Not a Merc but serious car - some questions

[smillion]

I'm following this with interest as have been looking for an older M3 convertible for a little while.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=008&item=180009613201&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

2 questions:

The advert says its just had £18,000 of engine etc fitted. Why would anyone spend this sort of money on a car this age. warranty? I propose to call the dealer/seller on Monday.

Secondly, where do you think the bidding will go?

The car would be a third car for weekend blasts with the roof down.

Thanks

Smillion

 

[KLP 92]

Not sure about the price but the BMW warranty is excellent, they replaced my mates engine as well when it went faulty. £18k does seem alot, but then again a V12 MB engine is about £20k!

If i were after a M3 i would want one with the warranty as these car's are expensive to fix.

 

[mstar01]

all i know i had a m3 and it was the best car i ever had but what pis ssed me off was the maintenance costs and service costs my injectors played up and left me with a bill of £789 never again a sports car

 

[smillion]

Thank you ( I think )

 

[glojo]

I'm following this with interest as have been looking for an older M3 convertible for a little while.

Good luck and please keep us informed.

John

 

[fatherpierre]

The main failure with the evo engine is the double vanos system - £2k to sort.

But, if it is a 'new' engine, then you should be laughing. I'd have thought it'd be a recon engine, though.......... But £18k should mean a proper job.

 

[PeterE320Cdi]

Stunning looking car, it says the work was carried out under an Extended BMW warranty by Stratstone BMW and that it has 12 months months remaining which is excellent. As this was all done by BMW dealers it should be easy to verify too.

 

[NW_Merc]

There's a nice A8 going cheap at the bottom of that page

 

[ADY1983]

Looks really good... But they do not mention why the car had to have a new Engine.

 

[perdikoyla888]

i dont know. too old for my taste...

 

[Alps]

a few negatives about that model: -
- Bumpers, side strips,mirrors and badges WILL get nicked if left on the street for any amount of time.

agree with all thats been said about them above, i used to own one of the first 4 door models on a K plate, and ended up having a full engine rebuild after 6 mnths of owning it, after that I had little or no problems apart from theiving gits stealing bits off it this was over 6 years ago! but the theiving gits have passed onto the next generation, and are still targetting the E36 model for parts!

other than that, nice car to drive, great fun!

 

[Rose Chap]

The engine could have been replaced under warranty due to nikasil issues (bore linings of the cylinders prematurely wear).

A friend of mine had the engine replaced free of charge on a used 328i he bought about 4 years ago.

Maybe someone else can confirm this?

 

[glojo]

The engine could have been replaced under warranty due to nikasil issues (bore linings of the cylinders prematurely wear).

A friend of mine had the engine replaced free of charge on a used 328i he bought about 4 years ago.

Maybe someone else can confirm this?

Hi Rose Chap,
I can confirm what you are saying or at least it was mentioned in great detail on a number of threads.

I do like that car.
John

 

[996jimbo]

I thought the Nikosil issue only affected the V8's? I would be quite happy to be corrected - just something I seem to remember from years ago.

 

[fatherpierre]

E36 325s and 328s suffered with it too.

 

[A-AvantGarde]

I thnk there was an issue with many of the 2.8 BM engines (not sure on the engine type). They had a recall early on and my wife's uncle had an engine replaced on his old 728 about 18 months ago.

Due to the excellent level of service he felt he had (getting a new engine after almost 7 years!!!!) he went on to buy another BMW. Wonder whether MB's goodwill goes that far ;-)

 

[500E]

The BMW 740's also had thier engines replaced free of charge by BMW if any faults occured.

 

[Rose Chap]

Jaguar also suffered from nikasil issues when they first launched the V8s in the XJ8 and XK8 (which coincidentally was around the same sort of time - late 90s - that BMW was having the same problem).

There is an amusingly named process available from Jaguar dealerships called the 'blow test' where they check to see if your block is porous.

 

[smillion]

But sadly at £9,200 it went beyond my budget.

At 9 years old and beyond 130,000 miles for the rest of the car, too much for me.

Nonetheless, someone will have a peach with a warranty not normally associated with a car of this age.

Jealous, but at the same time a little relieved that I stood back from the last minute bidding fury. I was there. Glass of wine in hand (and let me say that this is VERY dangerous - the last time wine influenced bidding I ended up in New York for 4 days at a 5 star hotel and had THE most amazing time :bannana: :bannana: :bannana: ) - just not on for a 1997 M3.

Smillion

 

[JonLittlechild]

This car couldn't have had 12 months of a manufacturers warranty left on it. As of 1st Feb 2006, BMW extended warrantys could no longer be obtained for a car that had done over 100,000 miles (this is why I got rid of my M3). Therefore, the longest it could possible have had on the warranty is up to 31st Mar 2007. (This assumes it has not gone over the 100k since - unlikey as it's now at 130k).

The nikasil issue affected primarly the six pot 2.8 litre engines, i.e 328 (E36 and E46), 528 etc and was prone to happening after around 80k miles. I don't think it effected the 3.2 litre engines. However, there were vanos issues with both the E36 M3 and E46 M3 engines which could result in nasty valve/piston interaction.

A BMW manufacturers (extended or orginal) warranty will pay for a new engine provided the service history is good and the owner has not something really stupid (like let all the oil out). Shortly after I sold my old E46 330Ci for £15k it dropped a valve. BMW warranty payed out just over £16k to investigate and fit a factory reconditioned engine - i.e warranty payed out more than the car was worth.

BMW will not generally fit a brand spanker of an engine to a car unless the car is relatively new, i.e less than three years. I doubt this car would have had a new engine installed by BMW unless there was a shortage of recons back at the factory at the time. I know a crated E46 M3 engine costs around £15k before fitting, so £18k is probably about right.

Jon