This week, I hit 145K on my old 318i, which I bought in the spring of '10 with just under 105K.
Reliability has been as good as what I've had with anything else I've ever owned, which would not be true of all BMWs.
The only thing that I've had to fix was the boot from the MAF (I think it's a MAF) to the intake manifold, which cracked and caused really bad running at idle and taking off from a stop. This was something like a $23.00 part and took maybe fifteen minutes to replace.
I've seen good fuel economy as well, with a worst tank this year of about 31 mpg and a best tank a hair under 35 mpg.
I put it back on the road in early May and it will be going to sleep for the winter in the next month.
Everything works, including the really cold AC. This car has a drop it yourself top, which was my preference when I was looking for one. Less stuff to break.
I had wanted a four cylinder RWD stick convertible of fairly modern vintage, which pretty well brought the search down to either a BMW e30 or e36 or a Miata. I also wanted to spend around 5K, which left cars like the S2000 out of the picture.
For anyone looking for a warm season fun car, you could do a lot worse than an old e36 convertible.
Roomier, maybe safer and certainly less common than the Miata.
Reliability has been as good as what I've had with anything else I've ever owned, which would not be true of all BMWs.
The only thing that I've had to fix was the boot from the MAF (I think it's a MAF) to the intake manifold, which cracked and caused really bad running at idle and taking off from a stop. This was something like a $23.00 part and took maybe fifteen minutes to replace.
I've seen good fuel economy as well, with a worst tank this year of about 31 mpg and a best tank a hair under 35 mpg.
I put it back on the road in early May and it will be going to sleep for the winter in the next month.
Everything works, including the really cold AC. This car has a drop it yourself top, which was my preference when I was looking for one. Less stuff to break.
I had wanted a four cylinder RWD stick convertible of fairly modern vintage, which pretty well brought the search down to either a BMW e30 or e36 or a Miata. I also wanted to spend around 5K, which left cars like the S2000 out of the picture.
For anyone looking for a warm season fun car, you could do a lot worse than an old e36 convertible.
Roomier, maybe safer and certainly less common than the Miata.
