Originally posted by Pete D:
As a daily driver I wouldn't do it. European cars can get pretty expensive very quickly in terms of maintainence and repairs. If you can do all the repairs yourself it will help but parts are still far from cheap, even from discount web sites. Every time my Volvo brakes (which isn't all that often) my wallet cries. If the A/C is dead and it's a 93 it still might be on R-12 (Freon) and you would have to have it converted probably, more $$$.

As a track car I would say jump on it, gut it, mod it, take it to a road coarse or autox, as a daily driver I would pass.

Auto? how many miles and how much are they asking?

HTH,
Pete



I've owned a high-mileage Saab before; I know all about European car repair part prices. BMWs are actually pretty reasonable on that front - sure, the parts cost more than Ford in most cases but less than M-B. For example, a replacement water pump is about $78, a bit more than I paid for te metal impeller one in my SVT. The biggest maintenance thing with E36 BMWs appears to be suspension bits - subframe bushings, shock mounts, control arm bushings. They also have problems with the plastic impeller on the factory water punp shattering - where have I seen that before? - and radiators splitting at plastic-to-metal seams.

The one I'm looking at has about 112k miles on it, and I figure I can get it for less than $5k. Second owner, past 5 years maintenance done at a good independent shop, was right up front with the problems it has. Has had the suspension recently gone through, so it should be good for a while. It is a R-12 a/c system, but I spoke to an independent auto a/c shop and he indicated that it would probably be in the $300 range to repair it, which I can live with.

Thanks for the input.

Scott

Troll! '99 BMW 328i