E36 BMW becoming a classic?

[LanceRS]

I never really thought about the CDV, maybe I just got used to it. Having said that I have thought about it on my e46.
It made 200 bhp on the rollers with over 100k miles on it. Unfortunately it was hit by another driver and written off, otherwise I would still have it and added a further 70k Miles.

[MParallel]

Now 15 years into my E36 328i ownership and 8 on my M3 Evo.

[tonymor]

It was by driving my neighbours E 36 I bought one only sold it to by a E46 330I.

[dhutch]

iSore said:

Spotted this honey at a BMW specialist, a 1994 325i. As mint as it looks!

Thats nice.

I ran a 316i compact, in red, for a good few years. Meant to be a cheap stop gap, and it wasnt super tidy, but it was a loverly car to drive in all fairness.

[dhutch]

LanceRS said:

I still miss mine, had it for the best part of 9 years. It was totally standard and I never had the urge to change that.

That is very nice. Good work.

[E36Lover]

sold my JDM 96 spec Integra DC2 for my 328i, bought it off a 75 year old chap for very cheap for the low mileage & have owned it nearly 2 years now. Love it will never sell it! Values are slowly climbing too.

[Mark-insert old BMW]

Sorry for the rubbish pics but they hint at my lucky find. A low mileage 318is saloon. Sadly not a white, non sunroof car but this was the first 318is saloon I've spotted in a while and the eBay listing was poorly worded and appeared to keep it under the radar. It's always a gamble buying cars from afar but there appears to be no rust in the wheel arches and the headlining hasn't given in to gravity. Best of all S868 NLN has only done 45k miles. Anyone here know it?

[croyde]

I really like that colour.

[dhutch]

Oh nice. Good work.

[MDMA .]

Mark-insert old BMW said:

Sorry for the rubbish pics but they hint at my lucky find. A low mileage 318is saloon. Sadly not a white, non sunroof car but this was the first 318is saloon I've spotted in a while and the eBay listing was poorly worded and appeared to keep it under the radar. It's always a gamble buying cars from afar but there appears to be no rust in the wheel arches and the headlining hasn't given in to gravity. Best of all S868 NLN has only done 45k miles. Anyone here know it?

Looks like a really good buy. I know you've had quite a few BMW's. Do you know much about these? I've been looking at a few different 90's cars as another garage toy/second car. Really like the E30 318is but prices are just a bit stupid for these now (seen a few for £25k). I believe they did an E36 318is Motorsport Edition/Class 2. Were these available in the UK? Bit of recent reading all show the Motorsport ones in South Africa and the Class 2 ones in Germany. Can't find anything showing if the UK got these or not.

[The Conflated Outlier]

BMW built a 318is E36 saloon from around 1992 on but none were imported to the UK. Well, not until late 98-99 when a batch of South African built cars (mostly Avus blue) were officially imported. These were M Technic spec with the M3 style bumpers, trim etc.

The grey one is an SE so was almost certainly imported by Cheyne, the BMW dealer in London who lost their franchise over it. They're okay but they rotted like a bd due to minimal rustproofing - so a good dose of Waxoyl in the usual E36 areas is a plan.

The glass (Glaverbel?) and much of the trim was locally made.

[JakeT]

Proper bearding. Very interesting, thanks for posting that.

[MitchT]

Were all '98-'99 cars built in SA? My '99 318is coupé has rotted like a good 'un. I was once told it was because car manufacturers had been forced to switch from solvent based paints to water based paints just before that point in time and the tech was in its infancy so cars were much more prone to rot.

[dhutch]

JakeT said:

Proper bearding. Very interesting, thanks for posting that.

Agreed!

[The Conflated Outlier]

MitchT said:

Were all '98-'99 cars built in SA? My '99 318is coupé has rotted like a good 'un. I was once told it was because car manufacturers had been forced to switch from solvent based paints to water based paints just before that point in time and the tech was in its infancy so cars were much more prone to rot.

No, just the saloons iirc.

The E36 saloon was discontinued from Spring 1998 so that the production lines at Regensburg and Munich could be stripped out and refitted for E46 production. That left a gap where there would be no 3 Series saloon production in Germany so South Africa built a few.

Coupes, Tourings and Convertibles continued to be built in Germany for another year before their E46 replacements and the Compact lasted until early 2000.

Rust? BMW must have changed their paint process in late 1998 because everything rusted more. I had 1998/9 S and T plated E36's that were pretty bad for rot when 1995 and 1996 cars weren't. Rusty scabs appearing in the middle of a panel for no reason. E39 and E38 cars were the same - the later they are, the worse they are for rust. P and R plate cars were pretty good but T and V onwards stuff seemed to become really scabby much sooner.

[Mark-insert old BMW]

Does anyone recall how they put the code into their RDS Business radio/cassette player please? I have the 4 digit code and I thought the equivalent of the 'enter' button was the right direction button, but all that does is send the display back to asking for the code. Put the wrong code in 3 times and the display says 'wait'. That means you then have to put the ignition on the first click and wait 90 minutes for the display to return to 'code' and the process starts again.

I guess the radio might have been replaced at some time in the cars history but there's no record? How do I get the factory head unit out?

[s m]

Mark-insert old BMW said:

Does anyone recall how they put the code into their RDS Business radio/cassette player please? I have the 4 digit code and I thought the equivalent of the 'enter' button was the right direction button, but all that does is send the display back to asking for the code. Put the wrong code in 3 times and the display says 'wait'. That means you then have to put the ignition on the first click and wait 90 minutes for the display to return to 'code' and the process starts again.

I guess the radio might have been replaced at some time in the cars history but there's no record? How do I get the factory head unit out?

Is it the right direction button or the manual ‘Scan’ button to enter it Mark?

[rottenegg]

Not sure about classic status just yet but the Dakar Yellow 3.0 M3 I drove many, many moons ago was a fine thing indeed. Horribly vague steering (even worse than the current EPS cars imo) but the rest of dynamics made up for it.

I love the E30 M3 as well, but that creamy 6 pot upper rev thrust is a thing of beauty compared to the 4 pot.

Love the look of the 328is E36, can't go wrong with BBS cross spokes.

The thing with these old bimmers is you never hear of rod bearing this, main bearings and chains that. E92 onwards, I'm not really sure what BMW were up to be honest in terms of M reliability.

[Mark-insert old BMW]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqnLIfk0NFA

rottenegg said:

I love the E30 M3 as well, but that creamy 6 pot upper rev thrust is a thing of beauty compared to the 4 pot.

My s14/2.3 was glorious at 9k rpm and in an E30 I'd take it over the six cylinder all day. I had a 320is with an s50/3.0 and it just never quite had the same feel as the four cylinder car.

Gratuitous clip of mine at Silverstone PH day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqnLIfk0NFA