Currently own a 2004 Saab 9-5 with 200k on it, and I have owned it for 4.5 years and figure i have gotten my 60k miles and money out of it, looking to unload and purchase something RWD related. Must haves : RWD, seat 4 (coupes ok) be reliable, and be a manual. Ohhh! and for under 3,000$ soo.... E36? early E46? Im not scared of Euro things that happen to these cars
Patiently awaiting responses: I'm having very similar thoughts!
BMW is surprisingly cheap and easy to fix with massive interwebz diy support, and cheap to insure to boot. E46 at that price will still be tough. E36 interior quality sucks so be ready for crappy door cards and falling headliners. Be patient and buy the best you can find at that price range. There will be good ones out there. I'll be posting a great E46 to the open classifieds soon but it's a little more than you're looking.
http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/cto/4629468204.html
http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/cto/4649178011.html
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/4646374684.html
They are available, but not perfect.
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/4650122975.html <-- that guy wanted $5 or $6k a bit ago, but WHOA miles.
your price point will be your downfall....
The wrote: your price point will be your downfall....
QFT.
You can buy E36 325is for under $3k and you can find really nice ones once in a while but you really need to know what you are looking at. Get a guy who really knows these things to help you look. Don't buy one unseen. You are going to need to crawl under it.
If you can afford $5k you will not need to look as hard for a diamond in the ruff.
That 528iT is berkeleying awesome
You can find them for the money, but the probability is really high that you will be facing 1k if not 2-3k in deferred maintenance, like 120k on the original cooling system, clunks in the suspension, or some other hidden, yet worrisome characteristic (like an auto bmw that slips a little after on a cold morning). The 528iT listed above looks good, but there's a grand listed in the needs... even at 4-5k you have to be careful someone's not passing off a high need car.
e36 M3, 525iT owner here. It's always better and cheaper to buy someone else's money for pennies on the dollar. By this I mean about every e36 I've looked at for a friend has needed every bushing replaced, generally a cooling system, often wheel bearings, struts, shocks, sometimes a clutch. If you have the time, tools and inclination to do every bushing in a e36, use the need as a bargaining point. It's a job that's more than the car is worth to have done.
If a "needs everything" car is $3k and an "everything done" car is $5k - save up. The $5k car will be way cheaper.
Worth considering: BMW built cars with the Germanic assumption that the buyer would spend $30-40K on a mid-size car and follow the maintenance schedule in the big book in the glove box to the letter. If they did, the car would essentially last forever. So deferred maintenance is the order of the day among most people who look at it as "Why spend $4k on a Kia that originally cost $19k when I can get a $35k BMW for the same money".
The e36 electrics aren't bad, the e39 525iT kind of works my nerves with little stuff always going wrong.
You'll need to log in to post.
