E36 touring buyers tips??

[pac1982]

E36 touring buyers tips??

Hey people with my new business growing much faster than I expected I need a bigger motor in the form of an estate the short list was as follows.....

E30 Touring (too old, not a good image for the business)
E36 Touring
E39 Touring (too much to go wrong and not very economical)
Volvo Estate (too thirsty)
Honda Civic Aero deck (its Japanese)

Decided on the E36 as it ticks most the boxes has enough space looks nice enough cheap to maintain and MPG will be ok on a 318 or 320.

Speed really don’t appeal to me hence why I’m not looking for a 325 or 328 and from what i gather the 318 and 320 lumps are fairly bullet proof?

Any tips on what to look out for on the E36 Touring’s?

Ideally i want one with a fair few gizmo’s and full leather anyone know what the full spec list is on one of these and am I likely to find many 320’s fully loaded?

[Kos]

you'll find that a lot of 323i tourings were nicely optioned

[snakebrain]

Why not an E46? They're coming down to very similar money to what you'd pay for a sorted E36 these days and it's going to be far easier to find a good one...

Agree with Kos about 323i's - lots of nice ones with all the trimmings. 6 cylinder rightness too!

[pac1982]

you'll find that a lot of 323i tourings were nicely optioned

I had a 1998 323 coupe which was mint as you like but that was about 5 years ago now and I used to drive everywhere with a lead foot think I used to average about 19mpg

Perhaps with my new "old man" approach to driving I wouldn’t find the MPG so bad

This was my coupe............

Why not an E46? They're coming down to very similar money to what you'd pay for a sorted E36 these days and it's going to be far easier to find a good one...

Agree with Kos about 323i's - lots of nice ones with all the trimmings. 6 cylinder rightness too!

Really don’t like the look of E46's far to round and curvy a big fan of boxy looking cars that another reason I decided against the E39 and the Civic

Will check the 323's out

[Blitz]

Whoa whats going on with that air filter and rear lights.

This was nice.

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... light=318i

[pac1982]

Whoa whats going on with that air filter and rear lights.

This was nice.

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... light=318i

I loved the sound the filter made, I know they don’t do anything for performance but love induction noise, as for the rear lights I like to do a few little tweaks that make my cars look different to the rest. You may not have seen them but I had the same style of lights on my E30, not to everyone’s cup of tea but at least there done in an OE style its not like I fitted lexarse lights

That touring does look very clean but one thing that I insist on is leather seats

[capri_rob]

I used to get about 28mpg in mixed driving conditions ( some stop start traffic and some motorway ) from my E36 323i Touring.
If you want reasonable economy really you need the 318i - any of the 6 pots will be too thirsty and the 316i will just be too slow.

SE spec cars will have climate control, 4 x electric windows, rear headrests, and a decent stereo system. Some have an electric sunroof as well as climate control which is nice ( mine did )
Commonly fitted options include parking sensors, dog-guard load cover, roof rails and headlamp washers.
Sports seats are a nice option but seem quite rare on the tourings unless you specifically go for the 323i with the Sport pack.
There are a couple of different OBC's however most of the 4 pot cars I've seen dont seem to have them - most 4 pot cars don't seem to have leather either so if thats on your "must have" list you'll either need to buy a 6 pot or retro-fit it ( should be cheap enough - E36 parts seem to be peanuts at present )

Good cars the E36 Touring - you're better paying a bit more for a good E36 than the same money for a ropey starship-mileage E46.

[pac1982]

I used to get about 28mpg in mixed driving conditions ( some stop start traffic and some motorway ) from my E36 323i Touring.
If you want reasonable economy really you need the 318i - any of the 6 pots will be too thirsty and the 316i will just be too slow.

SE spec cars will have climate control, 4 x electric windows, rear headrests, and a decent stereo system. Some have an electric sunroof as well as climate control which is nice ( mine did )
Commonly fitted options include parking sensors, dog-guard load cover, roof rails and headlamp washers.
Sports seats are a nice option but seem quite rare on the tourings unless you specifically go for the 323i with the Sport pack.
There are a couple of different OBC's however most of the 4 pot cars I've seen dont seem to have them.

Good cars the E36 Touring - you're better paying a bit more for a good E36 than the same money for a ropey starship-mileage E46.

would like the MPG from a 318 and because i'm such a slow driver these days the performance would not bother me but i think its gonne be quite a hunt to find a 318 touring with a nice spec.

i can live with 28mpg but would like around 35mpg ideally

[capri_rob]

You need to forget 6 pot cars then.

Buy the best 318iSE you can find and retro-fit leather seats from a breaker - job done

[Simon13]

you'll fnd touring specific parts hard to find, they just don't appear in the breakers very often. Most are still on the roads still.

The tailgates rust they all do. Worse than E30 tailgates imo. The side compartment panels and their mechs are made of cheese. The rear doors they are specific and so are the door trims, they are different to a saloon. The front doors change over with a saloon along with all the front end panels.

doors rusting on the corners is common, snapped rear springs usual e36 things really

My sister has a late S reg 318i touring its at least 400 miles to a tank no messing. You try that in a 328i going around town. You won't do it.

You'll have a hard time finding leather too, unless you track the bmw type breakers. Finding a sport one? forget it its hard than finding e30 touring leather interiors!

[jaymos]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-318I-SE-T ... _524wt_932

[deanocool]

my e36 318 was terrible on fuel. might be due to the fact it was sooooo slow i had to rev the nuts off it to get anywhere though lol.

i am liking the e36 touring though. been reading performance bmw and keeping track on the red touring in staff cars. very nice

[pac1982]

This has got me thinking

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220858757073? ... 1438.l2649

[Simon13]

but its auto has no torque and will be worse on fuel than the grunt of the 2.8's

[Andyboy]

The ideal one is a non aircon 318i Touring. They do 33 around the houses at 38-40 on a steady run. Cheap to fix and you'll get a very tidy one for a bag.

[pac1982]

Having had a think about it I reckon i'm going to go for a 323, the job I do part time is only 5 mins walk from my house, when I pop to see my mates or family its about a 30mile round trip once or twice a week.

Business calls will cost a bit to get to but i can always add some of the cost of fuel to the job

cant be arsed to faff around finding parts and fitting them so just want to buy something that looks nice in the first place (having said that i am going to do some sort of crazy wrap on it)

[Baurluvva]

I've bought myself a touring 325tds. Not too bad on fuel - got a bit of grunt too!