Best of the Bargain Basement Vol. 2

[StuntmanMike]

matthias73 said:

Good shout. At least it's on sensible alloys. Mine had the mv1 alloys which were staggered widths and 19 inches.
I'm pretty convinced that was the cause of a few suspension issues.

I'm on the hunt for a new bmw myself now.

It wasn't, Tyres or tracking causes that and MV1's are 18 inch.

[StuntmanMike]

Goldmember1 said:

Speaking of a steal . I may or may not have jumped head first and grab this for the large sum of £400 . All I know it's a 2001 , 2.2 , Auto , has wood and leather , indi history , includes the plate and is in desperate need of a clean!




Might be a few weeks before I can get it .. gives me time to work out how to hide it from the wife and prepare getting it going , as I have no experience with BMWs whatsoever! Subarus? No problem , BMWs? All I know the battery is in the boot and it drives through the rear wheels.. that's it! Advice greatly needed!!

Get a thread going on that in readers cars, it will be interesting to see what you have to do to it, and what you end up doing with it.

[matthias73]

StuntmanMike said:

matthias73 said:

Good shout. At least it's on sensible alloys. Mine had the mv1 alloys which were staggered widths and 19 inches.
I'm pretty convinced that was the cause of a few suspension issues.

I'm on the hunt for a new bmw myself now.

It wasn't, Tyres or tracking causes that and MV1's are 18 inch.

I'm pretty sure the tyres I had were 19s but I may have been mistaken, either on the wheels or tyre size.
And I'm absolutely sure that if I was on more forgiving rubber, I wouldn't have suffered from various parts breaking. Ragging that car down bumpy roads, I feel slightly ashamed now I'm a bit older. I'd like to know how tyres cause suspension issues, particularly given the tracking was bang...

[Goldmember1]

Thanks Emeye , Gowmonster , Defblade , Mathias73 , Usget and StuntmanMike
Tbh that lot is scaring the hell outa me already! I thought BMWs were reliable!?! Tbh I'm just about to get rid of my V70 R which I got sick of changing something coolant related every week! Every pipe, radiator + expansion tank ended up getting changed and do not want to have to go through the same with this!
I'll see if it starts, if there's any leaks , and if it does turn a wheel how it runs. I suppose for £400 I shouldn't complain , tho genuinely thought they were more bullet-proof than it sounds.
I'll report back here when it happens .. may have to beat the price down a bit! :P

[defblade]

Goldmember1 said:

Thanks Emeye , Gowmonster , Defblade , Mathias73 , Usget and StuntmanMike
Tbh that lot is scaring the hell outa me already! I thought BMWs were reliable!?! Tbh I'm just about to get rid of my V70 R which I got sick of changing something coolant related every week! Every pipe, radiator + expansion tank ended up getting changed and do not want to have to go through the same with this!
I'll see if it starts, if there's any leaks , and if it does turn a wheel how it runs. I suppose for £400 I shouldn't complain , tho genuinely thought they were more bullet-proof than it sounds.
I'll report back here when it happens .. may have to beat the price down a bit! :P

Well, you know what, all cars are worth money when they're 100% working; any car being sold for shed money is likely to have some problems... or it would be more expensive! Couple that with rust and people who pay little money for a car also spending little money on a car and even the best models of (mass-produced) cars will drop to shed money then off to the scrappy.

I think the E36 was the highlight of the series, but they're getting quite thin on the ground now...

But having said that, I rate the E36/46/34/39 range as good bangers - bodies mostly stay tidy so no-one else thinks about how old it is, and as I said previously, most of it is simple to work on and well documented online. I may take a step forward into the Bangle cars eventually but suspect these may die much more easily as bangers due to extensive and expensive computerised parts (I'll be happy to be wrong though!)

I budget for £1000/year in car purchase/depreciation costs - that's why I seriously gave up on my £3k E46 after 3 years; I'm hoping to get a year or so out of the £1350 E39 I'm running at the moment (touch wood, the signs are good so far....)

[matthias73]

The thing is, the issues we mentioned are pretty much the only issues you're likely to face. It's nice being able to go into something with a good idea of what could go wrong.

When I was a ski bum abroad all my mates thought I was bonkers buying an old Beemer over something American but I knew when I bought it that it was unlikely to go bang, and that I'd probably be buying an expansion tank at some point. My current one is a 600 pound e39 that's seen 185000 miles and been immersed in a lake.

I too am looking at getting something bangly now, or another e34. Hard to decide

[Usget]

If I were buying a car covered in leaves for half thread money, I'd want it to be a 36 and not a 46 to be honest (having owned both).

But just take the car as you find it. If it's a total woofer, you have, at least, limited your exposure.

[gowmonster]

my e46 330ci was £1600 and i've had it a year or so, 10,000 miles, hasn't left me at the roadside and bar a few wheel bearings and a ball joint with the stty potholed roads, I can't say it's been that bad, bar this stuck in abs sensor. It's worth the punt. Ultimately you can sell it to drifters who will weld the diff and put skidz on it...

[Vince70]

Old BMW E36s are great motors for the money I recently bought a real nice one which is very low mileage for £795 with a years ticket and it drives and looks like a new car and was only a two owner vehicle but I'm not allowed to sell it as I promised the previous owner that I would look after it.

The only problem the wheels still look new and have a newish set of P6000s on them so I've been on eBay and bought myself a set of old wheels and tyres for the winter months for £20 and I have flooded the car with Waxoyl..
It's even quite a sporty drive being a Ti and was bought to keep the miles down on my Z3 during the winter but I've got quite attached to it now and prefer driving it than the Z3 as I can get a folding bike easily in the back being a hatchback.

I gave it a full service last week including Plugs and Coolant and it was less than £40 for the parts and it's easy to check the underneath when it's upside down.

[R39S1]

Vince70 said:

Old BMW E36s are great motors for the money I recently bought a real nice one which is very low mileage for £795 with a years ticket and it drives and looks like a new car and was only a two owner vehicle but I'm not allowed to sell it as I promised the previous owner that I would look after it.

The only problem the wheels still look new and have a newish set of P6000s on them so I've been on eBay and bought myself a set of old wheels and tyres for the winter months for £20 and I have flooded the car with Waxoyl..
It's even quite a sporty drive being a Ti and was bought to keep the miles down on my Z3 during the winter but I've got quite attached to it now and prefer driving it than the Z3 as I can get a folding bike easily in the back being a hatchback.

I gave it a full service last week including Plugs and Coolant and it was less than £40 for the parts and it's easy to check the underneath when it's upside down.

How much did it cost to import from Australia ?

[carinaman]

[Hoofy]

Quite like those Compacts.

[carinaman]

Not so nice dent in that 206.

[anonymous-user]

just picked up a 406 2.2 hdi 2002 plate, 130k pretty much full service history.

had a new clutch and cambelt 8 months ago at a 1.2k cost.

4 matching kuhmo tyres, all electrics seem to work, and a towbar.

500 quid.

plan to get remapped and defapped to 180bhp and steam clean.

[W00DY]

Like the 406. Underrated cars.


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

[anonymous-user]

I like that a lot. A friend had a Mk3 with 4ws. The handling was absolutely remarkable. Sit in the drivers seat, look at the rear wheel and spin the wheel from lock to lock. The amount the rear wheels move, and the direction as you progress through the rack, is surprising. Moves in the same way as the front wheels for the first half turn, then completely the opposite direction. You could pretty much drive past a parking space and still manage to pull in to it. Brilliant.


Found a vid: https://youtu.be/b0sVD17WSdQ

Edited by OpulentBob on Monday 24th August 16:54

[Emeye]

The Spruce goose said:

just picked up a 406 2.2 hdi 2002 plate, 130k pretty much full service history.

had a new clutch and cambelt 8 months ago at a 1.2k cost.

4 matching kuhmo tyres, all electrics seem to work, and a towbar.

500 quid.

plan to get remapped and defapped to 180bhp and steam clean.

I can't see the pics but that sounds promising - when the 406s were new our company fleet was pretty much all Peugeot. We had a 2.2hdi estate which was pretty rapid fro the size even fully loaded!

[Slow]

Owned a prelude when I was 16 as a field car. Was seriously fast compared to the usual st I had, was the 2.2 vtec model I believe.
The 4 wheel steering was odd to say the least.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

The Spruce goose said:

500 quid.

plan to get remapped and defapped to 180bhp and steam clean.

Congrats. But what's the merit in a remap on an old banger? Why spend a significant chuck of the purchase price on a 500 quid snotter?

[anonymous-user]

There are not many cars sub 1k that do 40mpg easily and have 180bhp, 300lb torque.

This is my third one I like working on pegeuots and this engine responds well to a remap. I can do it myself for 100 quid which I might do but there is a guy on a forum that does a job lot for 300 quid.