E30 Zone

Hi everybody.

Joined the world of E30 owners on Tuesday with a 318i bought from London. I absolutely love it. Went out 'shopping' yesterday and ended up going for a drive and calling for my mate (who also loves it). Shopping will have to happen later!

Anyway, I've got a big wadge of service history with it and a friend (fellow E30 owner) has explained to me about Oil Service, Inspection 1 and Inspection 2. Mine's got a good history but I'd like to have an Inspection 2 done on it. He uses Auto Bavaria in Tunbridge Wells (Kent). Anyone here used them before and if so, what did you think of them? Also would they be able to stamp the service book or is it only main dealers that can do that (if they still do?)?

An idea to costs would be cool, too.

Until then, I was going to give it an oil change. I'm going to get a genuine BMW filter if I can (I want the best for it) but what oil do you lot recommend? I'm going to do a search in a minute as I expect that question comes up a lot!

Thanks.
G.

hi there and welcome to the zone! I started out with a 2 door 318i back in 2002 and I loved it !

Getting genuine BMW parts is a doddle still for the e30 so don't worry. If your friend is using the garage then I se eno reason why not to worry about it with a service.

any garage has a rubber stamp for the service book,,,but bmw ones seem to smile from the page at you

felix - cool cars, ain't they?! I'm already nuts about mine and I've owned it three days! My friend seems to have a good word about Auto Bavaria so I probably will go with his recommendation. I was just wondering how well known they were really.

magpie - I know what you mean, makes it that little bit more 'official' doesn't it. Only thing I'm worried about is the cost of using a main dealer.

Cheers guys.

understood,,,a stamp looks good,,knowledge of the work actualy happened is even better,,,,
it's a cruel world the car game,,i been in for £20 yrs,,,had a m8 who'd rubber stamp [my] service
books up no probs,,back in the day when i lived in geordieland,,and sold on to jo bloggs etc,
10 yrs later i do my own services and put all the receipts in my folder,,,or any related one...

Yep, good advice. I've been very lucky with this car - it said "some history" in the ad which happens to include almost all MoT's, service invoices, receipts for things like oil and filters, the book's been stamped etc. I plan to add to it and take the best care of it.

This is my first BMW (I techincally 'owned' one a few years ago but it just passed through my hands without even leaving the auction house car park!) and something's dawned on me now I've driven it a bit: they're brilliant. The way it's built, the way it performs, the way the factory has different levels of inspection to that need to be carried out and the fact that it's all documented. This is unlike anything I've owned before. It's also my most modern car (it's 1990).

My car history so far (including a few that I only kinda owned, or very briefly) goes:
1967 Singer Chamois (Hillman Imp)
1985 BMW M535i
1967 Hillman Imp
1967 Hillman Imp Californian
1972 Ford Capri Mk1
1976 (ish) Hillman Imp - shell only, sold before I bothered to build it up!
1976 Opel Ascona
1978 Mk2 Escort
1971 VW Beetle
1959 VW Beetle

Thing is, as much as I've had such fun with all these, none of them have been the sort of cars that I could get in a just drive, with the exception of the Imp Californian - that thing was a rock, it still exists somewhere. Now I've finally got something that I get in, the engine starts, the wipers work, the heater works, the lights work, it runs smooth almost straight away, etc etc. I hope it stays that way, hence why I plan to look after it so well.

Thanks for the welcome. I think I'll take some pics of the new beast outside my place and post them in the readers rides part.

felix, there any threads on here with some pics of your Alpina? (man, if someone misheard that question it could sound really bad, couldn't it).