E36 98 328i Touring

[A S P]

I decided to free up a bit of money from my E46 328 and was struggling what to get after, see thread...
http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f...

I bought a mint, FSH E34 525i auto which unfortunately locked it's gearbox at the end of the journey home The dealer agreed to refund me in full, after trying 3 different mechanics to fix it.

I carried on looking and after seeing more ropey old cars, I found what was probably the obvious answer, a 328i Touring, 180k but with FSH and drives really, really well. I've had my local indie check it over, with absolutely nothing being flagged up. It had an Inspection II 800 miles ago but I always like to get my own second opinion just for peace of mind.

Best thing was, the guy selling dropped it from £1750 to £1k, saying that everyone who did call with it at £1750 was making 'credit crunch' excuses so he'd drop the price. He did and I nipped in at the right time!

Only thing I want to do is remove the towbar, and fix a couple of rust scabs on the passenger door. It's a decent spec, with m-tec suspension, half-leather sport seats, climate (recently gassed), OBC plus other stuff I can't remember.







I'll remember in future green cars don't photograph well against trees...

[A S P]

Hmm. There's a few fern green 328 E36's in readers cars, sorry if it seems repetitive

[gj88]

One word.....

Bargain

[sniff diesel]

Looks nice in Boston green. My daily driver's a '97 325tds touring. With new injectors and chipped up to 170bhp and 250lb/ft it certainly shifts now with handling to match. Brakes could do with being a bit firmer but then I was used to the 911 I had before.

[minimatt1967]

Looking Good mate really like the 328i tourers, just need a set of sport wheels and it'll be

[Fer]

So, are you selling the towbar? I wonder if it will fit a cab?

[village idiot]

i need to fit a towbar on my 318i touring... if you need to move it on!

[A S P]

Fer said:

So, are you selling the towbar? I wonder if it will fit a cab?

village idiot said:

need to fit a towbar on my 318i touring... if you need to move it on

ha ha, didn't realise they were so desirable! Yeah, I'd sell it, as long as it covered whatever my indie would charge to remove it and make good the holes (I'm presuming they need to make holes somewhere to fit one) and remove the electrics.

Just used it properly for the first time at the weekend. Altrincham to W.London and back, traveling at between 0.9-1.1 leptons most of the way, with 2 hours crawling in London traffic. Averaged 27.2mpg overall, but that is going by the OBC. It certainly used less fuel than my E46 328 on the same journey. Quite happy with that for 10 year old car with 180k, and done in great comfort, love those sport seats!

[sniff diesel]

Fer said:

So, are you selling the towbar? I wonder if it will fit a cab?

The towbars are the same for all models as they all have the same floorpan (saloon, coupe, cabrio and touring), although you do need to chop a bit out of the bumpers on M3's

[sniff diesel]

A S P said:

I'd sell it, as long as it covered whatever my indie would charge to remove it and make good the holes (I'm presuming they need to make holes somewhere to fit one) and remove the electrics.

Just used it properly for the first time at the weekend. Altrincham to W.London and back, traveling at between 0.9-1.1 leptons most of the way, with 2 hours crawling in London traffic. Averaged 27.2mpg overall, but that is going by the OBC. It certainly used less fuel than my E46 328 on the same journey. Quite happy with that for 10 year old car with 180k, and done in great comfort, love those sport seats!

Towbar takes 5 bolts to remove IIRC, but you need to remove the bumper for access to 2 of them but it's an easy enough job. Just fill the holes with some bathroom silicone afterwards. Used towbars fetch around £50 on Ebay.

That's some good fuel consumption, I reckon my tds would have returned about 35mpg in similar conditions but with less power available. They're great cars even if they are deceptively small at times.

[GTO Scott]

Very nice - keep thinking for going back to BMW for a daily hack, though it'd be a TeDiouS like sniff's E36 rather than a petrol motor....

[bodhi]

Loving it. Parents had a 96N Boston Green example with baby poo leather, they still rate it as the best car they've owned. Didn't let them down once in 6 years, was awesomely quick, made a gorgeous noise if you were in the back seat - all exhaust and diff noise. My overriding memory of that car was the sideway moments. Out of PC World car park going for a gap in the traffic - sideways. Hitting a transverse ridge with a bit too much power - sideways. All very childish, but when you'd been using BMW's to help Michelin with their tyre tests as my father had, and had a chassis that controllable, no real danger. Not broadside in traffic obviously as that would be silly, just the BMW kick of the hips. Great fun.

Seems you got an sbsolute bargain there dude. Loving the interior too. Good work!

[sniff diesel]

GTO Scott said:

Very nice - keep thinking for going back to BMW for a daily hack, though it'd be a TeDiouS like sniff's E36 rather than a petrol motor....

To be honest with the petrol's being so efficient and the higher price of diesel it's barely worth going for a diesel for cost savings, unless you drive on the Continent a lot. I like the 250lbs/ft of torque for towing the track car around though.

[GTO Scott]

sniff diesel said:

GTO Scott said:

Very nice - keep thinking for going back to BMW for a daily hack, though it'd be a TeDiouS like sniff's E36 rather than a petrol motor....

To be honest with the petrol's being so efficient and the higher price of diesel it's barely worth going for a diesel for cost savings, unless you drive on the Continent a lot. I like the 250lbs/ft of torque for towing the track car around though.

Sold my '96 525 TDS earlier this year - used to love the way it drove, plenty of torque and fairly refined for an old lump. I'd rather have the auto though - Dad's just sold his '96 525 TDS Touring which had the 5-sp auto and was much more refined to drive. Think i'd rather go for an E36 next time though.

[sniff diesel]

GTO Scott said:

sniff diesel said:

GTO Scott said:

Very nice - keep thinking for going back to BMW for a daily hack, though it'd be a TeDiouS like sniff's E36 rather than a petrol motor....

To be honest with the petrol's being so efficient and the higher price of diesel it's barely worth going for a diesel for cost savings, unless you drive on the Continent a lot. I like the 250lbs/ft of torque for towing the track car around though.

Sold my '96 525 TDS earlier this year - used to love the way it drove, plenty of torque and fairly refined for an old lump. I'd rather have the auto though - Dad's just sold his '96 525 TDS Touring which had the 5-sp auto and was much more refined to drive. Think i'd rather go for an E36 next time though.

I think the auto box would suit the power delivery well - there's a lot of torque loading and unloading the transmission especially from 1st to 2nd that makes it hard to always get a smooth shift.

I've followed my GF in my 325i when she was driving the tds, when the diesel's on full boost it's more accelerative for that brief period but ultimatley the petrol can get to a higher speed in any given space especially if you use the gears. The diesel will average 30mpg cruising at 1.2 leptons as it can maintain that speed easily without needing to be on boost unlike a lot of the smaller diesels I've owned previously. It will rev to over 5000rpm smoothly which is handy for overtaking on country roads (in 3rd it can hit 80mph)

Some seem to suffer hot start problems (more so in the P38 Range Rovers with the same engines for some reason) mine did after I first got it but after about 6 months of trying various things it cured itself.

[B17NNS]

Ran a 97 328i Touring auto (in Boston Green ) for a few years a while back.

Lovely car with 2 personalities. It could be a comfortable relaxed cruiser with a lovely straight six burble or switch the autobox into sport mode and be a hooligan.

Great, great car - enjoy.

[A S P]

Thanks for the positive comments! It still surprises me just how well this car drives, the only noticeable sign that would give away the 180k is that the gear lever gaitor has a 2mm hole worn in, and the clutch pedal squeaks very faintly when the car has warmed up. Both are very easily fixable. Whenever I've told anyone about it and mentioned the mileage the conversation goes silent and you can sense from them that I've bought an absolute shed. Fine, they can carry on in their 'must look for low mileage when choosing a 2nd hand car...', I'll stick to buying on condition. It honestly does feel like the car has been clocked forward.

Looking through the paperwork that came with the car I found the specified options:

386 Fern green
C1AT Anthracite cloth/leather

277 Double spoke alloy wheels
320 No model inscription
469 Integrated child seats-group 2
481 BMW sports seats
704 M technic sports suspension
710 M sports drivers airbag
775 Anthracite roof lining
532 Auto air-conditioning-no sunroof

• 246 Steering column rakd adj
• 314 Heated d\lock+washer jets
• 341 Full colour
• 386 Roof rails
• 411 F + R electric windows
• 428 Triangle + first aid kit
• 431 Auto-dim interior mirror
• 441 Smoker package
• 473 Front centre arm-rest

• =AG extra

Not sure what 'AG' means but I'm presuming it's extra cost. I didn't think that items like the sport seats and M-tec suspension would be standard cost, with f+r elec windows, roof rails and an adjustable steering column being a chargeable cost. I suppose it's the crazy mentality of BMW's options lists.

[sniff diesel]

Agree about the mileage, I picked up another diesel E36 at the weekend - didn't really need it but it was only £300 with a 10 month MOT. Done 175k but it's immaculate and still runs great, I've had another E36 with 215k on it, apart from a rip in the driver seat bolster and a bit of rust it still drove well.

Leave other's to beleive that they're council estate cars or old sheds if they want. If it means we can pick up such bargains then that's fine by me.

P.S I may still have spare black leather gear lever gaitor from when I stripped my track car. I'll have a look in the shed at the weekend if you want, PM your address if you want it.

[John.]

love the tourers my 316i has done 234000 miles now with FSH and drives fantasticaly wouldnt hesitate to go anywhere in it