Is a '93 E36 worth buying?
320i
An acquaintance of mine has a '93 320i. I know the car's history — it hasn't been messed with or abused. It's always been serviced on time, at 250,000 km it's never had an LPG conversion, a true purebred (all-original) example. It doesn't have digital climate control, Recaro seats, OBC, or a sunroof. We agreed on a price of 280,000. There are plenty of cars on the market up to 400,000, but they're all beat-up, thrashed, worn-out cars. Is this car worth buying, would it be enjoyable?
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2 repliesIt's good to know the car, but the most important thing, I think, is whether it's been used with antifreeze and what condition the engine's coolant is in — that gives a lot of clues, and you should use it that way. But if there's no antifreeze in it, absolutely don't bother switching to antifreeze now. And most importantly, have the car properly checked by 2-3 mechanics in your area. Congrats in advance.
Translated from TurkishThe features you mentioned are pretty reasonable, and the mileage is fine too, but still, put the car on a lift and check the rear subframe/trailing arm connection points - they rust and snap, it's not hard to fix but whoever does it needs to drop the whole rear subframe, and that gets costly. No matter how proper and original the cooling system is, the problem is it's 25-30-year-old plastic - just replacing the thermostat, water pump, and radiator preemptively is good for your peace of mind. Being a '93 model makes the car OBD1, and that makes it problematic and not very accessible when it comes to diagnostics.
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