So three months ago I purchased this car with a surging idle, bald and old tires, half the cluster didn't work, and burnt out lights galore. I got it for a good price though ($1700) and was able to drive it 100 miles to my home with no problems.
A little background on me is that I have 8 years i the auto service industry (service writing, mechanical work, and managing a shop) which I have recently abandoned to work in a different sales related position that had nothing to do with cars. I developed my love for cars with my first love a 65 falcon I still own and need to reinstall the motor, then my taste of euro 80's cars with my 86 XR4ti.
The XR was my daily for 3 years, but it needs a lot of little work done to it that can snowball into much bigger problems if not done, combine that with the fact most parts I need at this point are special order only and its not a great car to rely on all the time. I set my heart on an E30 because two of my good friends had owned them and they were easy enough to work on and impressed me with the reliability (for a 25 yr old car).
I decided to get an early 318i because personally I felt the pricing on late model 325i and 318i cars were ridiculous, 4k for cars that had 300,000 miles on them and would need work. Early 325e and i models were generally priced high as well or had a billion miles on them and were in horrible shape.
After looking at a 84 318i listed for 1k and having to fight the urge to laugh in the boys face when he showed up in the horribly beat to shit car (I would have overpaid if i even spent $400 on it) finding this car listed for $2200 seemed great. After talking to the owner i discovered it had some issues he didn't mention in the ad, the biggest concern for me was that it didn't start at the time unless push started. When I checked it out the starter had power going to it, however with the other issues and the fact I needed a starter I lowballed him and we bartered a little.
This car continues to amaze me and impress me with how fun it is while still being super slow. Especially coming from my xr4ti this thing is slow but at the same time its fun having to keep the momentum up and going around town. Here are some pics of my girl, some from when i first bought her and some from today after I had the new muffler put on (the old one had broken internals and annoyed the crap outta me).
I feel like the chrome tip looks nice without being too over the top, my xr can be over the top for me.
This is right after I got the bimmer, parked next to my xr in the rain.
A little background on me is that I have 8 years i the auto service industry (service writing, mechanical work, and managing a shop) which I have recently abandoned to work in a different sales related position that had nothing to do with cars. I developed my love for cars with my first love a 65 falcon I still own and need to reinstall the motor, then my taste of euro 80's cars with my 86 XR4ti.
The XR was my daily for 3 years, but it needs a lot of little work done to it that can snowball into much bigger problems if not done, combine that with the fact most parts I need at this point are special order only and its not a great car to rely on all the time. I set my heart on an E30 because two of my good friends had owned them and they were easy enough to work on and impressed me with the reliability (for a 25 yr old car).
I decided to get an early 318i because personally I felt the pricing on late model 325i and 318i cars were ridiculous, 4k for cars that had 300,000 miles on them and would need work. Early 325e and i models were generally priced high as well or had a billion miles on them and were in horrible shape.
After looking at a 84 318i listed for 1k and having to fight the urge to laugh in the boys face when he showed up in the horribly beat to shit car (I would have overpaid if i even spent $400 on it) finding this car listed for $2200 seemed great. After talking to the owner i discovered it had some issues he didn't mention in the ad, the biggest concern for me was that it didn't start at the time unless push started. When I checked it out the starter had power going to it, however with the other issues and the fact I needed a starter I lowballed him and we bartered a little.
This car continues to amaze me and impress me with how fun it is while still being super slow. Especially coming from my xr4ti this thing is slow but at the same time its fun having to keep the momentum up and going around town. Here are some pics of my girl, some from when i first bought her and some from today after I had the new muffler put on (the old one had broken internals and annoyed the crap outta me).
I feel like the chrome tip looks nice without being too over the top, my xr can be over the top for me.
This is right after I got the bimmer, parked next to my xr in the rain.
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