RE: Shed of the Week: BMW 323i Coupe

[RoverP6B]

vsonix said:

Naah. This is a peach of a car. RWD, I6 engine smooth as butter. Sweet handling with the potential to be even sweeter for not much outlay. Increasingly classic looks. Either a great base to mod into something a bit more interesting or ideal as is to slip under the radar.

Well said, I kind of wish I'd had an E36 myself... 325i Touring in dark green, please...

[rallycross]

vsonix said:

Naah. This is a peach of a car. RWD, I6 engine smooth as butter. Sweet handling with the potential to be even sweeter for not much outlay. Increasingly classic looks. Either a great base to mod into something a bit more interesting or ideal as is to slip under the radar.

Agreed +1.

The engines in these 325/323 is one of the sweetest smoothest refined engines BMW have ever made and fairly bullet proof as well. Here is one of my old ones, original owner had specc'ed it up really well with sport suspension, Alpina bodykit and wheels and sports seats, individual colour (supposed to be like Soper's Listerine sponsored super touring Racing car).

[Hub]

A great example - the only letdowns are the auto box and the dull colour, but you can't be picky when they start getting rare I suppose!

[va1o]

You can get more car for the money for sure, but this looks a really tidy and original example of a modern classic. Like

2 GKC said:

I lose the will to live reading these articles these days - it's like wading through treacle.

Can someone explain why the M4 is the only coupe in the "3-series" range? There's bloody loads of 4 series models

mradam said:

paradigital said:

So what's making the F32 420i, 430i, 440i invisble?

I was thinking the exact same thing. Even went on the BMW website to check the 4-series wasn't off the market for a facelift at present.

I'm wondering the same also!!

And thinking about it some more, I guess the 2-series is probably the closest modern equivalent in size and weight? 220i would be an interesting comparison as it's 184hp with a 7.7s 0-60 time.

EDIT: Bored so had a go on the configurator, here's my suggestion of a new 220i equivalent coming in at £32k! http://mybmw.co.uk/q3i2u0k0

Interesting that even the new 218i and 318i models can match the 9s 0-60 time of this 323i, shows how things have progressed. And they're actually using a 1.5 3-cylinder, article incorrectly suggested 4-cylinder for the latter

Edited by va1o on Friday 20th July 20:22

[SidewaysSi]

The 4 Series is fine but it is a bit modern so has the mass and complexity which comes with it. Add in EPAS and it is very aloof in comparison.

The E36 has proper steering, cable throttle and it pretty back to basics but is modern and well built enough to be used daily today.

As stated, they make a great base car and can be modified to whatever you want them to be. Many people use them as full on track cars so you can get them into a spec which personally suits.

I wanted to keep mine looking normal and to be road biased so have gone for a "Clubsport" spec and it is a great driver's car. Superior to any M3 for remotely the same outlay.

[cerb4.5lee]

A sure fire way to ruin a lovely N/A BMW engine is to mate it to an Auto gearbox. Always liked the E36 though.

[323ti]

rallycross said:

Agreed +1.

The engines in these 325/323 is one of the sweetest smoothest refined engines BMW have ever made and fairly bullet proof as well.

Agreed +2.

And whereas the parts bin is slowly drying up for the E30 series, the E36 parts are still ubiquitous and dirt cheap.
As simple as the M50/52 engines are, to me they are now a bit special.
The time where BMW over engineered their cars is long gone, but these engines still have that.
And even though my car doesn't have the razor sharp throttle response of an S52 or 54, it kicks 90 percent of the modern engines into a cocked hat. The Germans call that Laufkultur. Drive one of these and the creamy smoothness will always impress.
Like cmoose said, they are not meant to be all out sports cars. But they can still be quite sporty.

[kainedog]

E36s future classic especially the amount the drifting boys are destroying , gonna get rare

[Kawasicki]

Gad-Westy said:

dme123 said:

These are lovely to drive, less remote than the more E36 and the sort of car nobody makes anymore. The styling is still dated rather than classic, and the poor things are still mostly driven by slug moustache sporting chavs with crap modifications. That colour though, what on earth were BMW thinking with this model! So many are in bizarrely drab, flat looking colours like this "murky duckpond" example.

It's interesting the evolution of the 3-series. It perhaps reflects cars in general. I had an E36 328 back in the day and a mate had an E46 which I drove for a week while he was on holiday. I hated the steering on the E46. It felt so light and lacking in feel. But if you drive an E30, you get the exact same impression about an E36. Now if I drive an E46, the steering feels wonderful compared to modern cars I'm used to.

The E36 does drive well though. Nice balance and this one doesn't have silly wheels so it'll probably ride well if the suspension has been looked after. You're right about it being a crap colour though. Looks like the sort of colour you'd paint your bedroom, not a car.

the e30 had, in power assisted form, utterly crap steering.
the e36 was hugely better, way higher efforts, way less angle demand
the e46 was faster still, but marred by intentionally high friction, which killed feel and precision

[J4CKO]

This is a half decent car, of that there is no doubt but at the moment its in the not quite a classic phase where it looks retro, rather than just old as it does now, needs another five years.

[Andydc]

sinbaddio said:

Great car. I had a 325i Auto coupe, 1992. The auto box suited the car well. And it had a sunroof..... K956 WRJ, just checked and its not been MOT'd since 2015

Hey, K956 WRJ is still going strong! It's living in my garage atm with under 90,000 miles on the clock. When did you own the car?

[Jalopy666]

Designer Pinky Lai - BMW E36 + Porsche 996. Could be that I’m of that era, but they just seem to look better and better to my eyes

[g3org3y]

MiggyA said:

Gad-Westy said:

Surprised 0-60 is quoted as 9 seconds. They always seemed reasonably swift at the time.

BMW were conservative with the numbers back then. One of these with a manual box ought to do somewhere in the 7 second area.

Autocar tested a 328i (manual) touring as 0-60 in 6.1 secs.

m444ttb said:

I'm still running a 1998 323i 'Sport' touring auto as my daily. Paid £1,500 for it 7 years ago. It's full of rust now despite my best efforts at the start (I've long since stopped caring), bits of trim are missing and the aircon doesn't work but I still love it.

I know what you mean. My Touring is looking rather worse for wear from a body point of view. Rusty arches and boot lid. A few dings from car parks and a cracked front bumper from where my colleague reversed his A6 into it at work. Beyond caring by now and I'm happy to run it into the ground.

However, engine is very decent, lovely and smooth and doesn't half sound good.



Now close to 205,000.

And it's very practical (king size mattress? no problem!)

[Mr Tidy]

Despite the uninspiring colour scheme and autobox that looks like a great buy for shed money (and probably largely why it is shed money) for such a low mileage and seemingly rust-free example.

I'd love to buy it, keep it and just use it for a few thousand miles a year with no depreciation - but I don't need it and have nowhere to keep it.

[Dinlowgoon]

Still never had the (?) pleasure. Looks worthy apart from the sludgebox,but won't be a ball of fire for sure despite the small body shell. Inherited a E39 523i off her old man,in it's care home phase. With all the hype going on it was possibly the most drab barkers' nest I've driven. You can out-drift a milk float if your foot is buried into the carpet,woohoo. Which option did you tick from new 1. Steering Wheel 2. Tiller
The E46 was a quantum leap from what I hear and after putting 200K miles on my 330D (finally self combusted at 320K) there must have been something in that. Just a nice balance between retro and electrically assisted everything and went like stink whilst smelling of it (what's that black smoke all about ?!!)

[iguana]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Nah e36 market gone silly like most others, not quite e30 m3 levels of sillyness, but yes mainly e36 m3s have risen lots, where the £3k cars are now £15k & sub £10k cars are now getting £3Ok plus, even a tat box I paid £2k for I spotted sold at £9k.

Good manual 328s are not as cheap as they were either, couple of years back i had a few at £5-600 level, struggle to find now as good condition for much sub £2k. Even a rather undesirable thing like this gutless auto shed of the wk would have struggled to get half its current price a couple of yrs back.

Edited by iguana on Saturday 21st July 07:23

[iguana]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I've had tonnes of dynos on my various 328s in different states of tune & can say you don't have to loose the mid range when going m5O, if you run stock ECU then yes it's a big loss a 4O ft lb dip from memory, but i had an enda map & it brought all that lovely mid range back & gained up top too, coz I'm a saddo i still have the plot somewhere, I'll take a pic.

[SidewaysSi]

iguana said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I've had tonnes of dynos on my various 328s in different states of tune & can say you don't have to loose the mid range when going m5O, if you run stock ECU then yes it's a big loss a 4O ft lb dip from memory, but i had an enda map & it brought all that lovely mid range back & gained up top too, coz I'm a saddo i still have the plot somewhere, I'll take a pic.

Do you know where the best place to go regarding engine tuning is the days? I want an M50 manifold etc but think Alpina501 is no longer doing them?

[m444ttb]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I think of the E36 along similar lines to the 996. They’re somehow the model ‘nobody’ likes. While not as radical a departure in the end product as the 996 I think there was a similar shift toward the modern design and production methods.

This thread has made me reminisce about my first E36 for the last day. I really regret not having been able to keep it. While I wanted something better under the bonnet the modified M52b28 was probably enough. Unless I could have managed to drop a V8 in. If I won the lottery tonight I’d keep my 323 touring and get an M3 V8 running in there!

[SidewaysSi]

m444ttb said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I think of the E36 along similar lines to the 996. They’re somehow the model ‘nobody’ likes. While not as radical a departure in the end product as the 996 I think there was a similar shift toward the modern design and production methods.

This thread has made me reminisce about my first E36 for the last day. I really regret not having been able to keep it. While I wanted something better under the bonnet the modified M52b28 was probably enough. Unless I could have managed to drop a V8 in. If I won the lottery tonight I’d keep my 323 touring and get an M3 V8 running in there!

A modded M52 to 240ish bhp with a 3.6 or 3.9 ratio LSD and quickshift would be a hugely fun car IMO. Possibly sub 5 to 60 etc.