Advice on buying E36 coupe please??

[m3f_BenMc]

Hi I have never owned a BMW before but I am extremly interested in a 1995 M3 in my area. This is the link http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail...5&aff=national

It is $8,900 and has 110,000 miles on it. It is avus blue which seems to be the best color I have seen other than the reds. I was wondering if this is considered high miliage for a BMW or not? I dont know anything about how it was cared for but if we assume that it was taken average care of then what can I expect for maintenence after I buy it? I am wondering if there should be anything major replaced by this milage and things like that.

Also can someone please direct me to the place where I can find what the differences were as the years changed in the E36 M3's?

Thanks!

-Ben

[m3f_98_1LE]

That is not high mileage, and there is several thousand in maintenance that needs to be done if it has not already been. Costs will be less if you turn the wrenches, but some of it (alignment for example) will generally have to be farmed out.


Avus is the best E36 color IMO.

[m3f_fitchesbass]

this has been covered soooo my times and there is even a thread at the top of this page: http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=300562



enjoy!

[m3f_TomS2]

here is another place to look

http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=330793

[m3f_adema24]

you might wanna try that search function....

[m3f_alanil]

The average 95 is pushing 200k miles.


Do the math. 110k miles / 16 years is under 7k a year. We're not talking about Ferraris here....


The key is maintenance. Find out the maintenance history from the seller, check it out and if it looks good definitely have a place that specializes in older BMWs inspect the car.


The asking price looks reasonable to me as long as it doesn't need more than a few hundred $$ of work. Unless the owner was extremely anal about maintenance that car could probably use a couple thousand dollars in parts.


What is normal "wear and tear" on the bolster? A little wear is fine, holes are not fine.. Upholstery shops charge big $$ to repair leather.


If you don't work on your own cars buying an old BMW is a bad idea.

[m3f_TomS2]

The average 95 is pushing 200k miles.



Do the math. 110k miles / 16 years is under 7k a year. We're not talking about Ferraris here....



The key is maintenance. Find out the maintenance history from the seller, check it out and if it looks good definitely have a place that specializes in older BMWs inspect the car.



The asking price looks reasonable to me as long as it doesn't need more than a few hundred $$ of work. Unless the owner was extremely anal about maintenance that car could probably use a couple thousand dollars in parts.



What is normal "wear and tear" on the bolster? A little wear is fine, holes are not fine.. Upholstery shops charge big $$ to repair leather.



If you don't work on your own cars buying an old BMW is a bad idea.

alan,

based on the ad, how much you wanna bet the car will need/take/use every part listed in my thread solely because of age? other than the shocks of course, but if they are the originals.....