330ci with 90k on clock

[daveco]

Folks need your advice on this one will be looking at a 330 coupe over the weekend-'00 with 90,000 miles. Spoke to owner, who is the 3rd owner, who told me the following is wrong with it.

-worn patch on drivers' seat (leather)
-A/C broken
-small dent on bootlid

Should leather wear down that quickly with only 90k on the car? With all this taken into account what kind of price reduction would I be looking at?

[Ean218]

If he has already told you about these things then they are already built into his asking price.

[Mustard]

Leather Side bolster on drivers seats always suffers colourloss even on cars with circa 30k miles

Audis, Mercs, Porsches there all just as bad with th modern heavily bolstered sports seats fitted

Edited by Mustard on Thursday 14th February 12:47

[Otter's pocket]

Broken a/c could cost anything up to 1500 to get sorted (new compressors etc) If he hasnt had it done assume the worst. The seat thing is to be expected. Is the bootlid damage minor- ie DentDevils etc might be able to dsort it for very little. There are a load of good 330's out there, and its a buyers market.
Either get it properly cheap, or look for another

[daveco]

Otter's pocket said:

Broken a/c could cost anything up to 1500 to get sorted (new compressors etc) If he hasnt had it done assume the worst. The seat thing is to be expected. Is the bootlid damage minor- ie DentDevils etc might be able to dsort it for very little. There are a load of good 330's out there, and its a buyers market.
Either get it properly cheap, or look for another

He mentioned it needed a new compressor I think, so up to 1,500 squid to repair one of these then? The dent is minor, no rust around it. He had it serviced 5k miles ago (Inspection 1) and new Michelin tyres all round.

[[TW]Fox]

My 530 shows no wear that would be worthy of a special mention despite 150k miles but then I guess a 90k mile 8 year old car is going to have done a lot of medium sized journeys rather than long ones, so more getting in and out etc.

This one sounds a bit shabby to me.

[B19GRR]

daveco said:

-worn patch on drivers' seat (leather)

Blimey, my eyes played a bit of a Spoonerism trick on me with that one!

Cheers,
Rob

[coltonbob]

Has it got the soft Nappa leather? If so combined with the sports seats then they're particulairly prone to wearing on the 330's especially if one of the owners has been on the larger side! I wouldn't worry about that too much to be honest.

The dint shouldn't be an issue either, I think a company like chipsaway will quote for free so may want to consider having one of their guys look at it and confirm if they can sort it and for how much!

However the a/c issue is a bit worrying - personally I wouldn't take the car until that was resolved.

Edited by coltonbob on Thursday 14th February 14:06

[road_rager]

my 01 330 has 80K ish miles, leather still looks good, you don't know for sure it's just AC compressor could well be condensor also, and you will also need new receiver drier (as the system has been open). Boot lid dent's can't always be fixed easy, dentmaster couldn't do one on the lip of my 5 series.... I would expect the car to be cheaper than that all things considered (i.e 7K)

[daveco]

coltonbob said:

Has it got the soft Nappa leather? If so combined with the sports seats then they're particulairly prone to wearing on the 330's especially if one of the owners has been on the larger side! I wouldn't worry about that too much to be honest.

The dint shouldn't be an issue either, I think a company like chipsaway will quote for free so may want to consider having one of their guys look at it and confirm if they can sort it and for how much!

However the a/c issue is a bit worrying - personally I wouldn't take the car until that was resolved.

Edited by coltonbob on Thursday 14th February 14:06

Yep it's the soft nappa leather but they're just normal seats; As for the A/C, if I offer him 1k below list that should cover things, no?

[Jem0911]

B19GRR said:

daveco said:

-worn patch on drivers' seat (leather)

Blimey, my eyes played a bit of a Spoonerism trick on me with that one!

Cheers,
Rob

So did mine I thought he was in about the TV!!
Ran out to the Car to see if I could pick up any on my TV,
only found my worn patch on me seat.

[Doctor Bone]

May I ask how much he wants for it?

[daveco]

Doctor Bone said:

May I ask how much he wants for it?

He's looking for 6.5k for it, and doesn't really want to move on the price. He gave me more info about the A/C system; he said the resistor is broken and there was something wrong with the tension bar?

[Doctor Bone]

That sounds a fair price IMO, I recently bought one, with similar miles. It didnt have leather, but the alcantra (which I prefer) is a little worn on the driver's side bolster too. My air con does work though. And I paid that sort of money. Mine also has some dings/dents but I personally would expect that with an 8 year old car that has motorway miles. Just a note to say buy shares in an oil company because the 3 litre lumps are known to use 1 litre every 1000miles! Mine doesnt use quite that much. History is very important so go through it with a fine toothed comb.

HTH

[Ciaran]

daveco said:

He gave me more info about the A/C system; he said the resistor is broken

Common problem on the E36 and early E46 - lots of places can fix this cheaply. Provided that is what the actual problem is.

[IforB]

If it is the resistor, the it isn't an expensive fix, however. I wouldn't believe a word of it unless there is an independant report into what the fault is.

Everytime I hear "oh it's just this" or "it's a cheap fix" I ask myself why they haven't bothered to do it themselves, as a cheap fix will help massively when selling the car compared to having a fault that you have to reduce the price by.

Personally I would be treating this car with great suspicion and would have a very fixed idea of the price I'd be willing to spend. Why not get the a/c inspected? At least you what you are getting into then.

[daveco]

Thanks for all the info folks, going to have a look at it today; bringing a mate who knows BMW's inside out; I'll let you know how we get on.

[daveco]

Well I had a look at the 330 yesterday and it was in pretty good nick-The engine felt strong and was noticeably quicker than my previous E46 325. But there was a lot of yellow gunk on the oil cap and in and around the top of the engine; the owner said he doesn't really drive it anymore so I figured this yellow crap must be down to lack of use/condensation build up. The temp gauge did not budge from the centre so no chance of a head gasket gone.

What do folks think? I'm still slightly concerned about the yellow gunge, but the engine felt as fresh as a daisy and the rest of the car was in reasonably good shape; the interior still felt solid, and the leather seats (apart from the drivers) were in good condition. Leave it or offer him 1k less to cover for head gasket problems in the future?

[road_rager]

daveco said:

Well I had a look at the 330 yesterday and it was in pretty good nick-The engine felt strong and was noticeably quicker than my previous E46 325. But there was a lot of yellow gunk on the oil cap and in and around the top of the engine; the owner said he doesn't really drive it anymore so I figured this yellow crap must be down to lack of use/condensation build up. The temp gauge did not budge from the centre so no chance of a head gasket gone.

What do folks think? I'm still slightly concerned about the yellow gunge, but the engine felt as fresh as a daisy and the rest of the car was in reasonably good shape; the interior still felt solid, and the leather seats (apart from the drivers) were in good condition. Leave it or offer him 1k less to cover for head gasket problems in the future?

my 330 get's kinda gold/yellow gunk on the oil cap, and I've been told by a few people this is normal for a car that does a lot of shorter journey's. It's been like this since I've had it (18months) and nevr had any trouble with the engine at all

hth

[IforB]

If you take it for a long drive, the mayonnaise may disappear. It is fairly common on cars just used for short journeys.

You could also get the coolant sniff tested. I can tell if any hydrocarbons from the combustion process are getting into the coolant via a leak. If you get an inspection done, this would probably be performed as a matter of course.