Should a buy a misfiring '85 318i?

[AppleFanatic]

Hi all :) I'm pretty new to these forums, but in the short look I've had, I've been amazed at all the awesome info on here, it's a huge help to a noob like me.

My situation: I'm a high school senior looking to buy my first car, and am obviously on a pretty tight budget. I fell in love with BMWs, and have had my eye out for a nice e30 or an e36. I found this on craigslist the other day:

http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/bnc/cto/2792072405.html

I've been trying to find out what could be causing the misfire, but it's not very clear, it sounds like it could be anything from the O2 sensor to a cracked head. But I'm a complete amateur- any experts have an idea what the most likely cause is? The seller says the car idles fine, it just stutter when it drives. He was confident it would make a 2 hour drive back to where I live, so it can't be too bad.

I've set up a meeting with the guy tomorrow. I'll have a better idea after I see the car, but as it looks, what do you think, is it worth it? He's done a lot to the car, and if the interior turns out to be as nice as he said it is, it could be a good buy. If I do decide to go for it, I'd get a compression test done beforehand, but as that's pretty costly in comparison to how much I'm paying for the car, I'd like to be fairly sure low compression is NOT the problem.

I've also just found this today:

http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/van/cto/2795636766.html

Again, I'm not sure what the cause of the problem could be, (TCM needs replacing?) and there's a chance it could cost a lot more to fix than the misfire. But it would be really nice having a straight 6 I'm still leaning towards the e30 though...

Any advice for this humble noob would be much appreciated :D

[Deadskittles]

M10s are pretty damn slow but they do get you from point A-B, However you could swap in a 6 cylinder if you wanted to. It depends what you want this for, a daily or a fun car. Either way you should look into how much it would cost to fix the m10 vs swapping it entirely. If you look in the 24v swap forums The m50/52 swaps are very common and well documented. Hope this helps!

[Hey_You]

If it has a hard misfire while driving, and the plugs/cap/rotor/wires/fuel pump were replaced, I would start by replacing the spark plugs, and check the other fuel pump. When you go to check it out, bring a tool to check a plug (or all if you can). Oxygen sensors don't usually cause a misfire, mostly just a rich/lean condition. M10's are great engines, just don't have high expectations for it. It's a stout DD engine.
Note: Stout as in tough, by no means powerful

[Holland]

M10 wouldn't be bad as a first car. They are one of the cheapest to own and maintain short of an ICV.

[davem]

Getting an e30 with that much maintenance already done for that low of a price is really tough, just get it.

[Killacortes]

Agreed with everyone. Go for it man! DD the shit out of it while saving money for your next e30 cause you are gonna want another one. It's gonna happen and you can't stop it