My $500 BMW 318ti

scored a $500 1996 318 ti 5spd off Detroit C-list yesterday Runs and drives great! Big ups to AngryCorvair for scouting it out for me and giving me a green light for the 2 hr trip. Future budget/challenge and 1 series killer!

Like it. Good buy.

wow.. the 318ti is one of the few E36ers keeping their value.. what is wrong with that one that it is so cheap?

mad_machine wrote: wow.. the 318ti is one of the few E36ers keeping their value.. what is wrong with that one that it is so cheap?

Metro Detroit CL is a special place. I have seen all sorts of neat cars go for very little money.

mad_machine wrote: wow.. the 318ti is one of the few E36ers keeping their value.. what is wrong with that one that it is so cheap?

passenger side mirror sheared off, driverside interior door panel missing, driverside window retractor broken, bad ignition switch (has key chip), dings dents and scrapes, loud exhaust

Kenny_McCormic wrote: Metro Detroit CL is a special place. I have seen all sorts of neat cars go for very little money.

TRUTH!!! Luckily i also have realtives up there so its even better. Two vehicles from detroit CL have ended in my home.

Also 500$ is a freaking steal. Whats the catch?

That's was up for a while, I kept looking at the add and not doing anything. Good score, what's the running gear like, is that the one that wasn't running?

Adrian_Thompson wrote: That's was up for a while, I kept looking at the add and not doing anything. Good score, what's the running gear like, is that the one that wasn't running?

drove it back to Cleveland, runs great and has a newer clutch and 5 spd is great. Could use tires and brakes. Guy was gonna scrap it the next day! He inherited a van and did not want the ti.

drove it to shop this morning and the AC blows ice cold!!!

Would you like for me to see which door panel I still have sitting around? My ti was gutted and not running when I bought it for the same price, but I got all the interior parts that were left.

Needs more bbs wheels, low, and flares

$500 for anything running with working a.c is a good price. You stole that thing!!

Gearheadotaku wrote: $500 for anything running with working a.c is a good price. You stole that thing!!

Agreed......if its the black one I kept seeing listed on autotrader in detroit, they steadily dropped the price from 3k-2k-1k....etc

If I had known it dropped to $500 I prolly would have bought it.

Edit: btw, my advice is rewire the car to OBD-0 if you want to ever make power without the inline 6 in there. ;)

Adrian_Thompson wrote: That's was up for a while, I kept looking at the add and not doing anything. Good score, what's the running gear like, is that the one that wasn't running?

I will begin the suicide watch on you tonight for passing up on this.

Nice score! I'm just a few days from posting my 318ti not really a build, but a repair thread (didn't want to suffer the unfinished project fate that so many build threads experience - so nothing gets posted until it's about ready for the road.

oldtin wrote: Nice score! I'm just a few days from posting my 318ti not really a build, but a repair thread (didn't want to suffer the unfinished project fate that so many build threads experience - so nothing gets posted until it's about ready for the road.

The precise reason I won't post an ongoing engine swap to mine.....

yamaha wrote:

Gearheadotaku wrote: $500 for anything running with working a.c is a good price. You stole that thing!!

Agreed......if its the black one I kept seeing listed on autotrader in detroit, they steadily dropped the price from 3k-2k-1k....etc If I had known it dropped to $500 I prolly would have bought it. Edit: btw, my advice is rewire the car to OBD-0 if you want to ever make power without the inline 6 in there. ;)

After last years Challenge I decided I wanted to do a Ti, I searched many months and then gave up until last week, on a whim i searched again. Saw that car go from $900 to $600 asking price within a week and spontaneously had to buy it.

i had not seen the ad until westside asked me if i could check it out for him. the ad was so poorly written (grammar, typos, misspellings) that i wasn't sure how loud the banjos would be when i got there. damn, i missed a good one here. if i was more of a snake, i would've told him it was junk so i could buy it myself.

srsly, it's fairly straight and i only saw a tiny bit of cosmetic rust, no structural rust. engine and trans are leaky, exhaust is cobbled poorly. i pulled the dipstick and the oil cap, didn't see any sludge or milkshake. power windows and moonroof worked, engine started right up, shifter is a little sloppy but it engaged all gears, no issues with synchros, steering and brakes felt OK. i told westside to let me know if he wasn't buying it so i could buy it myself. i figure it's a weekend of cleaning and $200 in parts away from being a $2000 car.

Nice buy

Enjoy it!! I had a '98 and really liked it

In reply to AngryCorvair:

text of ad you you know i wasn't exaggerating:

have a 96 bmw 318 ti 4cly 5speed rwd 2door hach back car. needs tlc. kinda a hard car to find. some pros and cons of the car.

needs-
high miels-no smoke tho
front pads rotors soon. feel worped when brakeing.small simi
exhoust needs work. kinda lowd
no drives door pannall window works but bad swich
needs 2 tiers soon
and broken drives seat. so u have a lean
no radio and the tumbler broke for the key so it takes two keys to start.no bigge tho.

good- runs good. starts every time.
fast little car every thing eles works. sun ruf,lights,ex..
newer cluch in car
25+ miles per gallon

Wow. Referring back to our Craigslist thread, this brainiac probably could have tripled his money if he could string two words together.

got kinda excited when I thought "kinda lowd" was abbreviated for kind of lowered. Car seems to have aftermarket exhaust and front rotors also.

From the GRM Community News Agency:

With the recent purchase of a running and driving BMW E36 Ti for $500, forum member westsidetalon has shown evidence that the number of GRMworthy cars on the Detroit Craigslist may now be approaching the Atlanta Craigslist as a source of relatively healthy project cars for low prices. Anthropologists are also pondering the similarities of the language used on the Detroit list to the one used in Atlanta. When westsidetalon was asked about the potential benefit of this discovery to automotive culture, he responded: "I got my E36 Ti..do your berkeleying homework if you want to find your own."

Seriously, dude..nice find. Can't wait to see what you do with it!

Wow around PA I can't even find a used set of rims for 500$ heck of a buy. Gonna make it your dd? Autocross?

nepa03focus wrote: Wow around PA I can't even find a used set of rims for 500$ heck of a buy. Gonna make it your dd? Autocross?

just stashed the car in the warehouse for a future challenge pick