Buying a second vehicle hmmm...

[evan_flatt69]

Well the time may have come.. I've had a job for a while, and therefore a little bit of money, and I'm thinking about buying a second vehicle. Something easy on gas, safer, and pretty much something to drive so I can work on the truck whenever I please. My original requirements were "2 doors and a clutch", but I think I've got a crush on this 1987 BMW 325i 4-door automatic. It would pretty much just be a beater for me. I originally found it on craigslist then drove down to the house to take a look at it. When I got the address I was unpleasantly surprised to find that it is on the "roughest street in town" (not talking about the condition of the road either). But the car seemed in good shape for a 1000$ car.

Here is the good: Hey it's a BMW! The body was in great shape except for one spot on the hood, it has the desirable original BMW rims and center caps, paint is good, engine runs like a top, fired right up and sounds spectacular with no muffler, new tires, 25mpg.

The bad: Grr its a BMW.. Interior is rough, no radio, sunroof is off its track, brake pedal had way too much play in it, driver seatbelt wouldn't click for me, and the major thing is a massive thrashing in the driveline from about 1000-1200 rpm while you drive in any forward gear. The owner claims its from the lack of a muffler allowing the pipes to rattle around, but an exhaust pipe doesn't wobble a car around.. Im convinced its the u-joints and driveshaft center support bearing. Easy fix right? Wrong. BMW's u-joints are "non-replaceable" you "have" to buy a whole new 2 piece driveshaft and they aren't cheap. However, I have also read that you can replace the u-joints it's just more work. I'm convinced I can do it but the price will have to reflect its flaws..

Basically I want it. But at the right prize. Does anyone have any experience with these Bimmers? How reliable are they? How is the maintenance? What would you pay for this car? I was thinking about telling him about my driveline research and shooting him an offer of 600 cash of course. The way I feel as of now I wouldn't pay more than 800 for it because of the way I feel about the driveshaft. And I'd put money on the fact of him knowing exactly what is wrong with it . What do you guys think?

If I do end up with it I don't plan on having it any longer that 4 or 5 months and I would trade it ASAP if I could get something that fit my original manual transmission requirement. Keep in mind my budget is LOW

Thanks in advance

[caseyj10]

If you can get it for the 600 your willing to pay, then yes that's a good deal (if the thrashing is actually the cv joints). I'm always suspicious about these amazing cars that go for near nothing. Why wouldn't they have the problem fixed and ,keep driving it? I guess I just don't trust people. If your planning to just sell it in a few months why not just keep saving up and buy what you really want?

[evan_flatt69]

I've got the money now but I'd like to start work on my truck pretty soon. Plus I just don't want to spend all my money. It's starting to get cooler and rainy here so I'd like to get the truck in the garage pretty soon so I can knock off the rusted primer and get the bed off. But I need this cheap car to be ready for the winter rather than the truck.

[Kurt Combs]

I always shy away from cars that were expensive when new. BMW parts, are BMW parts, whether or not the car is brand new. So I would expect to pay more for parts than for say a Honda Civic. Do some serious internet searching on that particular model of car and see what are its usual problems. If I would have followed that advice I would not have purchased the Ford Taurus I am now repairing frequently. (It has cheaper parts, but it requires lots of them) Good luck with your decision, whatever it is.

[DuckRyder]

First a pet peeve of mine: A car is a BIMMER a motorcycle is a BEAMER... now that we have that out of the way.

Drive line service can rebuild the shaft, but it is much more likely the problem is the flex joint (AKA "guibo") they are fairly notorious.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/techart ... -Guibo.htm (E36, but E30 similar)

You are sure this is a 325i and not a 325e my BMW history is rusty, but I was thinking they sold both during this time. The e is slow and redlines about 4500 rpm, the i has a higher (6000-6500 IIRC) redline and is much quicker. I personally would not buy this car with an automatic, but a 5 speed swap is not very hard. As long as the front pipe (downpipes and converter, goes to about mid car) is serviceable quality OEM style mufflers are not unreasonable price wise.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/catalog ... xhaust.htm

Probably the biggest issue is that this is an interference engine, timing belt breaks and you are buying a head best case senerio... if they won't fix the guibo and sunroof cables, guarantee they haven't done the timing belt.

I do recall hearing that the sunroof cables are a chore too, but I've never done them.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/techart ... unroof.htm

Good E30's are getting harder to find, but I'd hold out for a better one if it were me the last ones (90-91) got nicer bumpers and valances 89 got the valances. But you are going to pay a lot more for it too.

[evan_flatt69]

Good E30's are getting harder to find, but I'd hold out for a better one if it were me the last ones (90-91) got nicer bumpers and valances 89 got the valances. But you are going to pay a lot more for it too.

That's my worry is that I wont find a better car for the money.. I have no problems working on a vehicle if something is going to make it better or less likely to catastrophically fail in the case of the timing belt. Every time I think of the car I think of "Wheeler Dealers", a british show that comes on velocity. They take cars that used to be nice but have mechanical problems that make them hard to sell and therefore cheaper. They drive them to the shop, bring them to a much better condition, likely replacing things like the guibo, timing belt, exhaust, and interior, making them much better to drive and they sell them for a profit of a few hundred quid. I think that's what i can do with this car.

[Ranchero50]

I'd save your money some more and find something in better shape. One bit of advice I've read and now truly understand is spend more on the best model you can find vs. spend little on one that needs work.

In this car it looks like they left it run into the ground with the complete lack of repairs. $1000 is scrap price around here.

I'm not a big fan of the German stuff, flat hard seats and confusing dash controls drive me nuts.

[michael69]

As said already. You know if the things that are broke were not fixed, then you know none of the very expensive mechanical were kept up and maintained. I would pass on it. As they are not cheap to repair.

[evan_flatt69]

I'd save your money some more and find something in better shape. One bit of advice I've read and now truly understand is spend more on the best model you can find vs. spend little on one that needs work.

In this car it looks like they left it run into the ground with the complete lack of repairs. $1000 is scrap price around here.

I'm not a big fan of the German stuff, flat hard seats and confusing dash controls drive me nuts.

That is my problem. I don't think I could bring myself to spent more than 1k, no matter what shape it was in. And even if it does turn out to be a lemon will I not be able to get my money back out of it??

[DuckRyder]

E30 are in my opinion about the last of the service friendly BMWs and are real drivers cars, the controls are intuitive and not confusing. There is a good bit of support out there for them and parts availability is decent BUT parts for BMWs are expensive. Even if you supply labor you have to be able to afford parts.

Lets say you buy this car for $800.00 you KNOW you need a $300.00 muffler, a $60.00 installation kit, $100.00 worth of timing components, $130.00 worth of sunroof parts and a $130.00 guibo (don't even touch one that isn't genuine BMW). you've got $1500+ in it minimum before you start fixing the usual $400.00-600.00 worth of stuff that any used car needs to be a daily driver. Realistically I'd say you are going to have $2000-2500.00 in it and I don't think you will get that out of it. If it were a nice 325iS or iX sure, but a plain 325i I doubt it. If it is a 325e, forget it. I would say you need to be in it in the $250-400.00 range to have much hope of flipping it for profit.

[evan_flatt69]

I went back and checked out the car today and I'm starting to think that the vibration could possibly be the exhaust pipe. The guy did some work too it and it seemed to help a bit. The car has 131,000 miles on it so how likely is it that its driveshaft related?

Well I don't plan on getting a muffler (it sounds too good the way it is), nor fixing the sunroof as it doesn't leak. As far as it being worth of a daily driver goes I live less than a mile from school and only have to go 15 miles round trip to work and back about twice a week, so it really wont be seeing much driving. I don't have any problems paying for things like timing belt, brakes, and air filter because that money would come out of my wallet instead of my savings account. I expect/want to clean the throttle body, clean the injectors, change filters now that my truck engine is running very well! Honestly I think I'm going to buy it.. Based on the smile it put on my face when I pressed the accelerator it would suit me well and make me happy. I just hope I wont regret it.

[DuckRyder]

I went back and checked out the car today and I'm starting to think that the vibration could possibly be the exhaust pipe. The guy did some work too it and it seemed to help a bit. The car has 131,000 miles on it so how likely is it that its driveshaft related?

At 131,000 I would bet guibo and perhaps center bearing, but not shaft rebuild. At 131,000 the timing belt is on borrowed time, do it first, you need a belt, a tensioner and a water pump.

Get familiar with Pelican, BMP and Bavarian Autosport. There are some others (Maximilian importing, Bekkers, Peachparts, AJ usa, Turner Motorsport and so forth and so on) but Pelican, BMP and Bavarian Autosport are the major players. For the most part anything you can walk into a box store and get for it is worthless, pretty much if it isn't BMW or whoever is on the part you just removed do not use it.

I hope it works out for you, if it doesn't turn out to be a money pit you will probably love it in fact you'll probably love it anyway, please put a muffler on it though even if it is an ANSA Sport (BAS has them).

Oh, and you probably need to knock 200-300 off for the guy doing some "work to it", you'll have to redo it for sure...

[evan_flatt69]

What's wrong with no muffler? haha I can understand it on our trucks because it is just entirely too loud. But it's not loud on this BMW, still has the big catalytic converter and resonator maybe. I don't think I could bring my self to muffle that inline six . Or I could put one of my flowmasters on it when I get spintechs for my truck. But that probably wouldn't sound good but idk haha

And I think he just removed the broken mount that held up the cat.

[DuckRyder]

And I think he just removed the broken mount that held up the cat.

You mean the 150.00 "Exhaust Support Bracket, Catalytic Converter to Automatic Transmission" also known as "what keeps the headpipes from breaking off at the manifold"....

Mark my words, this is going to be the most expensive cheap car you ever owned...

[Mancar1]

It is what it is and you will do as you want to do. Enjoy, and my hope for you is that you get many more miles out of it with not to much $$$$$$.