find wrong is some power steering hose leaks. Seems to run pretty good.
Car has been "over detailed" so that could be hiding things but it looks straight.
Now the bad, 170 000 miles
And it's an automatic 
Manual trans swap parts price out at around $1500 and I need to get the ECU reflashed. Add on some other improvements / repairs and I'm sure I'll be at 6k pretty fast.
Is the ultimate driving machine worth it?
IMO, I'd get an e46 330i for the same money
$3,400 + 1,500 = $5k+ to be the car you want and that's before problems. Yeah, $6k
Go as far south as you can and spend that money on one more ready to go.
That seems a bit over priced. The over detailed comment to me is a bit of a red flag. However it could be that the car is owned by an enthusiast and they take good care of there car. I would be much mre interested in a stack of repair/maintenance receipts and then do a little snooping around to verify that they match up to what you are seeing on the car.
170k on an e36 doesn't seem high mileage at all. But that is a lot to spend on a car you're not sure on.
At that mileage random things will go wrong. My first car was an E36 of the same mileage. I put 50k on it over the next few years. I tried to keep it really nice and mechanically sound and I was constantly chasing my tail. $5k just in parts over those miles. Finally it wouldnt pass smog so I dumped it.
It might be fine but you never really know. For example. I had a coolant fitting on the firewall pop one day and the car overheated pulling into my driveway. It sounds trivial, and replacement was, but when a little hidden plastic part I didnt even know existed cripples a car then it cant be trusted to handle daily duty. Just my opinion. On another note, the drivetrain was solid. I had to swap the diff at one point but the 5 speed shifted perfectly and the engine ran smooth minus a sticky lifter. It was a shame it had to go really, I always wanted to drop that engine into a 240z... anyway.
Its the little things like that which made me not trust the car. I only drove it occasional due to that and the sitting made it worse.
I got my e36 with like 213k on it. It was taken care of though.
my biggest issue is the price. Seems quite high. And the auto, blech.
Yeah, that's too much. You're into E46 money.
I'd be looking for E46 330i ZHP for $6k.
You're going to break $1000+ worth of brittle plastic and rubber in the course of doing a auto to manual swap.
With BMWs, buy one fully sorted with all of the receipts, then plan on spending another $1200 on top of that.
Yep, that's a pass, especially for an auto.
I can't tell you how much stuff broke on my 1999 M3 from about 70k-100k in 2005-2011, so not nearly as old.
You want something with stacks of receipts, otherwise you're paying for it.
I think the E36 is wonderful, but the plastic stuff that breaks, and the steering that feels slow by modern standards, really kills it for me. I will not own another, unless you gave it to me, and even then I might refuse.
E36 dork here. Yes it is overpriced by a bit being an automatic. I am concerned where the $1500 swap costs come from as it would seem a pretty straightforward swap and 5 speeds are $400 bucks more or less unless prices have started to climb. There has to be a serious amount of these cars rusted and in the junk yards around you at this point so I cant see the swap parts costing much more than 500-600 bucks but may be WAY off.
They are great toys with fun driving characteristics and awesome dual duty abilities. Watch for the RTAB connection points pulling from the body (common especially in the rust belt. The interiors are comically bad (headliner, door cards, window regulators, etc etc) but they are extremely easy to work on and fun to tinker with!
E46 is nicer place to be but not as fun to toss around and has more emmissions/electro gadgets to contend with. At these price points, drive them and if you love them than buy them IMO. 170k miles is nothing.
Years ago, I drove a co-workers E36 328is 5-speed and couldn't believe the car had nearly 250k miles on it. Recently test drove an E39 530i 5-speed with 230k miles. Same reaction. Some makes feel clapped out by the time they get to 100k. BMW is not one of those makes.
I wouldn't consider 170 high miles. But I also wouldn't consider doing a manual swap on a car that's not all that hard to find as a manual.
1988RedT2 said:
Years ago, I drove a co-workers E36 328is 5-speed and couldn't believe the car had nearly 250k miles on it. Recently test drove an E39 530i 5-speed with 230k miles. Same reaction. Some makes feel clapped out by the time they get to 100k. BMW is not one of those makes.
I wouldn't consider 170 high miles. But I also wouldn't consider doing a manual swap on a car that's not all that hard to find as a manual.
Agreed. BMWs of that era hold up very well if maintained, but they absolutely don't tolerate neglect. Neglect things like the cooling system and stuff will start to break.
FWIW, my "buy an E38 with almost 150k on it and DD it" experiment has gone better than exepected after a bit over 2 years. Car is at 173k now and other than a small washer fluid leak, I don't think I've had anything I'd describe as a problem. All I've done is maintenance (including some catching up from the PO). I do need to deal with the looming timing chain guide concern at some point though, preferably before they fail without warning and leave me stranded somewhere.
In reply to rslifkin :
Agreed. IF they have been consistently maintained, they can feel pretty tight at 200k. They can also feel loose at 110k if they have not been maintained. I drove a ten year old E36 M3 with 110k that felt worn out. It really depends how they have been treated at almost any mileage.
Which is both cool, if they’re tight with 200k, or not very cool if they have half that and feel beat.
The platform is solid, just plan on replacing every bushing, balljoint, motor and trans mounts on the car if it hasn't been done in the last 5 years. The steering coupler is also a weak spot that makes the car feel sloppy.
Interiors disintegrate and everything that is rubber or plastic under the hood will turn to dust if you look at it wrong.
They're old cars and they are unaware that they're cheap -- they cost just as much to repair as any other German car.
I wouldn't put someone off an E36, if you find the right one. Parts availability is generally good, other than trim and interior bits. They make great race cars because the underpinnings are solid. But keeping one 'right' is not financially sensible unless you start off with one that is already there.
The 330i may be a smidge heavier, but it feels almost identical to the E36 M3 to drive. They aren't porkers.
But yeah...receipts for anything made of rubber or plastic, otherwise assume it needs done. FCP Euro is your friend.
wake74
Reader
1/15/21 7:31 p.m.
An M52 with 170k miles? Man that thing is hardly broken in :-) I just pulled the M52 out of my track rat at 255k miles and it's has damn near perfect compression still. Last time on a dyno, it made just at 200 rwp still with a tune. Last out at Daytona in October just buzzing away. And with the 3.64 LSD, it was hitting my rev limiter at start finish. I almost felt bad pulling that engine for an S52 thats been sitting in the garage forever waiting to go in, but since the clutch needed to go, I swapped it out. Someone's coming to purchase it tomorrow, so it will live on.
But agreed with the above, that's over-priced for an E36 Auto with those miles.
Mr_Asa
UltraDork
1/15/21 7:38 p.m.
170k is high mileage? Modern metallurgy and machining means that thing is only at half its age. Rest of the car is going to die before the drivetrain does, but you already said that looks good.
Now, about that auto-tragic, that's a different story
In reply to Olemiss540 :
I think a ZF goes for about $1200 ... Getrags are cheap.
My e36 M3 has 170k and its fine. I would have no problems buying one with 200k miles, but that car is overpriced.
Mechanically 170k is fine as long as the cooling system has been done, and at 170k it's almost guaranteed. Start looking for a car that's already a manual though. You'll be re-epoxying the door card clips, gluing the glove box door back together and replacing little plastic doohickies. Oh, and installing new window regulators. Do look for a ZF car though. An absolute peach of a transmission.
For a bunch of enablers, you guys are really making me do the right thing (not buy this car).
On to the next bad idea!
Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) said:
John Welsh said:
Various quickly found BMWs of similar total price around Atlanta:
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/237123517941972/?ref=search&referral_code=undefined
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/494796208158135/?ref=search&referral_code=undefined
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/876593806530159/?ref=search&referral_code=undefined
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/4257296950966482/?ref=search&referral_code=undefined
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/831855374325125/?ref=search&referral_code=undefined
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/215745986884141/?ref=search&referral_code=undefined
With the exception of the second listing, they are all 4 doors. That's an immediate NO. One was AWD too, and extra NO!
that red 1 series though...
4 door interiors seem to hold up better. It's been ten years since I've seen a 2 door E36 that didn't have flappy door cards. They sag under their own weight and catch on the body when you open the door, or something. This is one way, possibly the only way, that the E46 is superior: the interiors are not pre-biodegraded.
It's also been probably 7 or 8 years since I saw an E36 period, though. AWD E36s are kinda rare, I'm curious to see how they are put together.
(I think I have seen ONE rear drive E46)
Tk8398
Reader
1/16/21 9:17 p.m.
I can imagine even a remotely nice E36 will be $$$$ in a few years, they seem to be the latest disposable enthusiast car and you don't really see nice ones often anymore now.
There were no AWD E36s. Maybe you meant E46.
I believe it's hard to find a nice E36. Most were ruined years ago, and they had their issues even when they weren't 20+ years old. I see E36 M3s for around 10k in my area, but even at that price they usually have some weird stuff going on. Most have been "stanced" which I suspect means that money was put into wheels that don't fit and poor quality suspension pieces instead of normal maintenance.
Just did a quick search. Here's a nice Euro-spec car (imported). Yours for only $26K.
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/ctd/d/kirkland-1994-bmw-m3/7256955519.html
