Another cheap 330i Touring..

[callahan]

Me again. After the disappointment of missing a car today I may have found another one, details are:

'01 X reg, 73,000 miles, Metallic black, manual, full grey leather int. aluminium effect cabin trim, ABS, PAS, T/C, A/C, alarm, 6 CD Harman kardon stereo option, remote c/l, rear parking sensor, alloy wheels, service history. Very good car - £6995 ono

It's not too far from me so I may give him a call in the morning, can anyone advise me what to look for in a non-dealer car? Anything particularly during the test drive?

Any help would be great, I'm just learning about these cars.

Thanks

[A S P]

As with buying any car you've got to check its history, especially buying from a non-franchised dealer. For me when I bought mine (e46 328 touring) I wanted to ensure all the servicing had been adhered to at either main dealers or independent BMW specialists. Occasionally the rear springs on e46's can go, its quite a simple fix but often can go un-noticed.

For the most thorough advice go onto www.bmwland.co.uk and search through the archives, anything that could go wrong is going to be listed there. I've found mine to be virtually faultless and amazingly cheap to service properly at indie specialists. The price seems good, possibly too good which would make me question it a bit but then again I did the same with my own car and its turned out great.