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.

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)