I know that now a days BMW and Mercedes are reliable though expensive to maintain but I was unsure of the mid to late 90's when it came to these cars, cars such as the E36 M3, reported by automobile magazine as one of the best and almost unchallenged all around sports car bargains. I notice a rather large ranger of different prices for different E36s... I could see a very nice 1997 with say 85K for $12,900 or I could see a 1997 with 133k for the same price if not a few more, there are alot of less expensive ones out there and an equal amount of pricey used E36's. I don't know much about them, does anyone here? I heard of tons of them running for 300,000 miles but is that after uber COST to keep them running?

 

the e36 series is a great car for racing because its getting easier and cheaper to get parts and the car was essentially made to take a beating on the track, they are growing more and more popular with the modification scene though now that you dont have to be stinking rich to have one and maintain one. as far as reliable id say yes, more so then mercedes are anyway

 

Well I decided I was done waiting around for my packet to get processed with the Air National Guard so I decided to re-enlist in the Army... with this however I do not have my big signing bonus anymore, just $3-4,000 to put down on a car when I get home from training and get back into school and I thought I could find a nice E36 M3 for $12-13,000... it's good to hear they can be driven hard and take it because I am an aggressive driver and I don't really need something finicky however I was worried these cars were expensive to keep up with. I have read specs on them and I guess they are a really low 14 second car with a 0-60 under 6 seconds... not too bad especially if they are built well and higher mileage running cars are still rock solid but I still have some looking to do before I determine it's a car for me. I just wanted something that looked good, was built well, not finicky or expensive to up keep and something that was not too slow. I wanted to definately stay under $15k... probobly $13K-14k MAX... Any other ideas? How modable are they, I always was under the impression modifying BMW, Mercedes and Porsche were CRAZY expensive.

 

well basically the rule with BMW's along with any car for that matter is that the older you go the cheaper they are going to be to modify, this is mainly because the engines get more simple the older they get compared to today, a good example would be throwing a chip on the ECU of a lets say.... E30 is going to be like maybe 100 bucks if you look hard enough, whereas trying to flash a new M3 would cost prolly 4 times that.

whenever i go to the track i see more and more old miatas and E30's everytime i go because of bang for the buck reasons, great part is they can take the abuse and BMW is a high class name

 

Sounds like a nice car, it has a sublte look to it I never really liked but now it's growing on me. It seems to fit the mold and maybe as long as I find the right car from the right owner I should be good, I'd think that a bunch of older guys have them, meticulously maintained them and kept them for a while like alot of BMW owners tend to do, this car I doubt will be bought off a kid just because it was so expensive new which is a good thing. I'd love to find one in this color...

http://www.borrelli.us/misc/bmw/m3_6.jpg

 

Current Mercedes models are some of the most unreliable cars sold.


The E36 cars are fairly reliable, but you're dealing with an 8-10 year old car, so things will go wrong. Parts are reasonable but labor rates for BMW service are not.

 

The e36 m3 has a lot of little maintenance items you need to look out for:

-bushing and mount replacements.

-Also depending on which year, they also can develop a slight tear in the rear subframe which Tuner Motorsports can help fix.

-The Radiator thermastat is made of really cheap plastic and will need to be replaced. As with any german car, the electronics in that car always needs some type of maintenance.

- There are more items, but too many to list.

Other then that the car can take a beatting, but you will need to keep up with the maintenace of the car. When one thing goes wrong it usually becomes a domino effect.

Also when you are ready to buy make sure the owner has all his service records. Don't take his word for it. You'll regret it later if you don't.

 

Well like I said I'd expect to buy from a meticulous older man, I also heard that these cars are NOT recommended for automatic car washes, something to do with the ECU and it can easily get flooded.

 

Older mid 90's BMW's are of slightly above average reliability according to consumer reports. New BMW's are not at the very bottom like Mercedes and Volkswagen, but they are very very close. German cars sans porsche have taken a dive to mediocrady with regards to reliability. My dad had an E36 that he's got over 220k miles on before he sold it...I believe it was a 1998. However, although the motor runs well, he's had to dump lots of money elsewhere in the car. Just a thought.

 

That's the first time I've heard of that.

 

what happened to the Evo you were buying? I thought you were getting Buschur Stage 1...or was it small appearance mods

 

The E36 is known for cracking around the rear shock towers. Check that area carefully, before you buy.

 

Seriously...why dont you go ask those bimmer guys these questions on THEIR forum? Or have you already pissed all of them off with your relentless and redundant questions?

 

BMW was is like third in initial quality, but first as far as German automakers go, if that helps any.

 

just like an evo, any previous M3 owner was prolly hard on it, just gotta keep a keen eye out