Advice on purchasing M3 cab e36

[AndyP75]

Hi all

I'm looking at purchasing the e36 model of the M3 cabriolet.

I've never owned one, and don't know an awful lot about them. I've heard of one going locally which has done around 70k miles mark, but so far know nothing more about it at the moment, I'm waiting for a reply from its current owner.

Can you offer me any advice on purchasing this type of car, what things should I look out for, any work which should have been carried out by this milage or will need to be, common faults etc.

I'm not even sure how many 'flavours' of this car there are, auto, manual spec etc

Any advice or experiences you guys have had I would be greatful to hear.

Cheers!

[jonah35]

SMG or manual. Get manual, SMG unpopular.

The coupe is most sought after then the saloon then the cab.

Rust on arches and vanos two key issues. Make sure wheels are original, hood is good and history is good.

Don't buy a modified one.

They don't do vader seats in a cab.

Personally I love the dark green e36 m3 coupe on autotrader.

[AndyP75]

It's manual, and I also believe completely untouched or tinkered with. I was thinking should it have had some belts or similar changed by this age it miles too? He's said there are no rust patches on it and it comes with the hard top. It was only ever used as a wedding car from new then this fella purchased it earlier this year. He's got a shed full of cars and is off loading some.

[E30M3SE]

The engines are on chains so no belts to be concerned with other that aux drive belts but they aren't expensive to change.

[jonah35]

AndyP75 said:

It's manual, and I also believe completely untouched or tinkered with. I was thinking should it have had some belts or similar changed by this age it miles too? He's said there are no rust patches on it and it comes with the hard top. It was only ever used as a wedding car from new then this fella purchased it earlier this year. He's got a shed full of cars and is off loading some.

Hard top is useful.

Can handle miles well.

How much?

Sounds about £6k?

[AndyP75]

Ok cheers. Price wise? If it's a clean example, what should I be looking at?

[AndyP75]

Asking price is £4k, turns out the mileage is 137k which puts a bit of a different slant on it really...

[duff]

137k - that's a lot of weddings!

Have a search on here, there's lots of info on what to look for on these. That mileage isn't a problem as such, so long as there are plenty of bills and you get it for the right price.

[Vixpy1]

Sounds a fair price for a cab with those miles, whats the colour?

[AndyP75]

Dark blue.
I believe fully serviced too.

[E30M3SE]

Know nothing about this car, but on ad description make the one being offered to the OP look a tad toppy.

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...

E36 hard tops can be bought used for around £300-350.

[Vixpy1]

Depends if its an Evo or not, dark Blue suggests Avus blue which was a non evo colour (though was available as an individual colour on evo)

What year is the car?

[AndyP75]

It's a 1995 edition. Just asked the owner to see if it's an Evo.

I will be viewing this week- comes with an M3 private plate too, not that it affects the price but it's got to be worth a few quid.

[Vixpy1]

Won't be an evo in that year, prob a bit toppy for a non evo cab in winter. Needs to be immaculate with that miles at that price

[jonah35]

The dark green e36 coupe for £6750 on autotrader looks a good bet.

That cab could be £3-10k if concours.

Sounds like an unloved, undesirable non evo worth say £4k

[jonah35]

The dark green e36 coupe for £6750 on autotrader looks a good bet.

That cab could be £3-10k if concours.

Sounds like an unloved, undesirable non evo worth say £4k

[Shaoxter]

Get an Evo (1996-99), quite a bit more performance for not much more money. You can get decent Evo cabrios without galactic mileage for under £5k. Coupes command a bit of a premium.

Make sure the roof mechanism works completely unaided, the clips and strings break quite easily and the tension belt loses elasticity and that's a £300 part from BMW! Or budget £1200 for new roof outer lining, inner lining and tension belt.

Look wisely and don't buy the first example you see, quite a few dogs out there.

[Joe Sp]

A good evo convertible with less than 100k, good history and no rust can still be had for less than 5k. I bought a 83k, full history convertible a year go for 4k. The coupes are definitely more valuable- I would say about 30% more money for the equivalent car,.

I would buy on condition not mileage. i would also pay more for a car that has been looked after and does not need any work on the suspension, brakes or vanos. Non of these jobs are going to break the bank but collectively it all adds up.

[S3_Graham]

Finally picked one up.

Boston Green '98 Evo Cabrio. 59,000m, years MOT, fresh out of an Insp II and New Vanos unit.



Have a few questions.....

It never seems to quite get up to temp on the water side of things? It hangs just below the middle marker. Oil sits around 80-90 when warmed. Normal?

One of the latches on the roof appears to be a intermittently failing. Working perfectly until I got it home, typical! Just needs a bloody good clean but I love it already.

[Shaoxter]

S3_Graham said:

It never seems to quite get up to temp on the water side of things? It hangs just below the middle marker. Oil sits around 80-90 when warmed. Normal?

Congrats! Yes that is the normal temperature.