1986 325i SE 2 door manual, should I buy?

[BMracing]

A friend of mine is selling this, i'm very tempted to buy it.
It has some nice extras, its cirrus blue, has an LSD, blue houndstooth sports seats (slight wear on the drivers eat), an m tech wheel in very good condition, a fully working as far as i can tell 13 button obc, 5 15 inch BBS wheels in great condition.
The best bit - 73000 miles with pretty much every MOT its ever had to back it up and the quietest M20 i've ever heard!

The bad points:
- rust on the rear wheel arches, nothing really major but will need catching soon.
- noisy power steering, goes light with revs, possible pump?
- front wings are kinked from the tyres hitting them, as he has foolishly cut the front springs. A shame because they were otherwise mint!
- both driveshaft gaitors are split.
- found some play in both front wheels, not the track rods, possibly bearings.
- central locking intermittantly doesn't work.
- rear bumper is badly dented (needs replacing)
- lots of small dents and scratches all over, looks a bit scruffy but straight and cleans up pretty well. Tbh well above average for a 22 year old car.
- brakes are terrible, all the discs are corroded as its been stood for so long, needs a bleed too no doubt.
- Bugger all service history.

He wants around the £1400 mark for it, is this a fair price? Its so hard to judge the value of these at the moment.

Cheers,

Max

[dano0]

i would ask him to sort the mechanical problems and then pay his asking price but sounds like a good motor

[daimlerman]

Sounds a little OTT to me,but if your heart says buy...

[AlexBaur325]

1400 seems heavy in the current climate especially with so many niggles.

[town325i]

it sounds a bit rough to me i would say fix all the faults springs and everything and then it might well be worth the asking price

[capri_rob]

Just the other side of £1k sounds about right from the description you've given - nice and low mileage but theres a few quids worth of work to do by the sounds of it. £1400 is a bit steep.

[Felix79]

I got burnt badly on my cab , I paid about £1800 on it and ended up with forking out another £2000 on getting the engine fixed. From the list of things that are wrong about it I think you really need to have a rethink. If it wasn't your mate selling it would you be prepaired to take that kind of risk on it? Also I think it's always a bad idea buying or selling cars to friends because if it turns out to be a pile of rusty turd you can easily end up losing a mate over a car.

Saying that if you want the challange and the thing makes you smile every time yuo drive it go for it , but I would say get a good £500 to £600 knocked off the price first.

[Simon13]

up to you i'd say a grand, all E30's have issues they are old. What you want is something which will respond to "treatment" and isn't some heap thats been apart 20 times.

Sounds like it needs some good mincing on it and a recomission for some abuse

If the 73k is legit once you've serviced it up it should feel tight, like low miler E30's do

[Flozman]

okay i want 3k for mine...offers??

[BMracing]

Thanks for all your responses guys, sounds like i shouldn't be spending much more than a grand on it. Like Malcolm says the heart wants it, so i'll make a new offer!

Max I think you shoud buy it!, the bits that need attention aint major wont be expensive, you can do the work your self. You know it makes perfect sense so do it. Its a deal its a steal its the sale of the ******* centry, in fact **** it Max i think il keep it !!!!!

Brett sort your avatar out and learn to spell ffs.

Oh and you've just reminded me it needs new kidney grilles, yet more expense!

[HartgeH27]

ITEM 320289183952 YEAH ITS WORTH IT

PM sent - have removed your sig pic as it was way too big and causing havoc on the thread !

[Felix79]

i have pumped a daft amount of cash into mine but just to drive it with it all running perfectly and the glourious sound of the 325i just put a large smile on my face it makes all the pain worth it. At the end of the day even parked next to the most modern bmw it looks like it belongs. Go through the rollercoaster of owning an e30 start going to a few of the zone meets and i promise you will end up as happy as a dog with 2 dicks!

[capri_rob]

Ebay pics look quite good - nice spec overall - so did you buy it ? Going on the pics around £1k would definately be about right.

[Andyboy]

So to recap it's a tatty chromer 325i with rusty arches, shagged driver seat, bent bumper, non working c/l and crap suspension and brakes plus no history etc. In it's favour are £5-600 worth of parts - LSD, wheels, 885 head and a few other bits.

£600 absolute tops. It sounds like a money pit to me.