Discussion
I have an almost twenty year old 180,000 odd mile BMW 325i coupe (E36) which has a rust problem. It's on the arches, the driver's door, the bonnet, the boot and the panel that runs between the rear light clusters beneath the boot.
Out of curiosity I took it to the local main dealer to see what they would quote to fix it.
Care to have a guess?
Out of curiosity I took it to the local main dealer to see what they would quote to fix it.
Care to have a guess?
Upward of £7000 at main dealer rates, you'll be replacing pretty much everything and that will mean stripping the car down to it's bare bones and rebuilding it. I wouldn't be surprised if they simply said it cannot be saved and offered you £250 for scrap and a great finance deal on a 118d.
I'd go with £7000 ish.
You know they wouldn't be doing the work on site, yes?
What I did in 2002 when I needed the arches plus some other bits doing on my E36 325i was find out who the main dealer passes their work out to and went to them directly. You'd still be looking at loads of money to get this done though.
Regarding the rear panel - this itself is quite a big job to replace. I paid a small car resto business about £800 to do this in about 2003.
Having spent a lot of money on that car trying to keep the rust at bay, I found it was a losing battle and ultimately quite depressing as it always comes back in some form. Saying that, it kept the car presentable and I was able to run it to nearly from 77,000 to 200,000 miles in the 10 years I owned it, so I don't regret it. But it's definitely something you do with your heart not your head! These cars get under your skin, so I know what it's like. I still miss mine, but when I sold it in 2011, the arches were going, as were the doors, rear panel (argh), sunroof aperture...
You know they wouldn't be doing the work on site, yes?
What I did in 2002 when I needed the arches plus some other bits doing on my E36 325i was find out who the main dealer passes their work out to and went to them directly. You'd still be looking at loads of money to get this done though.
Regarding the rear panel - this itself is quite a big job to replace. I paid a small car resto business about £800 to do this in about 2003.
Having spent a lot of money on that car trying to keep the rust at bay, I found it was a losing battle and ultimately quite depressing as it always comes back in some form. Saying that, it kept the car presentable and I was able to run it to nearly from 77,000 to 200,000 miles in the 10 years I owned it, so I don't regret it. But it's definitely something you do with your heart not your head! These cars get under your skin, so I know what it's like. I still miss mine, but when I sold it in 2011, the arches were going, as were the doors, rear panel (argh), sunroof aperture...
jamesson said:
detomaso was closest. The quote was £4718.48. I knew it would be high, but wasn't expecting it to be that high. I'll be doing the rounds in due course for a more realistic sum.
You must be able to halve that price quite easily, but even that amount would be what top examples of late E36s sell for with no rust and high spec, full history! I just paid about £3k for a bare metal respray for my faithful Mk2 Astra:
This included pass floor replaced, boot panel replaced, both rear arches replaced, battery tray repaired, both front wings repaired and various patches in the floor and bulkhead. And there's STILL work needed, this has just extended it's useful life and allowed it to pass MOTs again. Personally, I'd have been fairly pleased at this quote, paid the bill, kept the receipt and made sure they did a good job.
This included pass floor replaced, boot panel replaced, both rear arches replaced, battery tray repaired, both front wings repaired and various patches in the floor and bulkhead. And there's STILL work needed, this has just extended it's useful life and allowed it to pass MOTs again. Personally, I'd have been fairly pleased at this quote, paid the bill, kept the receipt and made sure they did a good job.
Edited by DKS on Monday 20th January 19:30
billzeebub said:
You must be able to halve that price quite easily, but even that amount would be what top examples of late E36s sell for with no rust and high spec, full history!
I know, but buying someone else's E36 wouldn't be the same as having mine back to full health. I'm too sentimental.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff