RE: Shed Of The Week: BMW 318iS
Discussion
Specification was a fickle thing back in the 90's - I remember I had a E36 320i Touring & my mate had the E36 323i Coupe, both N-reg. My touring had a much better spec than his coupe. Seats aside, there were three options alone for a bord computer (none/half/full).
Back on subject - I drove a 1.5 year old 318iS from BMW Niederlassung Essen back in 1998 - it was a pre-facelift one (not that the changes were immediately obvious, but the front grille is a dead giveaway) and it looked identical to the shed, same colour, except no leather (nice velour mind). Instead of that we bought a 6 month old 316i Compact that was a very competent car indeed. The 318iS was a hoot to drive and extremely well put together - it felt like it (and probably did) weighed twice what my 309 GTI did, but altogether the BMW was a nicer place to be.
Rear arches are one of the biggest achilles heel on there; the hedgehog is still giving trouble, even in my 2012 Countryman! Rogue airbag lights plagued me with both my E36's, and were down to usual loom fatigue / fat arse in the passenger occupancy sensor mat.
Great shed!
Back on subject - I drove a 1.5 year old 318iS from BMW Niederlassung Essen back in 1998 - it was a pre-facelift one (not that the changes were immediately obvious, but the front grille is a dead giveaway) and it looked identical to the shed, same colour, except no leather (nice velour mind). Instead of that we bought a 6 month old 316i Compact that was a very competent car indeed. The 318iS was a hoot to drive and extremely well put together - it felt like it (and probably did) weighed twice what my 309 GTI did, but altogether the BMW was a nicer place to be.
Rear arches are one of the biggest achilles heel on there; the hedgehog is still giving trouble, even in my 2012 Countryman! Rogue airbag lights plagued me with both my E36's, and were down to usual loom fatigue / fat arse in the passenger occupancy sensor mat.
Great shed!
Great SOTW. My favourite car I've owned so far. I ran two between 2002 and 2009, a ratty 1993 M42 and a very late 1998 M44 with all the bells and whistles.
They handle fantastically, are supremely reliable and very easy to work on. Big boot and genuine 4 seater practicality.
The 4 pot loves being wrung out, and there are plenty of subtle and non chavtastic modifications to keep you amused - not least as everything can be interchanged so trawling breakers can be a lot of fun. For not much money you can sort the suspension and have something that is great fun within the draconian speed limits we now have to put up with.
Really regret selling my S plate
and have been finding myself drawn to the classifieds recently for an E36 as I need a stop-gap car.
They handle fantastically, are supremely reliable and very easy to work on. Big boot and genuine 4 seater practicality.
The 4 pot loves being wrung out, and there are plenty of subtle and non chavtastic modifications to keep you amused - not least as everything can be interchanged so trawling breakers can be a lot of fun. For not much money you can sort the suspension and have something that is great fun within the draconian speed limits we now have to put up with.
Really regret selling my S plate
and have been finding myself drawn to the classifieds recently for an E36 as I need a stop-gap car.I had one of these new as a company car, in silver with the sport pack too, and it looked the absolute dogs... It went when I changed jobs and I got another new company car, a 328i 4 door saloon jobbie, cracking car, fabulous 6 cylinder engine..... If only the 318is had had the 328i lump in it though, it would have been a stormer....
LewisR said:
ChilliWhizz said:
..... If only the 318is had had the 328i lump in it though, it would have been a stormer....
It wouldn't have been a 318iS then ! It would have been a, err, 328i.
It had no problems in the snow, it was fun in the wet (traction control was too slow, I always caught the slide before the traction control figured out something was wrong).
Possibly one of my all time favourite cars. It even had the standard rust on the bootlid ....
A few years after getting rid, my circumstances changed and I picked up an E46 316Ti. Which I thought would feel a little like the 318iS. It didn't. it sucked.
nav p said:
This car actually left the factory with turquoise cloth so seats/door cards have been swapped
It would have had black carpets with the black leather not the green carpet which is what it had from new.
Intrigued how you know this, is there a website etc where you can check the exact build spec of a BMW?It would have had black carpets with the black leather not the green carpet which is what it had from new.
Cheers
PS this is not the usual PH 'dig', I'm genuinely intrigued to know for other BM makes, I know you can do this for other makes but my knowledge of BM's in this sphere is limited, cheers.
acme said:
Intrigued how you know this, is there a website etc where you can check the exact build spec of a BMW?
Cheers
PS this is not the usual PH 'dig', I'm genuinely intrigued to know for other BM makes, I know you can do this for other makes but my knowledge of BM's in this sphere is limited, cheers.
Go to http://www.bmw-warranty.co.uk/ and put the reg in, it'll return the cars VIN. Take the last 7 digits of the VIN, in this case EU05484 and put it into one of the many VIN decoders on the internet, I use http://bimmer.work and it'll return the factory spec listCheers
PS this is not the usual PH 'dig', I'm genuinely intrigued to know for other BM makes, I know you can do this for other makes but my knowledge of BM's in this sphere is limited, cheers.
DBRacingGod said:
ambuletz said:
yme402 said:
Well worth the money. Just not too sure if I would want to drive around with 'IS' on my bootlid though......
really? you think everyone is going to point and laugh at you? or even give a s
t?
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