06RS

iTrader: (37)

Year: 1988
Make: BMW
Model: 325is
Price: $5000
Mileage: 141000
Color: Alpine White
Private or Dealer Listing: Private Listing
Location (State): Colorado (Front Range)
Transmission: Manual
Drivetrain: Rear Wheel Drive

For Sale: 1988 BMW 325is with 141k original miles. Unmolested, Well Sorted

I recently moved to Colorado, and E30’s can be challenging daily drivers in the winter. I have owned the car for two years and I have put over 30k miles on the car in that time. Including an 1800 mile trip across the country several weeks ago.

I am the third owner. The car was originally a California car, and it went to its second owner in New Hampshire in 1990. He drove the car in NE throughout the 90’s and ended up in SE Pennsylvania ~ 10 years ago. The car has a clean title and has been very well maintained over the years. I kept the car in a garage for the last year that I’ve owned the car (until 4 weeks ago), and the previous owner always kept the car garaged.

I don’t have anything to hide about the car, I will try to be as transparent as possible with my description of everything.

The best way of contacting me is by phone or text message.

My number is (six ten) 585 – sixteen 77

Serious inquiries only, no low-ballers please, I’m not in a rush to sell the car

Maintenance

I purchased the car with 108k miles (01-2012), and I did this maintenance immediately.
• Timing Belt/Water Pump
• Accessory Belts
• Coil/Cap/Rotor/Plugs/Wires
• All new Coolant Hoses, and most of the vacuum lines
• Fuel Pump (crapped out a week after I purchased the car)
• Fuel Filter
• Both front Control Arms, with bushings
• Valve Cover Gasket w/ Valve Adjustment (Valve Adjustment done again about 5k miles ago, wasn’t needed)
• Air Filter

Since then, it has been mostly routine maintenance.
• New Tires ~ 4 months/5k miles ago – Falken Ziex ZE-912 195/65R14
• New front brake pads (Hawk HPS) and new rear brake pads (Autozone) and rotors (BMW Rotors) ~ 6 months/6k miles ago
• New Radiator and Thermostat ~ 2 months/3k miles ago
• Spark Plugs (just done)
• Air Filter (just done)
• New Battery (just done)
• Oil changed every 3k miles with 20W50, currently has 15W40 for the cold.

The bigger repairs that the previous owner made shortly before selling the car
• Brand new OEM rear differential. It is the correct LSD diff.
• New Bilstein HD rear shocks

Now we can discuss the bad stuff. The car has a few issues.
• The car needs a new headlight stalk switch. You can rarely get the high beams to turn on, but everything else works.
• The car needs a new power steering pump. It failed, and I realized that I liked the car with manual steering. I also had plans of eventually swapping out the steering rack for something a bit quicker, so it didn’t make sense for me to address.
• There is a leak somewhere in the Air Conditioning system. While the car HAS been converted to use R134a, it has a leak. I had the system recharged at the beginning of the summer in 2012, and it lasted the whole summer. I did the same thing in 2013, and the charge held for maybe half the summer.
• The car had a PA State Inspection in January. The only things that came up were that the outer tie-rod ends are starting to get a little play. They weren’t bad enough to fail the car, but they will eventually need to be addressed.
• R/S fog light is out
• R/S side marker bulb is out

Exterior

The cars shows remarkable well for its age. The clear coat is perfect, and the paint shines nicely. Some of the plastic trim around the bumpers is a bit faded or chewed up in spots.

The previous owner hit a deer a number of years ago. The car got a new hood and fender, and is totally straight. The only thing pointing towards work being done is that there is a bit of white overspray in one of the fender liners. It isn’t noticeable. The kidney grills are a bit cracked in certain spots. I only noticed that when I removed them to paint. I also removed the IS lip and painted it black. I replaced most of the front lip clips when I put it back on.

I purchased the car with a few spots of surface rust. There was a rust spot behind the drivers door at the bottom. I sanded off the rust and used a small amount of bondo and hit it with primer. There is a bit of surface rust coming back on the edge. It’s definitely not close to being rusted though. There was a very small spot of surface rot in front of the L/R wheel well. That I sanded off and primered. Bondo was not necessary. There were two spots above the license plate that had some surface rust which were also sanded and primered. There is a rotted spot underneath the bumper on the right side. There is a small amount of surface rust at the rear bottom edge of the L/S pop-out window. While this stuff should be addressed, it is all cosmetic. This car has strong bones.

The bottom portion of the rear aluminum bumper is cracked. It’s not very noticeable, but it’s there. Before I knew that I was moving out west, I was planning on swapping them out for plastic bumpers anyway.

The car has OEM basket weaves. I had the wheels powder-coated last fall. I wasn’t super thrilled with how they came out. They were supposed to be Black Chrome, but they came out darker. Depending on the light, the wheels either look black, brown or even a really dark purple. They don’t look bad, it just wasn’t what I was expecting. Also, he did not do the centercap waffles, so they look silly on in the current state. The wheels are straight though, no cracks. The waffles/center caps are complete and in good shape.

Interior

The interior is in good shape. The dash is original, and has zero cracks. The carpet, door panels, steering wheels, etc. all look good. The front sport seats that came with the car started cracking and got pretty beat up. I replaced the original seats with a pair of black E30 sport seats. The new seats are in great shape. They don’t look bad either in a tan interior car. I think that swapping the rear seat out with a black seat would work really nicely. I never got around to pulling the trigger on a new rear seat. The current back seat is in OK condition. There aren’t any tears or stains, but like the original front seats the leather is very dry and will crack eventually.
The worse part of the interior is the glove box. Someone tried to break into the glovebox while the latch was jammed. They beat the hell out of the glovebox door. It will need a new door, and latch.

Pictures

Please excuse the not so great iPhone pics. I don’t currently have access to a garage or a place to wash/wax the car outside of a DIY car wash, so please understand that this car is pretty dirty by my standards.