Eagle

The people who would help you out post sale in this situation would be very few. At least you know now to get a pre-purchase check done before buying regardless of who it is. You would of had the leverage and\or information to get make a decision. We only have one side of the story and little information so its hard to comment on much else.

Pretty rare for a car to develop multiple oil leaks straight after buying it, sounds like they were already there unless you mean they were cleaned up?. Why do they think it has a head gasket problem?

Indeed. Only so much a 530i is worth regardless of how good it is, may get 20k, but probably closer to 15k in reality. Id say he will be keeping it at that price especially with those wheels.

The half leather\half M-texture is what id take given a choice, i think M5 only or custom in E39 but in my E36 compact its great, best of both worlds.

Still probably the best value E46 330 currently for sale, even if you add the $700? to de-cert it.

Wants to sell for reasons given but says he will keep it and supercharge it if no buyers. Maybe he's trying out his luck in slim hope someone will relieve him of his big money waster.

You can cheap out and not buy a clutch module\wiring so no cruise control. Unlikely on a car like this though.

Bling wheels, mismatched suspension and flywheel\clutch is going to make it even harder to move at the asking.

CCV diaphragm or plastics pipes have failed. Smoke machines can be had for less than $200 on aliexpress etc if you cant diy one, no reason not to own one.

Yeah need right tools for sure. Worst case it may have to all cut out and a patch welded in.

"Sold on behalf of the original owner" sums it up. It's had one owner since imported (excl dealer) so the guy probably paid some dealer plenty for it back in the day. Maybe has no clue what they are actually worth now, or he just thinks he worth top dollar because "low k's'. They are open to offers so he will soon realize the reality its all the gets all the 5k offers, maybe he gets lucky and it sells for half his buy now.

Flap disc take it back to clean metal, probably need a die grinder, dremel and\or a finger sander for the blower motor area. If its too thin or gone through in areas then get someone to weld some patches in. Brush on 2k epoxy primer, seam sealer where needed. 1k base coat matched to body colour if you dont want to spend on a 2k base coat, probably get away with it since that area is not subject to much wear and UV. Cavity wax back sides of any areas you cant paint if especially if welding. Should be around a few hundred in paint and supplies then whatever welding costs are if needed (maybe a local member etc can do it for cheap).

8-10k sounds about the right for a decent one, they are maintenance money pits. Top one sold recently so someone is flipping it after fixing it. "It's the main thing that really causes concern with this model..."

Installed a Gauge S by Sorek (as seen on M539 restorations awhile back). Originally for the E30 and E36 instrument cluster but he progressed to E46\E39 and now E9X chassis. Pretty handy device which is quite capable of many things like data logging and is very customizable. Best of all it still has the OEM look, doesn't get it the way of anything and is reasonably priced. Pretty quick and easy to install as it just taps into instrument cluster wiring, only complaint was the supplied wires were too short which was a bit annoying and i had to lengthen them (RHD thing maybe). Also Installed and wired in Bosch PST oil pressure\temperature sensor using a modified M14x1.5 banjo bolt. This was much more involved as i had to have factory looking install into existing looms, no wiring cut using home made tee adaptors and all crimped OE terminals\plugs. Wasted a bit time\money finding out how i wanted to do it. but shouldnt even have to touch it again. Sorek has the tables\coded done for this sensor using the extra analog connector so its just a matter of copy pasting some code into the memory. Very cheap way to get this data compared to analog gauges. Thanks to @Vass for sending me a OBD port cover which is required to display K-line data when closed. Im sure he will do a proper write up one day as forgot to take detailed photos of most of it. Pretty straight forward regardless.

Redid the M52>M54 exhaust joins with some E36 M52B28 pipes i spotted at pick a part. E36's pipe uses sightly different bends for one bank and is 1.6mm thick vs 1.2mm cost cutted E46 piping, not ideal again with some filler rod needed in spots but much cleaner and higher quality so than before.