Cut my losses? Car Nightmare!!!

[bigbadboss101]

Traded my 97 Prelude with 217km for a 93 325i with 148km. I needed more room, and didn't want a low rider anymore. So I swapped cars with someone and neither of us did an inspection or lien check, which was pretty stupid.

After I got the car, I took it to Shop A to get fluids changed, and a couple other things done. Shop A phoned back and said car is in bad shape. He told me car has been in a major accident and the struts were gone, control arm bent, and front end has been put back together. Shop A didn't do any further work, and I took the car home.

Cost $80

Next I took the car to Shop B that does frame work, alignment etc. I asked him to check if the frame alignment is good. He phoned back saying it looks fine. Because of that, I decided to get the struts replaced. Got the Koni kit from Tunerworks, as well as control arms. Parts cost me $1,100 Cdn. or so. Car was in the shop for 3 days cuz Shop B needed certain parts and had to search all over for them. They said the suspension on the car is from another car and had trouble putting the Koni's on. At the end of the day (or 3 days) labour cost plus bushing kit, sway bar, mounts etc came out to $1,300.

Cost $2,400

When I checked out the car I knew there were a few things that needed to be replaced. Eg. no radio reception, heater noisy, seat problem, tempermental window switch. Then a whole bunch of problems were found. First the A/C components were missing. The front right window popped out, the muffler started to dangle, heater blows the same air (temperature), etc. I decided to take the car to BMW for some of the fixes, and made appointment with Shop D to get some other minor work done. Dropped car off at BMW and service person phoned at 4:30pm and gave me this list of quotes:

- A/C Inop. All lines bent during accident. Hoses, receiver/dryer,
compressor. $1,051 (all prices below are before tax).

- Coolant fan blade broken $128.
- Replace heater unitl $788.
- Muffler, hangers $487.50.
- Coolant level switch $117 (I read in Bimmerforum this is a $20
part).
- Coolant flush $90
- Window clips and regulator. $313. When I got home the front
left window popped out. Regualator arms seem to be bent
on both. I did put the panel apart but couldn't do much. So
times the price by two.
- Ambient temp. sensor $180.
- Engine mount collapsed $269.
- A/C belt tensioner $176

Then they told me my front struts and sway bar links were
installed backward!!! $966 to repair this, and I need a
4-wheel alignment! Shop 2 did the install and the alignment so WTF?

So all the stuff BMW quoted me would be $4,500+.

I know I was stupid to pull the trigger on the deal. Car looked good, had a few issues and I didn't take it for an inspection. We wrote up two bills of sales and said condition "As Is". Do I cut my loses and sell the car? I don't know if it's worthwhile to put that kind of $$$ in. I can probably do better if I get parts elsewhere, and go to somewhere other than BMW.

PM me if you like.

Thanks.

[ninjak84]

Sell the car only if you tell the buyer its history.

If you sell it without telling the buyer, then you're a mighty large asshole.

[duffspec]

Well, I think you should fix what you can fix by yourself and then ditch it. That is a costly mistake............sorry to hear.:thumbsdow

[GoChris]

ouch, always get something inspected unless its real cheap and you arent expecting much

[D. Dub]

Yooowch!!

I'd take the car to a good HONEST independent mechanic first, give them the BMW quote and get their opinion and quote. An indy with jobber parts could be mucho cheaper!!!

For instance the $485 for muffler and hangers is stupid. An indy muffler shop could do that for $100. Or if it's still quiet...leave it!!

and maybe do w/o AC for awhile?


If you like the car --slowly fix it. Safety items first, then luxury like AC second.

What else ya gonna do???

...pawning it off on someone else is bad karma!!!

[Weapon_R]

First off, find yourself a good mechanic. Most of that shit on the checklist can be done with little to no effort in your garage, or with a few buddies in exchange for a couple of cases of beer.

What i'm really astonished about is what you paid to install your shocks. The problem isn't with the car, but instead with you failing to research and price things out more properly.

A few guys on here do shocks for 25 dollars a side. Add the extra labour for what you got, and you should have done it for about 200-300. The other stuff bmw quoted you is overpriced - find a guy here or through word of mouth that will do it all for you in a couple of days. In fact, most of the stuff there is pretty minor (fan blade, muffler, coolant flush, engine mount, etc)

PS - You have a pretty good car there. A low mileage E36 is very hard to find, and you should get a good return after you fix those problems. It's funny, a dealer will almost ALWAYS find something wrong, so only fix the things you think need attention right away, and slowly fix it. BMWs are very well built, and its obvious that the car wasn't cared for. Spend a little more, WISELY, and you will have many more years of good luck.

[AllGoNoShow]

I'd repair and keep it myself, just put all the money in, thats a bunch less you have to do later down the road, should last youi awhile again if it was doen right.

[rmk]

was a proper ppi (pre purchase inspection) done before you made the trade?

if you have the cash, do it now. as said above, low milage e36's are scarce.

good luck man.

[bigbadboss101]

True, some of the stuff I can do, or with a buddy. The A/C I can do without., but it's not something I would do at home. Engine mount I have no idea, fan blade I might be able to. I do have buddies who have built hot rod Camaros and Ram trucks etc that can dissassemble a M37 and put it back together. The windows are mandatory and I guess I can check Manchester to see if they have some spare window regulator. The muffler I will probably go to Carline and put on a Dynomax or Magnaflow. Don't need Supersprint or fancy stuff.

The susp. stuff I got is Koni. The Koni would fit if the car had original parts but he said they had some funky parts on the car.
Koni struts and springs ($800) vs the Monroe struts for $700. Control arms like $120 each. Labour 8 hours plus sway set up, mounts, bushing kits and this and that.

I think first order of business would be engine mount, muffler, and windows. Then I would do rad flush, fan blade, heater etc. A/C and the sensors would be less important.

Lesson learned, now forward :-)

[infected]

Keep the car and put some work and time and patience in and it will turn out alright. Do your research though...

[CRX-R]

Originally posted by rmk
was a proper ppi (pre purchase inspection) done before you made the trade?


You didn't even read till the second line before you posted did you?? :dunno:

[Khalil]

Originally posted by bigbadboss101

Lesson learned, now forward :-)

In my opinion thats the way to go...
and along the way.. dont forget to do a lil modding too :D

Think of this as a little chance to customize the car a little in your own way.

Hope everything works out.!

Cheers:bigpimp:

[crazytou]

I belive once you buy a car with problem after problem after problem you just need to sell the car and get out of it before the motor goes or something and then youre really screwed. take youre losses and get rid of it right away!

[ricefarmer]

I was waiting for this thread to come up. This guy offered to trade me the 325 for my talon so i went and checked it out. First of all the guy seemed to have very little knowledge of the history, mods and maintenance of the BMW and cars in general. This should have discouraged you immediately as it did me. You've already gone into detail about what you found wrong with the car after getting it home and inspecting it but there were obvious things like the diagnostic computer going off the hook and and that bad grinding noise coming from the front end. The guy just couldn't give me a straight answer about anything i asked, especially the the driver side door panel. I know you couldn't get it inspected seing as how the car wasn't even insured at the time so not much can be said there. Also, the seller of the BMW kept on trying to low ball me and make me give him reasons to take my car over some prelude he was going to trade for(big boss)
:confused:
Then he goes on to bash my car about some minor aesthetic details:banghead: So then i voluntarily pop the hood on my car he had one question: "what's that green thing?" answer: the intake! :banghead: and he didn't give two shits about anything mechanical concerning the car. As well, he harassed me all the way back to his place to buy my stereo after i repeatedly told him i would not rip my custom install apart so he could have my speakers:dunno:
Anyways i just had to vent some frustration about the encounter i had with this guy, don't get me wrong, its a nice car and at first glance i wanted it as well.
One question, did you get those Privats on the car? If so post a pic, probably looks pimp

[403Gemini]

who is this guy who gave you the 325? a member on here?

[D. Dub]

Originally posted by crazytou
I belive once you buy a car with problem after problem after problem you just need to sell the car and get out of it before the motor goes or something and then youre really screwed. take youre losses and get rid of it right away!

Are you offering to buy it then?

If the OP is honest with the buyers, who'd want it?

[thinmyster]

if i were you id now check for any leins with the luck you've been having so far it wouldnt surprise me?

[eb0i]

like said from others above:

if you have the time and money then keep the car and fix it up.

do MORE research in prices when you are getting things fixed.

a low mileage 93 325 bmw is really hard to find and after you fix it up its re-sell price will be worth all the trouble.

overall i'd keep it if I had the time and money to fix it up. Its a great way to learn about fixing up your car and you can have fun modding it the way you want it along the way.

[bigbadboss101]

Agree. I will keep it. Whoa it is much more expensive to fix than other cars. In 1 month I have spent more on this one than my 87 Supra Turbo, 89 Celica GTS, 85 Corolla GTS, 98 Maxima SE, 02 Maxima SE combined. Of course big part of it is due to not doing the inspection.

A lot of the stuff I can do, or can with the help of someone who has the tools and tech skills. Some stuff I don't really need to fix, others can wait.

Thanks guys

[racerocco]

If you are looking for prices on used parts, call the guys at Black gold import in nisku. They specialize in euro imports and are way better to deal with than manchester.
1 800 661 5628, and they will ship right to you.

[Fivewayradio]

NEVER take your car to BMW unless it's for warranty work. Even then I'd be skeptical. I've heard way too many nasty stories about the dealers here to ever want to bring my vehicles to them.

You can get parts from lots of other sources at generally half the price of what BMW will sell them for. Or you can order just about anything you want from places like Bavauto.com or pelicanparts.com. Manchester has a lot of stuff as well if you don't mind the dicks working there.

There are several excellent BMW shops in town who could do the work you need for WAY less than the dealership will. And they'll probably do a better job and faster.