Should I buy a E46 328ci?

[Procide]

I am coming from ClubRSX after my car was totaled. I was considering buying a blacked out 2000 328CI coupe. I was looking for some opinions on the car itself. It has 120k miles on it, HIDS, moon roof, 35% tints, blacked out grill, a sound system, all the fix-ins and is the sport model. I realize it's older but I might be getting it for $8k. Can't afford any other BMW that i know of and thinking of moving away from sport, to come to performance. Car was kept in good condition and carfax only shows that one owner backed up into something, and had it fixed. Opinions?

[MrFukengruven]

8k is a tad high in my opinion. I'd look for an E36 M3 for that price, but do u have any pics of the 328Ci?

[Dirtyeldiablo]

I sold a 97 M3 for 7k

[alexckma]

why is this post here...

[quiksi]

wouldn't buy a pre-modded car, especially with what was listed

[AlwayzUnce]

you might want to try e46fanatics.com... and that price is too high

[fdsasdasdf]

I'd remove the black-out tint on the lights. It's tacky to me, but that's just my own opinion. To each his or her own.

I purchased an E46 because I decided I didn't want to save more for an E92 335i. I don't regret the decision one bit. It has some high mileage, ~95k, but it's in beautiful working condition save for some minor repairs and no dings on the sides. I'll use it as a trade-in later when I graduate, but I'm loving the E46 experience right now. Great first BMW.

Things you gotta look out for on this car since it is above 100k:

1. VANOS seals. You won't know if they are bad until you get the symptoms (erratic idle, hesitation at 4k rpm, worse gas mileage than usual). The seals BMW provides really suck, and there are great aftermarkets by Beisan Systems available and an incredibly detailed DIY on installing them. See here:

http://www.beisansystems.com/procedu..._procedure.htm

The DIY looks scary, but the process is supposedly much easier than it looks from what other forum members have said. I'm probably going to tackle this in ~7-10k miles on a weekend once I get the proper tools.

2. Water pump and expansion tank. They tend to fail a little over 100k. Make sure they have been replaced. If not, do that immediately. The engine will overheat instantly when those go. Not a fun time.

3. Control arm bushings. Have they been replaced yet? They wear relatively quickly.

4. Are the window regulators all working? Early builds of E46's had failing window regulators.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head to really look out for, but check E46 Fanatics to get more info before buying. http://www.bimmerfest.com/wiki/index.php?title=BMW_E46 is your E46 bible. Other than those issues, they're really reliable and are a blast to drive.

Also, $8k is certainly too much for a 328Ci with 120k miles and those mods. Try to get it down to $6-7k.