I saw a used 1996 328i BMW with a manual swap for sale for about $3,500 with 260,00 miles is it a reasonable deal for a used e36 I know the water pump and thermostat are made out of plastic and the strut towers are known to crack the paint is also faded and the bushings / other suspension components do go out on a 26 year old car but people say the straight 6 engines are bullet proof as I want to turn it into a daily driver and maybe drift car haha any other problems or insight on the car or just the e36 in general any help is welcomed I really do enjoy how the e36 looks
The E36 is loved by BMW fans, they call it the dolphin shape 3-Series. $3,500 is quite pricey for that car. 9 years ago I paid $3000 for a 1994 540i with a transmission that had been rebuilt a couple years beforehand. It had 185,000 miles and every single maintenance service itemized in the 8 years the previous owner had it. They also provided the service manual. That was quite a file folder.
My first concern is who did the transmission swap and was it done correctly? I'd ask for some kind of paperwork for that. The computer needs replaced with one from a standard transmission car. It's not like a 1970s Trans Am where you could plug and play fitting transmissions.
That price needs to come down, in my opinion. They are better BMWs than anything today, but they are still expensive to fix, and they don't like cheap aftermarket parts. Find out if your local BMW dealer will do an old car discount like mine did, I got parts for my E34 for 50% off. Look around in your area for BMW guys who part them out. I drove mine on a limited college kid budget and kept it going pretty well being mechanically inclined, but I would shy away from daily driving it, unless you're prepared to go through a lot of money when stuff starts breaking.
Very pricey considering age/mileage.
