BMW+noob+looking=berkeleying confused

Been looking to replace my 92K mile '02 GP DD in the next few months... maybe. First thought was '05 n up Mustang GT ($16-18K), then the Charger R/T ($18K avg. advertised) caught my interest but nothing in my price range at the moment. Sure, something will come along in time.... but, all the BMW talk on GRM has me looking.. but I've never owned one.

Local CL and Autotrader searches that have caught my eye have brought up 3 series in 330xi, 330ci and 325ci... 2000 to '04 yrs w/ 100K +/- miles in pretty much $7-10K range.

Anything to be aware of w/ that mileage? Maintenance costs gonna kill me? / or is this called the initiation fee. Auto vs manual. I like the idea of awd in a sedan, is the xi OK ? Also found a 325 w/ SMG trans, whatcha think? Anything in a 5 series to consider?

Car will serve DD duty, 10-15K/ yr commuter, not looking to turn wrenches or make the mechanic rich.

TIA

I got my kid a 02 330xi three years ago, granted he has looked after it and I did the cooling system replacement when we got it, but it has been a champion in the hands of a non car kid and his college buddies.

Tail lights are subject to a recall now, but the issue is the grounds run the full length of the body instead of directly to the body, I replaced both and ran a new ground prior to the recall.

No other issues to report.

In reply to aussiesmg:

thanks aussiesmg, what kinda mileage and coin for the '02, there's a local CLer w/ one who relists it every single frickin' day... he may wanna deal, I dunno.

I paid about $9K or just under, it had 95K and was like new with a warranty.

Gets about 28 mpg but it is auto and AWD

A lot of people defer cooling system maintenance on modern BMWs or don't consider the cooling system replacement a maintenance thing. Make no mistake - it is a wear item. Other than that, 100k is also suspension refresh time. Lots of people bail out rather than do the work. This is where documentation of maintenance/repairs comes in handy (or lack thereof as a negotiation tool). The e46 3 series and e39 chassis 5 series are good driving cars (although starting to get a little porky and there are no shortage of cheap ones with dead automatics - for whatever that's worth). These are also closing in on a different kind of wiring architecture that makes later generation cars a whole new level of complicated. For the sake of simplicity and potential for expense, I'd probably take a pass on the smg. Nothing inherently wrong with the auto, but I'd pick a manual BMW over an auto any time.

I picked up an 03 325i /auto for a dd and couldnt be happier. Very used to German maintenence and parts costs coming from VW/Audi though.

Had a little work done to it before I got a hold of it: new front arms, rear subframe bushings, lots of cooling parts. Still want to change the trans fluid and new fuel pump/filter this winter.

One thing to watch up to 01 is the rear subframe mounting points. They had issues ripping out of the floor. Make sure you take a look at this area.

I have never gotten over 27mpg but dont cruise much at all. Normal for me is 22-23mpg mixed town and country backroad.

I paid 7300 private party, 115k with auto, sports, premium pkgs with xenons. There were cars out there for almost half and almost double.

Love my 2004 330 ZHP. The perfect car for me. Right around 85k miles at this point.

I miss driving my Ti....

I've put ~100k km (nearing 300k total) on my 99 328 over 5-6 years, nothing out of the ordinary maintenance wise considering the age of the car.

I've done a suspension refresh, control arms, shocks/springs, rear trailing arm bushings, shift linkage bushings, headlight lenses, a window regulator, lock module, fluids and filters. If you don't have documentation that the cooling system has been gone through budget for it every 100k. All the hoses and the overflow tank is 300-400 online and you can replace it on your schedule, parts are a bunch more when you have to run to the dealer for an emergency replacement. Clutch is still original, only did the pads and rotors because I wanted to upgrade last season, likely could have gotten another couple of commuting years out of them.

The rear subframe is an issue widely reported online, no issues with my chassis yet, although I've only run RA1/R888's on it so not a huge amount of load. The rear springs are also a common failure the bottom coil or two are rather thin and in the salt belt, will rust and snap off.

Oh yeah, if you autoslalom/track the car make sure the control arm bushings are bmw - I had an aftermarket piece split and fail on course, not fun.

Your math is off! BMW+noob+looking=Boob looking. I can get behind that.

mad_machine wrote: I miss driving my Ti....

Me too man, me too.....

dculberson wrote: Your math is off! BMW+noob+looking=Boob looking. I can get behind that.

I'm afraid you're confused again! You get behind looking at the azz. You get abreast of boob looking.

I love my ZHP too, I don't drive it very far so I only have about 58k on it.

things like this make me realize how much I miss my BMW... guess the Volvo is only a temporary thing until I can find another Ti.

Guess that means I will not be selling some of my more rare parts

For those of you that haven't had one yet, the E36 and E46 have fantastic forum DIY support, parts are normal car cheap and they are very easy to work on. The things that need to be considered maintenance are well documented. I got my first in 2003 and was pleasantly surprised. There has been a whole string of them since. I used to have Saturns follow me home and now it's BMW's, and my wife is much happier.....

what would be the cost of:

a) cooling system maintenance/ replacement

b) suspension refresh

on a '04 330xi w/ automatic trans nearing 100K miles

also any other $$ maintenance per schedule

mad_machine wrote: Guess that means I will not be selling some of my more rare parts

Good god, I don't even want to know what gold mine I'm sitting on.....

fasted58 wrote: what would be the cost of: a) cooling system maintenance/ replacement b) suspension refresh on a '04 330xi w/ automatic trans nearing 100K miles also any other $$ maintenance per schedule

Cooling system is probably about 5-600 in parts. As far as suspension, it depends how far you want to go: just the basic control arm bushings, or do you intend to do shocks & struts, sway bar links and bushings, etc.?

I'd also budget for a CCV and associated lines (maybe $200) and VANOS seals ($60 or so from Beisan), plus all fluids that haven't been done, on a car of that age and mileage.

02Pilot wrote:

fasted58 wrote: what would be the cost of: a) cooling system maintenance/ replacement b) suspension refresh on a '04 330xi w/ automatic trans nearing 100K miles also any other $$ maintenance per schedule

Cooling system is probably about 5-600 in parts. As far as suspension, it depends how far you want to go: just the basic control arm bushings, or do you intend to do shocks & struts, sway bar links and bushings, etc.? I'd also budget for a CCV and associated lines (maybe $200) and VANOS seals ($60 or so from Beisan), plus all fluids that haven't been done, on a car of that age and mileage.

Suspension rebuild would be unknown at this time, I'm preparing to look at some local cars w/ around 100K +/- and would like to know costs for negotiation purposes.

thanks

oh, on shocks n struts, would std. replacement suffice or aftermarket goodies?

Can't say for sure on the E46, but I just did shocks and struts on my E39 and Bilstein HDs were about the same price as the stock pieces. I'm a big fan of Bilsteins, so it was kind of a no-brainer to upgrade.