E30 Zone

Found what looks like a tasty 325 touring for a grand, and spoke to the seller.
Sounds lovely; imported from Germany a few years back, full ignition replaced, new cam belt, new interior cloth, bit of rust on the tailgate, lots of paperwork, but 180k miles on the clock. Even if it's had regular oil changes, is this too high for a 1988? I've had older cars with a lot less on the clock than this, so does it suggest this tourer has toured a bit too much? K&N airfilter and sports brakes tell me it's seen some high revs recently...

Have a look at the pictures if you like:
http://www.allegro.pl/item332272025_lad ... robki.html

All depends on previous maintenance. With 6000 mile oil changes it should sail past 250K.

whats with those seat covers, will have to loose them mate.

looks ok, just check the service history.

the engines on these cars will do in excess of 250k with sympathetic maintenance. The problem with high mileage cars is the rest of the car they can feel old and baggy. For this not to be the case they need to have been very well cared for indeed.

mines well on the way to 300 so if it has been looked after the mileage means nout.

That's good to hear guys, cheers. Im expecting to do SOME work to the perishables, like all the bushes, suspension and probably the clutch (considering the brakes have been done) so as long as the engine still pulls like a horse I should be alright.

My 325i is a J reg and has done 188k miles. Doesn't rattle/smoke etc etc and is the most pleasent E30 I have driven in standard form, a couple of my previous E30's have had 40 - 50k miles less than this one, but are nowhere near as tight a drive As said above it will need to have been well looked after or could be a dog. Drive a couple so that you can get a baseline to compare to.

Good luck!

Andy

227k on my Alpina, plus the E21 323i I had was at 240k when I sold it, and was still pulling like a train (despite having virtually no valve stem oil seals ).

my 88 325 touring has 237,000 on it but i've had to rebuild to the top end @216,000 after a snapped rocker. bottom end is original though

1988 + 20 years old. 188000 divided by 20 = 9100 per year, that turd is low mileage ! Another thing worth bearing in mind when it crossed the border the speedo probably had some attention, most cars from europe that come to the uk suffer this fate !

Providing the car has been properly maintained high mileage is nothing to worry about, unlike the wheels / seat covers and induction kit !

pacerpete wrote:Another thing worth bearing in mind when it crossed the border the speedo probably had some attention, most cars from europe that come to the uk suffer this fate !

The only border this one has crossed is from Germany heading East It's still a good 800 miles from the UK.

I know 9000 a year is low for most cars (certainly any touring or distance-designed motor) but I don't know what the maximum is. My old Merc (W123) was good for over half a million, whilst my old Vauxhall Viva threw a rod at its predicted 70k mile mark. 250k for a BMW engine sounds like a safe value, as long as the body is sound.

Grrrmachine wrote:

pacerpete wrote:Another thing worth bearing in mind when it crossed the border the speedo probably had some attention, most cars from europe that come to the uk suffer this fate !

The only border this one has crossed is from Germany heading East It's still a good 800 miles from the UK.

I know 9000 a year is low for most cars (certainly any touring or distance-designed motor) but I don't know what the maximum is. My old Merc (W123) was good for over half a million, whilst my old Vauxhall Viva threw a rod at its predicted 70k mile mark. 250k for a BMW engine sounds like a safe value, as long as the body is sound.

Err, so you are saying that cars aren't clocked when they are exported from germany to poland ? Yours might be the exception but don't put money on it !
Be thankful if it is only clocked, aren't they usual stolen and/ or writeoffs as well ?