How good is the 95-96 318i E36?

[leeyong 0]

I just came back from my OE in the states and looking for a new (2nd hand) car. One thing I notice is the 95-96 BMW 318i high milage (160-180,000 Km) can be had for around 6000NZD. Having been through uni when the car came out, I always droul at the BMW I saw. the 1.8L seemed a good choice nowadays seeing the price of fuel has just gone up yet again.

My questions are

1. How expensive is servicing the car in Auckland or NZ? thing like oil change etc and work done on repairs?

2. How about parts? are they expensive? (my last two cars were jap imports) examples please!

3. How is the fuel economy for this 318i. I heard number like 65L for 800km. is this normal?

4. The engine seem reliable enough, but is 160-180K too high milage? My state side friends always say keep away from 2nd hand BMW due to high repair cost etc.

5. any issues I need to worried about, advise from prevous owners?

Many thanks to all,

[PBOY23 0]

save a bit more cash an buy a e36 318is

[leeyong 0]

ya, the honda torneo sir, f20b, dohc vtec with 200 bhp.....

[aliluya 0]

1/ i don't know about servicing in auckland, but servicing down here in dunedin is reasonably cheap.

2/ parts are actually everywhere, so second hand parts are cheap.

3/ when i had mine my mileage was around 60L for 400-500kms. never heard of 65L for 800km unless pure highway driving.

4/ if well looked after they can go to 300k no problems.

5/ just check out the service history and possibly ask one of the auckland guys to help check out a few cars with you, i'm sure they are more than willing to help.

[Nobimmer 694]

Mines cheap as on gas.

Get a manual or hills will pwn you.

[kiwi535 538]

Mines cheap as on gas.

Get a manual or hills will pwn you.

there are no hills in Auckland

[leeyong 0]

Mines cheap as on gas.

Get a manual or hills will pwn you.

can you give me a number please km/l or l/100km? so is yours M43 or m42 engine? thanks

[tonylauno1 7]

I just came back from my OE in the states and looking for a new (2nd hand) car. One thing I notice is the 95-96 BMW 318i high milage (160-180,000 Km) can be had for around 6000NZD. Having been through uni when the car came out, I always droul at the BMW I saw. the 1.8L seemed a good choice nowadays seeing the price of fuel has just gone up yet again.

My questions are

1. How expensive is servicing the car in Auckland or NZ? thing like oil change etc and work done on repairs?

2. How about parts? are they expensive? (my last two cars were jap imports) examples please!

3. How is the fuel economy for this 318i. I heard number like 65L for 800km. is this normal?

4. The engine seem reliable enough, but is 160-180K too high milage? My state side friends always say keep away from 2nd hand BMW due to high repair cost etc.

5. any issues I need to worried about, advise from prevous owners?

Many thanks to all,

1) Since it is not a 2.8 or above engine, I am sure you can use 10w/40 or 15w/40 oil which are not expensive. It cost me $50 for oil & filter from a very very experienced mechanic in Manukau when I had my Japanese cars. BMW parts are a little more expensive compared to my older & smaller Honda (I use genuine parts on BMW & Honda) but it's the cost of a good BMW mechanic which makes servicing more expensive.

2) 528i brake disc cost $190 each including labour compared to $150 for my Accord. 528i Brake pads cost $165 including labour compared to $100 for my Accord - The 528i is a bigger heavier car and performs much better than a smaller & lighter accord so I guess that is where the difference is. I don't know about cost of 318i. Parts are not expensive but you probably so see the mechanic more often that you do with a Japanese car. I had a 92 Honda Inspire 2.5L and I travel from 150K to 200K and in those 5 years, I spent $1200 for cv joints, cv boot, radiator head & brake master cylinder. This is not counting things like battery, brakes, tyres, oil change etc, just problems alone. - You really need to spend the money on Europeans cars as they have to be maintain properly.

3) As for fuel economy check out www.fueleconomy.gov - I find it to be quite reliable with the cars that I have owned when driven properly - mind you high mileage cars will use more fuel that what is stated on the website. You can give me a fuel efficient Honda Civic and I can show you how to use lots of fuel It's all in the driving habits.

4) The high repairs costs comes from the previous owners not maintaining properly or not maintaining at all. So service records are a must when buying BMW. You want to look for an owner who loves his BMW and does spend the money, being a high mileage car you will properly need to spend a bit of money too as things will go wrong after all those mileages. Check internet forums and find out what kind of problems to expect so you can budget for repairs and won't get a nasty surprise when you do need to fix something.

5) Alot of owners has repaird their transmission, shock tower, suspension subframe. At that mileage previous owners should have replaces fan belts, tensioner, waterpump, thermostat - ask previous owners for a service history.

You can find a nice 328i coupe with full leather at 100k mileage for around $10k - My brother was looking at a couple. It does not use much more fuel than a 318i because it doesn't need as much power to get the heavy car moving. 1.8L is enough for a light Japanese car but are much slower in a heavy BMW.

[leeyong 0]

tony thanks!

I guess I just don't know what to expect since BMW does has some reputation issue. my last corolla I spend 4000 on repairs but this is 200K-300K km car for 4 years. before that my integra b16A for 7 years (70k-170K) was better just the usual cv boot stuff only. so I am slightly reluctant to go for another 170K+ german car again.

fuel eco on

http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/cgi-bin/trans...;vehicleid=3346

says City Consumption = 9.5 litres per 100km travelled (600km per tank)

Highway Consumption = 6.4 litres per 100km travelled (1000km per tank)

the US version says 23mpg or 10L/100km from new EPA estimate. granted most people in the state travel on freeway a lot compared to NZ.

all estimate seemed to be OFF with real life experiences here in NZ? or is it M43 sohc engine?

Edited January 5, 2008 by lee

[tonylauno1 7]

tony thanks!

I guess I just don't know what to expect since BMW does has some reputation issue. my last corolla I spend 4000 on repairs but this is 200K-300K km car for 4 years. before that my integra b16A for 7 years (70k-170K) was better just the usual cv boot stuff only. so I am slightly reluctant to go for another 170K+ german car again.

fuel eco on

http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/cgi-bin/trans...;vehicleid=3346

says City Consumption = 9.5 litres per 100km travelled (600km per tank)

Highway Consumption = 6.4 litres per 100km travelled (1000km per tank)

the US version says 23mpg or 10L/100km from new EPA estimate. granted most people in the state travel on freeway a lot compared to NZ.

all estimate seemed to be OFF with real life experiences here in NZ? or is it M43 sohc engine?

Even this 89 Accord I had for 12 years, spents only $2000 in 12 years only problem was the carrburettor & cold/warm idle otherwise nothing needed to be fix. It has always made lots & lots of short trips, ie engine not even warmed up yet but at 120k the carburettor has had it.

Cars with 160-180k mileage will require some maintainance, even on Jap unless you are lucky and previous owner has maintain it well. Might be a little more on BMW as parts don't last as long from what I have read on Internet forums about people changing the entire cooling system because when one fails then others will follow soon. Might need new shocks at that mileage too, check suspension components and shocks.

You might find lots of problems on the Internet because I believe BMW has the biggest forums online and people with problems do post them online. Don't let them put you off, instead use it as a way to educate yourself about the kind of money you would need to spend so you don't get caught out. Go drive these 318i and make sure you like it, and if you really do then you will find way to maintain it To me maintaining does hurt the pocket but whenever I jump into the car, all is forgotten while I am driving

Those figure from greenhouse.gov.au are way too optimistic, they might be correct for a Echo or a Prius not a 318i. You might get those figures when the road are straight and flat like freeways in the states, no turns, no uphill etc. The figures below from fueleconomy.gov are pretty accurate for me driving around Auckland hills and stop/start conditions. On the highway you will probably achieve those figures with only driver and keeping it at 100km/h but on highway there are usually a few people in the car and always overtaking so it adds 2/3 L/100km.

on fueleconomy.gov

(City/Hwy) L/100km

96 BMW 318i - 13.1/9.0

01 BMW 330i - 13.8/9.4

97 BMW 528i - 13.8/9.8

97 Volvo S90 - 13.7/9.8

98 Prelude - 11.8/9.4

92 Inspire - 13.1/10.2

If you really like the 318i after driving a few then take it to Auckland Autoclinic www.autoclinic.co.nz and get a prepurchase inspection. Ask them what kind of repairs are needed in the near future and what are likely to go wrong further down the track with these cars (They service lots of European cars and know a hell of alot about BMW). Tell David or Laurie that Tony Lau ask you to come see them and they will look after you, they charged me an hour's labour to look over my 328ci and were more thorough than this other place that checked my 528i for $150.

Remember, drive as many as you can and you might see the difference in performance, I have driven many 528i, 540i, 328ci and a few of them are really slow even with a slight downhill. So make sure you drive lots of 318i - high mileage, low mileage etc - Always buy quality even though purchase price might be cheap but maintenance might prove to be much more expensive than getting a more expensive quality car to begin with.

Edited January 6, 2008 by tonylauno1

[tonylauno1 7]

A quick search on the Trademe for 318i under 10K price and under 100k mileage shows a few 318i e36 - change the search to 150k mileage and you get even more ads.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/browse/categoryat...order=price_asc

[Nobimmer 694]

Mine's M43

Have had no problems ( touch wood) with the engine at all apart from common radiator expansion tank leak which was cheap anyways.

Can't remember what it was but to give you an idea $60 got me to Mangawhai and back with the fuel light only coming on when I got home.

[leeyong 0]

Mine's M43

Have had no problems ( touch wood) with the engine at all apart from common radiator expansion tank leak which was cheap anyways.

Can't remember what it was but to give you an idea $60 got me to Mangawhai and back with the fuel light only coming on when I got home.

so at $1.7/L is 35L and around 250Km would be 14L/100Km freeway? man fuel is expensive in NZ.....