Enablers, enable me 88 325ix

So while my current job has me commuting via public transport into the city I have no need for the Si anymore so plans are to sell it, lose the car payment & save for a home easier & get something else that I can purchase outright since the Starion isn't the most trusted for DD responsibilities. I'm only doing maybe 40 miles a week & an occasional long haul for a concert. I have a line on a coworkers 1988 BMW 325ix coupe, Alpine White, manual trans. It currently has 201k on it, recent timing belt, water pump, power steering lines, new sunroof assembly, tons more. It's got the 91 front & rear bumpers, & is lowered on H&R springs 1" all around IIRC, also has header back exhaust, no cat (throaty sound, very subtle). Needs a blower motor resistor, front sway bar installed, & one new rim all of which come with the car. It does have a rather loud valve tick which hopefully is just an adjustment? The body is in a great shape & drivetrain is solid. Drives & stop great. Asking price is $3k. Enable me GRM.

E30s are awesome.

Run away from the ix and don't look back.

I have two of them, an '88 and an '89. I've been driving the '88 for a decade, I picked up the '89 last year. They're great cars, and one you found sounds like a good example - in 1988 they came with all the bells and whistles standard (leather sport seats and wheel; electric windows, locks and sunroof; premium stereo and onboard computer, 15" alloys.) '89 and later cars were decontented so all that stuff was optional. My cars have proven to be very reliable - the only issue I've ever had with the '88 was a fuel pump that quit a couple years ago. I did have to spend some cash on the '89 to fix leaky seals on the automatic transmission. In both cases the AWD bits have been troublefree.

$3k is a good price, I'd snap it up.

Valve adjustments aren't a big deal to do, but also check to make sure it's not a leaky exhaust manifold gasket.

In reply to stuart in mn:

With the header on the car I actually thought it could be. It does sound like its more towards the left/rear of the motor. But it's hard to say sitting behind the wheel. A lot of people are scared of these cars, I'm not. I own a Starion, that is more scary than an ix.

How badly do you want awd? The rwd variants are a fair bit easier to find certain parts for. A coupe IX is very, very rare from what I understand.... neat car.

Honestly wasn't looking for an E30, finding a clean rwd model with a stick around here is impossible. All autos & verts, personally I could take or leave AWD I feel I'm fine in snow with 2wd either front or rear.

the worry about higher mile m20 engines thesedays is if a valve adjustment doesnt remove the tick it's likely to be rocker arm bushings worn which can break arms ultimately. not too hard to fix but still a pain for a DD. of course our e30 makes all kinds of noises and we regularly kick its ass autocrossing and its been doing that for 6 years so you never know.

the biggest thing now, up here especially, is rust. if its not all rusty you wont lose money on it if you dont like it.

I would think an ix would be a neat car. A lot of parts are specific to them and aren't compatible with other E30's, but BMW made quite a few of them so even in the US, parts aren't terribly hard to find. I see stuff pop up on the E30 forums all the time. The biggest killer for me (commuting 100+ miles a day) is the gas mileage. 20 mpg tops.

Here's one that just sold on eBay for $6500. Granted, it only had 101k miles but it is a price point. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/250958501506

Ian F wrote: I would think an ix would be a neat car. A lot of parts are specific to them and aren't compatible with other E30's, but BMW made quite a few of them so even in the US, parts aren't terribly hard to find. I see stuff pop up on the E30 forums all the time. The biggest killer for me (commuting 100+ miles a day) is the gas mileage. 20 mpg tops.

I get more like 25-26mpg with mine on the highway. They do a lot less than that around town, of course. For the original poster who doesn't drive very many miles per week it's probably less of an issue.

I don't know if rare is the proper term but they are pretty uncommon in the US. There's a thread over on the Bimmerforums that has some confusing production numbers by year, I'm not sure I can make sense of them but it appears that less than 1000 per year were sold in the US. There is some good general reference information in that thread, it's worth a look: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1077032

Had a buddy in college had a 325 xi.

Striped it out welded a cage Set the chassis for dry handling conditions

Did the head, cams, and installed a diesel crank (gets you to 3.2L)

Damn thing was scary fast in the hills.

I've never heard of an ix getting in the mid 20's... yours is a first. Hell, my RWD IS rarely gets above 25, which relegates it to Summer/weekend duty. But yeah... 40/week vs the 500+ I drive does skew my view of such things.

I may be high on the mpg estimate, to be honest I don't pay much attention to it. On the other hand, 90% of my driving is in town so I don't have a lot of long highway trips on my car.

As for the diesel crankshaft (or an eta crankshaft) they'll make the engine into a 2.7l.

Not concerned with fuel economy, so long as I don't average single digits. I averaged 35 in my Si on a recent trip to TN, 38.1 on one tank. This is a car rated at 29hwy but I managed to better that.

I owned one. Living in NC, I would much rather have a clean 325is.

I have on 04 X3 3.0i 6 speed I get 28 mpg @ 65 MPH

Thats a good deal for a plastic bumper car with the timing belt and water pump done. The blower resistor is a half hour job tops. A valve adjustment made a world of difference on my last 325is. You can't go wrong at that price.

I'll also add that it has the cardinal red interior & the 15" BBS basket weaves.

All 325ix cars should have 15" baskets from the factory. They are a different offset from the ones on the non-ix cars.

They work great on 4 lug Volkswagens.

Sounds like a score. Pictures?

Brett_Murphy wrote: All 325ix cars should have 15" baskets from the factory.

The 15" alloys were standard on 1988 cars in the US, but were optional after that (standard was 14" steelies.)

FlightService wrote: I have on 04 X3 3.0i 6 speed I get 28 mpg @ 65 MPH

I get 27mpg in my M3, but I'm not sure it's especially relevant to 325ix fuel mileage. Have you considered an E46 wagon? They're way better than an X3....

stuart in mn wrote: I don't know if rare is the proper term but they are pretty uncommon in the US. There's a thread over on the Bimmerforums that has some confusing production numbers by year, I'm not sure I can make sense of them but it appears that less than 1000 per year were sold in the US. There is some good general reference information in that thread, it's worth a look: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1077032

1000 a year puts it right around E30 M3 numbers in the US, so I'd call it rare.

Watch out for the transfer cases in those cars. They wear out frequently and are a BITCH to fix as parts are basically non existent for them. There are a few other awd bits you need to inspect, if all of those are fine, the car is like any other E30.

In reply to DaewooOfDeath:

Only pictures I could locate were before the current owner who also bought it from a coworker. At that time it the body was a bit worn & still had the big steel bumpers. Looked ugly then, beautiful now.