BMW fan looking to buy

[BigPoppa 9]

Hey everyone,

I'm considering selling my current DD (If anyone wants a Forrie...) and looking to buy my 2nd BMW.

I had an 88 520i, which I really liked due to the comfort of driving.

These days, I want something a little more upmarket.

I've been looking around and it seems the bimmer I'm in love with is the 2005 320i (the E90 I think?). Thing is, the price tends to vary a LOT from what i can tell.

I've seen some floating around TradeMe for around $13k - $19k. As far as I can tell, they're the exact same car, with some varying luxury features (leather seats being the biggest one).

Is there much variance between different 320's around this year? Enough to warrant the $6k price difference?

Seeing these close to the $13k mark makes me paranoid - is the price a reflection that the car is probably stuffed in some way?

Any major issues I should look for when viewing em? Bare in mind I'm not the most mechanically minded fellow.

Lastly, considering I like the look of the 2005 320i's (which I assume is the E90), is there any other models I should be paying heed to? I'd really like to only spend up to around the $15k mark. 4 door required and I'd prefer to get one with fairly low K's.

Apologies for the 20 questions!

Cheers!

-P

[lord_jagganath 421]

Welcome!

The prices usually are indicative of what the trader paid at auction in Japan or of how desperate they feel.

test drive a few, from varying ends of the price spectrum and see which feels "right".

[jeffbebe 1559]

Don't think you'll find it too hard to get a low kms E90 320i for $15K. If you want nice seats and gadgets look for a motorsport 320i or look at getting a car with a bigger engine (330s and 335s tend to be much higher spec so come with leather seats, reversing sensors/cameras, etc, etc).

Guess it depends on what your priorities are - cheap to run, fun and/or luxury.

[BigPoppa 9]

Thanks for the info.

So in reality, I shouldn't worry too much about them being a bit cheaper? As far as I know, the cars I'm looking at are all the same model, so in theory they should drive the same, yeah? There's bugger all around my region (Palmy) so I'll end up having to travel a bit to test drive anything!

Leaning towards luxury, cheap to run would be nice too. Coming from a Forrie, almost anything is bound to be cheaper

[jeffbebe 1559]

In which case I'd recommend looking for a motorsport 320i. They are likely to be better optioned than a standard car and the engine should be pretty economical. I've not driven an E90 so can't help much but certainly with the newer models even the 325s and 330s are fairly good on gas and you generally find those cars have much better options. That said, you may not find one for that price with as low kms as the 320s.

[BigPoppa 9]

Thanks Julian.. I've had a look at some of the cars around the Showroom forum and it turns out E46 M3's give me a chubber. I have a funny feeling that these are well outside my price range. What do they tend to go for? See CSET and Dyan M3's posts specifically hahah.

[jeffbebe 1559]

Some E46 M3 experts on here but this thread might be a good place to start: http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/46213-e46-m3-values/. I expect you could pick up a high mileage E46 M3 for the kind of money you want to spend but then you'd have to expect to spend a fair bit more on maintenance. People sometimes forget that although these cars depreciate quickly the cost of parts and servicing stays the same.

What about a supercharged 330ci with 89,000kms, M3 bodykit and a pretty sexy red interior? If it's as good as it looks on paper that could be a great buy!!

[Apex 693]

Welcome.

Forget the 320i.

What you want is a E39 M5 or a E30 M3.

Good luck finding a car, as stated just get out and test drive, its a buyers market!

[BigPoppa 9]

Christ, that 330ci is NICE. Shame it'd be pushing the financials at that price hahah.

This may sound like a stupid question, but being new to specific models etc, is there a way for me to easily find a reference for what model looks like what / how to identify etc?

People on Trademe tend to be tagging their listings with a range, so searching for E46 M3 for example, gives a whole lot of unrelated results afaik.

Thanks again!

[lord_jagganath 421]

E46 M3 - search parameters: BMW , 2001 - 2005, Coupe, list alphabetically.

There should be 8 coupes and about 7-8 convertibles available on trade me

Edited October 8, 2013 by The Juggernaut

[BigPoppa 9]

Legend, just what I was looking for.

Is there a reference or somethng similar for other models if I wanted to look for E39's, E30's etc? Maybe Wikipedia is my friend hahah. I should learn2google..