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i have a chance to buy a 1996 BMW 328I pretty cheap and i was thinking about buying it. have any of you guys had experience with these cars or know of a reason why they wouldnt be a very good car?

I personally love bmw's. Great, fun cars. http://www.bimmerforums.com is one of the biggest BMW sites on the web. Might be worth a look.

As long as it doesnt have a ton of miles, i would say GO FOR IT!!!

I know Jszar had an e36, until he got into an accident w. it. Maybe send him a PM.

i just joined that forum thanks. and it just turned 100,000. i can get it really cheap because its a repairable. its black with black leather so it looks really good.

BMW's arn't known for the reliablity, kind of have that same rep all German cars have

But.. its a pretty cool car, especially the handling part about it, even though they arn't the most reliable chances are it will start for you every morning

if it really is as cheep as you make it sound i say go for it, i love bmw's

oh yeah, don't expect it to be that fast, handles nice but a the 328's are a little short on the power end

The only thing i would be concerned with is that the Wiring in those cars are sub par at best... Think VW when you buy BMW... other than that... Amazing cars they are just rediculously fun to drive.

Adidasman159 wrote:BMW's arn't known for the reliablity, kind of have that same rep all German cars have

Not really, ask anyone in Germany that drives an OPEL (americian translation = peice of shit)

BMWs really aren't bad for reliability. The key is to stop listening to the highly biased consumer reports magazines. After all, you'd be listening to a Bose acoustimass system if you went with their choice .

Different engineering as well. Put our cars on the Autobahn and they'll fall apart in a very short period of time. German cars are designed and built to run best and have the highest efficiency at higher speeds and higher RPMs (due to the Autobahn of course). In fact, if you are ever in Germany and watch their driving style, when they slow down they'll downshift so they can keep the RPMs really high.

Jonathan wrote:In fact, if you are ever in Germany and watch their driving style, when they slow down they'll downshift so they can keep the RPMs really high.

Hey, i do that! I double clutch AND rev match every downshift. Makes the synchro's last longer (as long as its done correctly).

Yea, BMW's are pretty reliable as long as all the maintenance is done. They do have some electrical gremlins, but what car doesnt. The newer ones arent as bad as the older ones (by older i mean mid to late eighties). Im sure that car is fine. Just read up on bf.c in the E36 section for any info you might want.

I do that in my Ranger. Not that it really helps a lot

Mainly for the same reasons, though. I double clutch nearly every manual transmission vehicle I've had for the life of the synchros.

Really the same goes with vehicles I have with auto trannies. I always put a larger tranny cooler on there, usually a shift kit, and whatever other modifications are necessary considering the specific applications. Usually it'll be valvebody mods.

Extra work, but definately worth it down the road.