bmw daily hack

[MattTheHat325]

give me some advice boys, you lot have had plenty of 'other bmw' experience, ive only ever had an e30.
i have just got a new job which is about 30 miles of up hill and down dale b roads away from where i live. I'll be looking for a new daily so my e30 can have a rest and save me some money on fuel bills!
my budget could possibly stretch to 2k ish if the car was right and tidy, and some sort of bmw would be my first choice, naturally.
So far i have entertained the thought of a 325tds tourer but heard many bad things about the old bus. are they really that bad?
I've also started to think about lpg for the first time ever! if i went down this route, buying something already converted obviously!, what are the best candidates for such conversions?
I really struggle when it comes to practicality, so choosing a sensible motor is a severe heartache for me, i do like e34's aswell e39's tend to be a bit crap in my price range. e36 328 tourer lpg?
help me out lads!

[Blitz]

You should be able to get a very nice 328i touring for that budget. MPG pretty good on them as well.

[snakebrain]

E36 touring was the first thing that sprang to my mind. They're really cheap for what they are if you can find a good 'un. E34 525tds maybe? Fuel pump or something on them is a bit failure-prone and expensive if it goes Pete Tong. Can't remember the details but I thought about one a while back and remember coming across that issue. There's a guy on the bmw5 forum selling/not selling an E34 525iX touring, depending on how he feels about parting with it that day! That would be interesting enough not to be completely boring, while also perhaps being sensible enough to justify to yourself. Cross-country drive and all that, who knows what it'll be like this winter?!

The non-BMW option might be a Merc E-Class of some kind maybe?

[Simon13]

you don't need lpg on the 328 unless your're a mega tight git. mine pulls 30mpg every tank full on the combined which is pretty good in my book. it'll do high 30's on a steady run too.

[MattTheHat325]

thanks for the replies! yeah i've heard good things about the 328i's fuel consumption, so basically it will be noticably more economical than my m20b25? fairplay thats pretty impressive for an engine of that size and power!
i think the price of diesel these days is lessening the appeal of the older dervs, only doing 35-40 mpg isnt really cutting it when derv is so much more expensive than unleaded in most places.
now i'm interested in this 328, bearing in mind my journey would be basically 20 ish miles of 45-50mph, a handful of steepish hills and the odd overtake, with maybe 10 minutes of traffic to finish off. how would the 2.8 fare on such a journey?

[Simon13]

if you want 35-40mpg a good 318i or 316i e36 will do that all day long and they can be maintained properly on a low budget

[MattTheHat325]

so would a 328 struggle with that kind of journey? maybe i should be a tight get and search for an lpg'd 328 lol. the sensible option probably would be a 318i but the 328i sounds like a compromise between what i need and what i want lol

[Simon13]

you only live once, life is too short to be driving around in some slow turd. been there done it

why would a 328 struggle? its the perfect cheap old performance car at the moment. Get one now before they're all pilaged for their engines for e30 conversions!

[MattTheHat325]

i meant struggle to do its party piece of such good economy for its size! lol aha you raise a fair point there sir, i wonder how long i could keep it before my e30 pillaged its motor in the dead of the night and i awoke to find a tourer that looked like it was doing a wheelie and an m20 on its side crying oil all over my drive haha
well i'll keep my eyes open for one with lpg, that would cement my decision, and preferably a nicely specced up one with M bumpers, leather etc.
at what sort of mileage do these things become a worry?

[Andy325i]

A B25 or B28 on LPG FTW!