buying a beamer. question??

a friend of mine is buying my truck and with the money im going to buy a 93-95 325is. most of them in this year have a TON of miles. i found one i fell in love with, then found out it had 240,000 miles!! my question.. is there anything i should be looking for while in the market for one? ive found a few with around 100,000 miles for the same price as those with over 200k. with lower miles in my price range they have some cosmetic issues, while the higher mile ones are in great shape. just with a ton of miles. should i go with lower miles with cosmetic issues? or take the other route? first beamer ive bought so im not really sure what i should be looking out for on it. any tips or pointers would be amazing.

I've got an '02 325ci w/ 120k miles on it and while I love the car (as it has been fairly bullet proof), fixing the damn thing is expensive! They are super cool cars but unless you want to pay to keep it on the road, I would not recommend it. Hell, for that matter how much you looking to spend? I'll make you a hell of a deal...

I actually want thy year range. I like the body style over the newer ones. The ones I'm looking at are going for 2400. Id spend up to 3 though. My only requirements are it has to be a manual and black. Over the next few months of overtime I'm going to put Black rims, smoked tail lights. Angel eye headlights. Black rims, tinted windows, a pipe, and put a 12 in the trunk. So I don't want to spend a ton

David,

I like your taste in cars. I owned a 1990 325i and drove it to 250,000 miles over 11 years. Loved that car (black, manual trans.). I will second Stephan's comment that they are expensive to fix. Less so, for sure, if you do it yourself. A good resource for that is bimmerfest.com and other similar forums. Lots of do-it-yourself help. Still, as my 1990 got older and up there in mileage, it was starting to cost $500-1,000 per year in maintenance to keep it on the road. No matter how good the car is, things just start to go at that age.

Search out CIE Evan (guido) on WW. He's a bimmer enthusiast and could chime in with some helpful advice I'm sure.

OK, first of all - it's a Bimmer!

I have an '01 540i M Sport. It's by far the most fun car I've ever owned. It's also by far the most expensive car to maintain that I've ever owned, and mine only has 81K miles.

I can certainly understand why you want one, but in that mileage range, I would stay away.

I used to own a Z4, I will never buy another BMW... ever

Is $16K for a 2007 BMW 3 Series to much? Better bid quick...

Glad someone else mentioned it, its a Bimmer!! This thread title would have got you blasted on a BMW forum!

Yeah, I agree about not liking the newer body styles. I have the e46 body, 5 speed, white, black leather and every factory option. I must say, it is a bad ass looking car as I'm partial to white cars. The crappy thing is when little interior things start to go south, i.e. the weather stripping. My buddy has the same car (an '03) and both of our interior door frame stripping got hot once and then fell off. $300 per side to buy the kit.

Anyways, good luck. As someone who bought one, I wish I could go back and undo it, I love my car, its just expensive!

A Beamer is a BMW motorcycle. Not sure why the difference, but it'll get you blasted by Bimmerfiles.

OK, let's be real here. This is a car that cost $40k new. It was designed with a high end buyer in mind. Maintanence isn't cheap and with 240k you're asking to potentially buy big parts. Motors, tranny's, diffs, wheel bearings. That said.... If you find the right car you could get a good one. Look for an enthusiast owned car. Save your coin and buy one that has had the right owner. You can't afford to undo 20 years worth of abuse and neglect. Look on the bimmer forums in the classified sections and if you have doubts, then have the car checked over by a mechanic.

Good cheap bimmers are out there, but they're rare. They don't pull much of a premium, but will get snapped up quick. I sold my '90 E30 325is for $3800. That car was perfect in really almost every way and had some really nice mods. It had 230k and I don't doubt that it would have gone to 400. However, I've seen plenty of cars that are sub 100k miles and trashed. Those are much more common. Especially in these days of low mileage leases. Those cars get no love at all.

My final tip.... Learn to do the maintanence and repairs yourself. If you don't think you can, then steer clear unless you are made of money.

oops! sorry guys. didnt know about spelling. never really thought much of it or seen it written down. thanks for that.

and im not going to lie you guys. im a stupid teenager (19 years old) and already have my mind made up to buy one, so you cant really talk me out of it, even though i can already see my post in a year saying you guys where right! haha. and as for maintence. one of my best friends (she lives 2 doors down) her dad is a mechanic and works on her BIMMER and does maintence on it for her. and he already said he would help me with mine. i understand what you mean on avoiding such high miles. i might just save up a little more cash and get one with fewer miles. as of this morning actually, there is a 93 325is all black, in PERFECT shape. even has the tools in the trunk it comes with! with only 74,000 miles. and he wants 3500$ for it. i might save up another few hundred and just go with one with low miles like that. (selling my truck for 2700) so im close anyways.

i know maintence is high, and im prepared for that. my question to you guys.

when i go out and am ready to buy one. is there anything in specific that is known to go wrong on these? im honestly not very car smart. i get in turn the key and step on it. i change my own oil. thats about all i can do. so is there something i should make sure to check out? i dont want to think i got some great deal. then have something go terribly wrong on the way home that i didnt know to check for.

When purchasing any used car from a private seller, have a mechanic look it over first. Do a compression test. Never just drive it, and then hand over cash.
I have never owned a bimmer, but everyone who i know that has/had one, regrets the used purchase. But life is full of choices and making mistakes. You will never learn from others mistakes, only your own. Good luck.

Hey David, did you look into the generation before the e36 at all? I owned an e30 (3 series prior to '92) for a couple years and absolutely loved that car to death. If you could find one of those, I would highly recommend taking it for a spin. With some small suspension upgrades you will think you're driving a go-kart around.
In any case, like what the others have said, finding a car that has been well maintained with some higher miles is definitely preferred over a low-mile one that hasn't been well maintained. Definitely take a look on Bimmerforums.com

finally getting my car tonight.

driving to pick it up an hour.

95 325i (decided to go with a 4 door instead if the 325is)

anyways.

to you who have them, i want to put a pipe on it, i want it to be annoyingly loud, yet have a good sound to it. i wanna drive away from a stop light and have the sound make me smile.

anyone have a suggestion on what pipe to get? i know nothing about them.

i dont want a 40$ honda civic pipe thats 10 inches around. but i dont wanna go drop a grand on one either. in other words, spending as little as possible to get the best sound quality? im not looking for one thats going to add a bunch of horsepower. im just looking for sound. performance is not what im looking for.

thanks!

Like a lead pipe or are you talking about an exhaust system? An exhaust system with no performance goal other than to sound like a 70s fiat with no muffler? Hmmm, maybe that should be called a "pipe."

Might find something here:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ghetto+sounding+exhaust+systems

Two words....whistle tip. The whistles go WOOO WOOO

Originally Posted by jeff359

Two words....whistle tip. The whistles go WOOO WOOO

whoooooooo whoooooooooooooooooooo

Why dont you throw a four foot spoiler on it while you are at it.

UUC or BMP tuning. Start there.

Why make it annoyingly loud?

An intake will do wonders for sound on that motor, too. They make as much sound as exhaust and it sounds good.

Don't forget the carbon fiber hood.

whistle tips! haha!!!!

im not saying i DONT want any performance gains, who would say no to more HP and torque? im just saying thats not my goal out of putting a pipe on it.

i want my car to sound really good. my car sounds great up until about 2000 RPM nice low rumble when i accelerate, i want that sound, but to be way louder. with the stock pipe its kinda quiet and anything over those rpms that rumble is gone.

im looking for a pipe that will give me that sound all the way through the rpms. i loved how my sport bike used to sound. i loved being extremly loud (yoshi pipe no baffle)

im not sure if your serious or not about the carbon hood since people on wake world have a tendancy to hate on me. ha! but anyways... i like carbon hoods... one of the 325is's i looked at had a carbon hood and it was one of my favorite features on that car.

and no! no spoiler. ever. not even a little one. im a fan of this year 325 BECAUSE of the back end of the car. i wouldnt ruin it with a spoiler (just making sure you know im not that guy)

You want to put a "pipe" on your car for the noise factor, so yeah, you are "that guy". Haha.

Sure. I'm that guy. So is anyone actually going to answer? Instead of making fun of what I want?

And Evan, thank you. Your one of the few who give actual answers to my questions

Don't forget the two foot spoiler on the trunk! lol.

Dont see why everyone is hating on a pipe here. Not uncommon to see these cars with a pipe

I bumped this thread cuz I wanna see some pics of the car David!

Haven't been on here in a while! Sold my 3series back in August and picked up this 545. V8, things a beast. I love it