I see one for sale around $6K and it looks immaculate. I have my doubts on getting a GR Corolla and have been looking at MR2s and 944s again. But this popped up & has me tempted for that price. 6sp and 80K miles.
I see one for sale around $6K and it looks immaculate. I have my doubts on getting a GR Corolla and have been looking at MR2s and 944s again. But this popped up & has me tempted for that price. 6sp and 80K miles.
E90 manual is a solid car, not bad to work on and not too many weak spots. N52 at 80k will probably need ignition coils soon, if they haven't already been done. And the oil filter housing gasket will leak and require replacement every 2 years. It's an easy job. I've been told the Electric water pump is a 100k part. The OE pump on my E60 (same engine) went at 140k, and the OE pump on my E92 has 99k with no issues yet.
I paid $9k in May 2021 for my E92 328 (manual RWD sport with 71k), and after living with it for almost 2 years it makes me smile every day.
$6k seems cheap. Maybe nobody buys manuals in the winter? I'd want to know title status at that price. Seems like it might be a rebuilt wreck.
Just found this handy thread, and the roller coaster it had me leaning yeah/nay the whole time:
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/bmw-e90-talk-me-up-or-down/191948/page1/
In reply to Jerry :
My input to that other thread when it was current:
i have had two N52 cars as DDs. first was an E60 525xi auto that was totalled at 225k. (EDIT it had 136k and almost no service records when I bought it) maintenance and repair history here
my current DD is an E92 328i 6MT no iDrive that is currently at 85k. (EDIT: I bought at 71k, came with ALL service records since new). replaced plugs and coils about 500 miles ago, has otherwise been flawless for me. hi, my name is Sabine
i'd rock another N52 car in a heartbeat.
N52's are solid. To add to what AngryCorvair said, known weak points/maintenance items are coils, oil filter housing gasket, oil pan gasket, valve cover/gasket, and water pump. Thankfully none of those are terribly difficult to replace, just time consuming. And none of them are catastrophic failure items. The computer will put the car in limp mode when it senses the water pump is about to fail so that you can get home with overheating (electric water pump).
I did everything but the water pump in my 09 128i in my garage by myself, with minimal tools. I wouldn't hesitate to do it all over again to have another solid example of that motor.
Wikipedia lists this as " N53B30 straight-6 N.A". Does this differ from the N52 by much as far as solid-ness?
Your link says the N53 was never sold in North America.
EDIT: put the VIN into
and you'll get all sorts of good info that's mostly accurate. I've checked 12 or so cars using mdecoder and the only misinformation I that I know of is one car came back as an automatic when pix clearly showed 6MT. Now that I think about it, maybe someone swapped it...
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
WBAVA33578FV66397 has it listed as N52K. Alrighty. And this is a BaT thing, bidding has gone to $6800. Not sure I'm that committed much more over this for a car I can't test drive & have to get here from NY.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2008-bmw-328i-sedan-6-speed-manual-2/
And sold at $14.5k, definitely outside my range. Crazy bidding last couple of hours. I'll keep watching the skys for those MR2s, 944s, and maybe a C3 Vette.
You can have my E92 for $11k.
I have a 2008 328xi, so the all wheel drive version of that. Black on black, as well. 140K miles and runs like it's new. I absolutely love the car. I got mine for $5K because it had a leaky valve cover gasket. 1/4 turn on one of the bolts fixed that for me. Even with blown shocks (Cleveland roads) it has excellent handling, and the all wheel drive models are known to handle worse than the rwd. Many M3 suspension pieces bolt on. Sport package seats feel amazing. If I were to total it today, I would look for another one without hesitation. For me, the only downside is that it uses premium gas, so you'd do well to find the gas station with the best price on that (in my area 93 octane can fluctuate as much as a dollar per gallon depending on where you are).
I also read a recent article that said the E90 328i was the most reliable car BMW has ever built. On the E90 forums there are several people running more than 300K miles with no real problems.
infinitenexus said:
I also read a recent article that said the E90 328i was the most reliable car BMW has ever built. On the E90 forums there are several people running more than 300K miles with no real problems.
Huh?
Clearly the writer had never heard of the E28. Or the E30.
Don't believe the hype! Premium fuel is recommended, not required. I ran my E60 from 136k to 225k on 87, and the E92 has had nothing but 87 from 71k to the current 99k.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Did you ever do fuel economy testing to see if it was cheaper to run it on premium?
My Golf certainly was. OTOH this was when 87 was $4 and 92 was $4.60. Nowadays you might see 87 at $3.50 and 92 at $5.50 because why not. (Okay, usually not THAT bad, but I've seen it.... and bought just enough of the cheap swill to get me to where I knew buying 92 didn't leave me asking for a good night kiss)
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I have not. She gets 25 mixed and 30 hwy. At today's prices:
she'd have to get 3.40/2.90 x current numbers, or 29.2 mixed and 35 hwy, to justify the price of 89 octane. The numbers are even sillier for 93, at 3.90/2.90 x she's need to hit 33.6 mixed and 40 hwy.
EDIT:
even at your $4 for 87 and $4.60 for 92, she'd have to do 28.8 mixed and 34.5 hwy. I can afford the experiment, and I have a 3-tank mostly-hwy trip coming up, so maybe I'll give it a go.
The Golf did, IIRC, 35mpg on 87 and 42 on 92.
One thing that is interesting is how incredibly variable my Volvo is to fuel quality. Fill up at a certain Sunoco where they have suspiciously cheap 93 octane, I get 22mpg. Fill up at the Duke's at a certain place south of here, I get 27mpg, driving the same roads with the same style.
With the original engine, 8.5:1 compression, I got better fuel economy on 87. The new engine is smaller, higher compression, so probably has ignition timing way in advance of ideal if it calculates timing by grams of air per cylinder cycle, I don't dare feed it 87 to see if it makes a difference, but it gets the same economy on 89 as 92. It only gets 89 if I know I'm never going to go into boost.
I've been putting 85 in the Land Cruiser and getting abysmal mpg, like 14. I've been wondering if putting 87 would make a difference but I'm not sure it'd get more enough to cover the costs. I mean, this thing isn't like your golf, it's not going to pick up 5-7mpg because of octane. I'd be lucky to go from 14 to 16mpg...
Pete. (l33t FS) said:infinitenexus said:
I also read a recent article that said the E90 328i was the most reliable car BMW has ever built. On the E90 forums there are several people running more than 300K miles with no real problems.
Huh?
Clearly the writer had never heard of the E28. Or the E30.
Or maybe the N52 motor is simply more reliable. Some of the older BMWs were known for their reliability, but they weren't without fault.
In reply to infinitenexus :
The engine is a rather minor part of the car. Engine problems make up a vanishingly small part of my day job, on any make.
Let's talk about how the interior holds up. Blend door actuators. ICE faults. The boring stuff. The engine might still run but if it has a complete Christmas tree on the dash and the interior is shredded, that isn't really reliable, just degrading while still staying mobile.
In reply to infinitenexus :
The n52 is a pretty great motor (I have a N52b30 in my e60 wagon), but it does have occasional valvetronic and VANOS solenoid issues.
I wouldn't say it's more reliable than an M20 or M30 (both renowned for living long lives)
In reply to Nathan JansenvanDoorn :
I hate to be the "yeah, but" guy, but I don't have to manually adjust valve lash on my N52 like I did on my M30.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
As if the valves would stay adjusted properly after the adjusters wore flat 
Seriously though, I would much rather pop a valve cover and check lash every now and then, than replace the whole cooling system on a set schedule.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
The cooling system thing isn't really as big a deal as people make it out to be. The cooling systems kinda suck on most modern cars. The BMW ones just have a couple parts that tend to let go a bit more spectacularly. On the E38, I replaced a slightly leaky radiator when I got it as well as a few other potential failure points in the cooling system and it's been fine since. And that's on a car where 220* F coolant temps are normal and the pressure cap doesn't vent until ~30 psi, so it's pretty abusive to cooling system parts.
The worst think I had to deal with on two BMWs of that vintage (2007 and 2008, both N52 powered) was the need to replace the evaporator in both. Typical install where the car is pretty much built around it.
It was convenient having two cars with the same motor in the fleet, especially when it came time to do things like troubleshoot a bad coil-on-plug situation. We'll see if any similar opportunities arise between the B58 motors in the Supra and X5.
Arguing over which BMW straight 6 is kinda pointless, in a way. I don't think any of their straight 6s are bad, or even just average. My E36 hit 150K before I sold it and ran like it was new. My E90 is at 140K with no problems other than one rear window doesn't roll down and the clutch pedal pad came off. I think BMW straight 6s have always kind of had a reputation for lasting forever. Still, there are a lot of people on the E90 forums with 200+ and 300,000+ miles and the cars are still going strong. Electrical gremlins exist, but much less than the 1990s BMWs when they were still trying to figure out electronics. Objectively, the E90 328 is an extremely reliable car.
To which I'll gladly reiterate, an E90 328i sedan is a fantastic car, especially with a manual transmission. Pick one up for the right price, install some m3 suspension parts, a few engine mods, and have a blast!
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