WTB: E36 sedan

[Scott]

I am looking for an E36 sedan, only thing it has to have is a 5 speed. I figured with all the E36's around here this was as good a place as any to start looking...

[D_Eclipse9916]

Buy the red m3. M3s will hold their value, and are not any more expensive to maintain. I always tend to push people away from regular e36s and e46s. 325is/328is quickly bottom out to 3-4 grand for a decent one. E36 M3s you can pretty much sell what you bought it for years later. (as long as you keep it in decent condition).

[.RJ]

Budget? E46 sedans arent that much more expensive and have a much better interior that doesnt self destruct.

[SlimKlim]

Buy the red m3. M3s will hold their value, and are not any more expensive to maintain. I always tend to push people away from regular e36s and e46s. 325is/328is quickly bottom out to 3-4 grand for a decent one. E36 M3s you can pretty much sell what you bought it for years later. (as long as you keep it in decent condition).

I agree with you on the E36 but not really the E46. An E36 M isn't really all that special, the S50/2 isn't dramatically different from the M50/2, the brakes are the exact same size as an E46 330i, you'll pay a premium for suspension bits (the end-links I ordered yesterday were $35 instead of $20). The E46 on the other hand is an individual throttle-bodied beast with huge brakes, and should you end up with an SMG, may god have mercy on your soul. I've heard people compare taking care of an E46 M to taking care of a 996 911.

The price ranges I see for cleanish, not complete pieces of crap, but also not cream puffs are:
$3500-5k for non-M E36s
$6-9k for E36 M3s
$6-11k for E46 non-Ms (options/year have a huge effect on these, a $6k non-sport 323i and a 11k 330i performance pack are different cars)
$14-20k for E46 Ms

Budget? E46 sedans arent that much more expensive and have a much better interior that doesnt self destruct.

Truth. I think the E46 has the best combination of quality and styling of any 3 series ever made ever. The E30 was well built built and attractive but man has it aged, the E36 sucks ass all the way around, the E46 is perfect, the E90 looks like a taxi cab.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Okay, so your E46 that costs 6-11k will be worth 3-5k in 3 years. The E36 M3 in 3 years will be worth the same or maybe a grand or two less.

The suspension bits...why are you paying a premium? Your doing it wrong.
E36 sucks in general on the street anyway unless you want to autox it every now and then. I just cant bring myself to like E46 regulars. Seriously, their interior falls apart faster than an E36, are more expensive to maintain. Every E46 ive been in was peeling the interior console, popping off everything plastic, and headliners/A pillars started peeling just as E36s do.

Dont get me started on e46 m3s for maintenance. RIDICULOUS parts prices.

E36 M3 or bust...the rest suck. I hate working on my mom's E46 (in 1.5 years and its got 105k miles, the only thing that went bad was the alternator, which was randomly cheap). However most maintenance on it is insanely expensive.

If your just looking for a nice daily driver, why not lexus, toyota, etc?

Just my opinion. But I am a cheap ass.

[SlimKlim]

The suspension bits...why are you paying a premium? Your doing it wrong.

i just mean things like the control arms/tie rods tend to cost a little more over the same non-M part but its not a huge jump. The aftermarket stuff all seems to cost the same.

I just cant bring myself to like E46 regulars. Seriously, their interior falls apart faster than an E36, are more expensive to maintain.

:lol: Ok, I'll fight you on that one. Having put 20k miles on an E46 and something like 30k on the E36, the E46 interior is completely and utterly bombproof. The only issue with the E46 is the soft touch rubberized coating crap they put on the sunglass holder and center console peels and flakes. A nice afternoon, a six pack and a can of spray paint corrects that for the rest of time. Otherwise it's rock solid. Door panels stay on, dash doesn't rattle, center console doesn't fall apart, etc, etc.

Fucking everything inside the E36 falls apart. Everything. Door panels fall off, door cards bubble, center console disintegrates and rattles, shift surround doesn't stay on right once the brittle tabs snap, glove box sags, dash warps around the center vent, seats get loose in their adjustment tracks, trim breaks etc etc etc etc. I've fixed or learned to live with all of the stuff I listed, never seen an E46 with anything like that.

[D_Eclipse9916]

The suspension bits...why are you paying a premium? Your doing it wrong.

i just mean things like the control arms/tie rods tend to cost a little more over the same non-M part but its not a huge jump. The aftermarket stuff all seems to cost the same.

I just cant bring myself to like E46 regulars. Seriously, their interior falls apart faster than an E36, are more expensive to maintain.

:lol: Ok, I'll fight you on that one. Having put 20k miles on an E46 and something like 30k on the E36, the E46 interior is completely and utterly bombproof. The only issue with the E46 is the soft touch rubberized coating crap they put on the sunglass holder and center console peels and flakes. A nice afternoon, a six pack and a can of spray paint corrects that for the rest of time. Otherwise it's rock solid. Door panels stay on, dash doesn't rattle, center console doesn't fall apart, etc, etc.

Fucking everything inside the E36 falls apart. Everything. Door panels fall off, door cards bubble, center console disintegrates and rattles, shift surround doesn't stay on right once the brittle tabs snap, glove box sags, dash warps around the center vent, seats get loose in their adjustment tracks, trim breaks etc etc etc etc. I've fixed or learned to live with all of the stuff I listed, never seen an E46 with anything like that.

Then we are oppsoite. My E36 M3 was A+, never did any single one of those things. However, I know most of them do have some of those problems. Your E46 must have been good, cause I saw every other E46 do those same things..

[.RJ]

[
:lol: Ok, I'll fight you on that one. Having put 20k miles on an E46 and something like 30k on the E36, the E46 interior is completely and utterly bombproof. The only issue with the E46 is the soft touch rubberized coating crap they put on the sunglass holder and center console peels and flakes. A nice afternoon, a six pack and a can of spray paint corrects that for the rest of time. Otherwise it's rock solid. Door panels stay on, dash doesn't rattle, center console doesn't fall apart, etc, etc.

Fucking everything inside the E36 falls apart. Everything. Door panels fall off, door cards bubble, center console disintegrates and rattles, shift surround doesn't stay on right once the brittle tabs snap, glove box sags, dash warps around the center vent, seats get loose in their adjustment tracks, trim breaks etc etc etc etc. I've fixed or learned to live with all of the stuff I listed, never seen an E46 with anything like that.

Exactly the same experience I've had. Many of the things about the maintenance are the same (bushings, cooling system, etc) between the two but the E46 cars are just nicer to live with and drive every day and still look great - E36's are starting to look very dated. My $.02.

[D_Eclipse9916]

E36 is dated. My $.02.

Fixed that for you.

[D_Eclipse9916]

At least you are not looking at these. These look like they have been hit with the ugly stick more times than a Pontiac Aztek.

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[Scott]

.
.If your just looking for a nice daily driver, why not lexus, toyota, etc?

Just my opinion. But I am a cheap ass.

I'm looking for a nicer DD ( the last meeting I went to I had to valet park my 22 year old beater Miata that I'd been using as my DD......), and it must have a manual transmission. I tried using my wife's Accord for a while and the auto just drove me insane. Plus I want something rear wheel drive that my kids can fit in the back of. I'm looking at the E36 instead of the 46 because I figure the E36 is around the bottom of the value plunge. Plus I'm a cheap ass too. I'd rather spend my money on the race cars.....

[.RJ]

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[SlimKlim]

^ Thats a pretty good looking car. The 323i is a de-tuned 2.5L, an M50 manifold swap and a couple other adjustments would go a long way in fixing the motor's asthma problem for not too much trouble.

[D_Eclipse9916]

^ Thats a pretty good looking car. The 323i is a de-tuned 2.5L, an M50 manifold swap and a couple other adjustments would go a long way in fixing the motor's asthma problem for not too much trouble.

Quoted. Let me know when the headgasket blows, and you cant just put a new headgasket in it because the head bolts torque and pull out the entire threads in the block. Hell, I got a beautiful 323i you can buy off my friend, can not use the motor though, that is exactly what happened.

GS300? IS250? (sexy).

If your going to do a bmw, spend the 1-2k up front in maintenance, and then itll be dead reliable. If you want to just buy and forget, run....RUN FAR AWAY from BMW.

[SlimKlim]

If your going to do a bmw, spend the 1-2k up front in maintenance, and then itll be dead reliable. If you want to just buy and forget, run....RUN FAR AWAY from BMW.

Fair point, mine sucked up a full 2k well inside the first two weeks of owning it. I also crossed the "spent more on maintenance/mods than the actual car" line sometime recently. That being said, at this point there isn't a whole hell of a lot I haven't done yet.

They are cars that can be owned cheaply, but it's going to be an old, cheap piece of crap unless you invest the money and time to make it nice. The bushings all wear out and make it feel like a 60's buick going down the highway, the rear end develops all kind of mysterious stuff to sort out, the cooling systems have a short half-life, the only thing that never fails on the variable timing is that it has or will fail at some point, etc, etc. etc. They have bulletproof drivetrains and rarely fail to get you there, but unless you're willing to spend a lot of money/time on it, it's not going to drive like you'd expect a bmw too.

Since you want to save money for the race cars, I'm assuming you also want to save your time for them, so maybe something Japanese is the best bet like DJ said.

[WRXtranceformed]

IS300? You can get those on the CHEAP now. Mine was reliable as a Russian AK

[ScottyB]

IS300? You can get those on the CHEAP now. Mine was reliable as a Russian AK

nice call. gas mileage probably won't be as good and you'll have to hunt for a manual, but they're 90% of E46 performance with 120% better build quality.

not to mention if you sell a 5-speed IS later down the line, its going to hold its value very well due to the rarity.

[WRXtranceformed]

IS300? You can get those on the CHEAP now. Mine was reliable as a Russian AK

nice call. gas mileage probably won't be as good and you'll have to hunt for a manual, but they're 90% of E46 performance with 120% better build quality.

not to mention if you sell a 5-speed IS later down the line, its going to hold its value very well due to the rarity.

All great points. Plus, that is arguably the best / most visually pleasing gauge cluster ever made!

[JPolen01]

.
.If your just looking for a nice daily driver, why not lexus, toyota, etc?

Just my opinion. But I am a cheap ass.

I'm looking for a nicer DD ( the last meeting I went to I had to valet park my 22 year old beater Miata that I'd been using as my DD......), and it must have a manual transmission. I tried using my wife's Accord for a while and the auto just drove me insane. Plus I want something rear wheel drive that my kids can fit in the back of. I'm looking at the E36 instead of the 46 because I figure the E36 is around the bottom of the value plunge. Plus I'm a cheap ass too. I'd rather spend my money on the race cars.....

Something here doesn't make sense. I would follow what others are saying and look into something other than a BMW. You say you want to spend money on your race cars but are looking at getting into an old ass bmw that is going to need lots of money and time just to get it to the reliable point. Obviously you want something sportier than an accord, but just for reference mine has 170k miles on it with the oil changed every 5k and I have not had a single thing fail. My interior is completely in tact, unlike every BMW in this club, and my car is a 2000 meaning it was built in 99. I haven't had to replace any sensors, my vtec still works, and I get between 29-32 mpgs. Of course it hasn't held its value like an e36 m3 but Hondas do hold their value fairly well.

[Scott]

GS300? IS250? (sexy).
.

If the GS came with a manual I would of had one long ago...... I've been searching for an IS as a plan B......