Faults:

When I bought the car, I had to replace the front brakes. The car was very cheap, so it was no problem at all.

After one year, the exhaust was rusting hardly so I had to replace it. The new exhaust only lasted for 2 years, so I had to replace it again. Now it's rusting again... I don't know why the car has such problems with the exhaust. Other owners of such cars don't have these rusting problems.

2 years ago the car broke down while I was driving on a crowded highway; the fuel pump had died after 23 years of duty.

In middle of 2012, the service lamps went wrong. I assume the batteries in the instrument panel are down.

This cars needs relatively much service: Oil change after 10.000km / spark plugs & air filter after 20.000km / drive belt after 45.000km.

General Comments:

This car is fun to drive and its suspension is very comfortable. You can't compare it with a Cadillac, but it's quite nice. The modern cars are way too hard. The seats are also comfortable.

The engine is not built to win races, but it fits to the car and you can drive smoothly down the road. If you are in a hurry, you hit the gas and the kickdown will do its job. The gas mileage is okay for a car of its age. My car takes 9L/100km.

Unfortunately the inner space of the car is not very roomy. People over 1,90m will not find a good seat in the BMW.

I use the car as a daily driver and I won't miss it. It's comfortable, fast, stylish and I can depend on it. These days the E30 becomes more and more rare, so that people come to me to talk about the car.

Faults:

Nothing serious so far.

USB MP3 stick fails to initialize from time to time - either have to replug it or next driving it works again.

Gearshift reminder indicator on dashboard disappeared - need to figure out if controlled via iDrive or visit the dealer.

General Comments:

The car is fun to drive with good performance and fuel economy. I am really impressed by the diesel engine, which puts out 177hp and serious torque from 2 liters, while keeping consumption on average 6 l/100 km. Even urban driving hardly goes over 6.5 l/100. On German autobahns 200 km/h is easily maintainable and ride comfort is not degraded.

I'm really fond of adaptive xenon high beams - the car switches high beams on automatically when you drive outside cities and when there's no other drivers around to bother. The precision this system works is amazing.

On the other end are the automatic windscreen wipers. Their behaviour could be described as random, unpredictable and funny. Sometimes they wait till I cannot see any more in the rain, other times they continue scratching over dry glass for 1-2 minutes.

Run flats have their pros and cons. The car by design has no space in the trunk to put the spare tire. I recently drove about 1500 km through Europe, and the tire pressure monitor warned me for losing pressure. I stopped at a gas station and checked the tires, one of them was just below, so I pumped it, and in the next few days drove another 250 km until the next warning. Then after a bit more serious investigation I found there was a nail stuck. Replacing both rear tires 225/45/17 is painful for your pocket, but at least you have some confidence you won't have a serious accident if it happens on the motorway.

The trunk space is not the greatest that you would expect, but considering the rear wheel arches reside almost fully in the trunk it is good enough. Also the front wheels are on the very front of the car and this gives great stability curving.