about the 325 is 94-95

[beamer325is]

I would like to know if this car is really reliable and if their has been some problem with this model for the years 94-95 . I love german cars, i had a mercedes before which was great and a volks gti which was a piece of crap, always somthin broken, electrical lightings... anyway im on the edge of buying a manual 94 black 325 is with 100000kms on it and i have trouble finding information on that model for that year. any information would be great thanks.

[Emre]

There was only one "major" problem with non-M3 E36 sedans/coupes that I can think of. That was the way the rear sub-frame mounted to the chassis. It's not that strong and can deform or even tear out under hard use (like on the track). If the car has stiff suspension and wide, sticky tires then this is an even bigger concern. The area was reinforced on M3's, so they don't have the problem.

Other then that, there were a couple of minor things with the cooling system. The early water pupms were prone to fail. Later models had metal impellers (the early ones were plastic). If this is an early car, make sure the water pump has been replaced with the newer model. The other thing is the radiators had plastic reservoirs and the neck would often break.

That's all I can think of right now!

Emre

[Andre]

Heh! When I was out looking at e36's, I test drove 8 or 9, two of them had waterpump failures when I drove them... I wasn't particularly hard on them either which leaves me somewhat puzzled.

Following that, one of my standard questions was: "Has the waterpump been replaced?"

Watch out for rust on some of the earlier models as they are starting to get long in the tooth but that's true for any 10+ year old car.

~andre~