BMW 3 Series E36 - BMW 318 TDS advice

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Fri 24 Sep 2010 22:11
BMW 3 Series E36 - BMW 318 TDS advice - Dazl1212

Hi I like the look of the BMW 3 series TDS I have a golf MK3 1.9D at the moment I will be looking at around the £1000 mark as im a little strapped for cash and will be lucky if i get £450 when I sell the Golf. Would this car be a reliable option as the Golf is IDI like the tds and has been solid but sooooo slow 17 secs to 60! If they are reliable what kind of milage would be the top range before I would start getting seriously expensive problems etc? Or would an Audi A4 TDI be a safer bet? I dont want to go the petrol route with these as I have found in the past that diesels seem to be reliable I.E my golf and the 106 1.5 I had before. Sorry to ramble

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Mon 27 Sep 2010 13:31
BMW 3 Series E36 - BMW 318 TDS advice - Dazl1212

Does anybody have any advice? What about the 325?

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Mon 27 Sep 2010 14:15
BMW 3 Series E36 - BMW 318 TDS advice - madf

anything around £1k is a gamble on correct servcing or some at all.

As you can guarantee some corners will be cut,,,, at BMW prices... .. even more so..

Play darts blind and you'll get nearer to the mark than any advice being correct.

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Mon 27 Sep 2010 14:37
BMW 3 Series E36 - BMW 318 TDS advice - Armstrong Sid

Like madf says, at a price of £1k all normal judgement goes out of the window. Brand name is irrelevant. It's all down to the history of the individual car in question.

At that price it will be pretty old and high mileage. It won't be as fast and as tight as it was when it was new. It will have been through several owners. No telling how it was treated by any of them, good or bad. Law of averages says something will have to be renewed through wear-and-tear before long.

The exception is if you know its history (eg, a mate has owned it for the past 5 years and you know how he treated it)

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