Faults:

High mileage car so be ready...

Dash lights, front suspension, shocks and struts, wheel bearing, steering rack, brakes, heater fan works only on high speed, transmission, VANOS, engine seal was leaking, ignition coils.

General Comments:

Thanks to my mechanic who knows German cars like the back of his hands, this car was brought back to life. It wasn't cheap, but it was worth it.

I absolutely love this car. It is very reliable and goes like mad. I had it chipped, and installed a cold air intake to make it sound nice. Stock muffler has very nice tone under acceleration.

I drive the car very hard and it is my daily driver. I must say it takes a beating and then some. Since the initial repair, nothing has gone wrong and I believe it will stay this way.

The car has 300,000km on it! The engine is still smooth and has plenty of power! Unbelievable! I drove a friend's 2003 330CI and besides the power difference, they both drive pretty much the same; incredible! The car hasn't lost it's magic after all these years.

I particularly love this car for its looks. I mounted 17" deep dish rims which transformed the car completely; it looks lowered even with stock equivalent shocks and struts. A real chick magnet!

I can't stress enough how much I love this car. Take my word, stay away from the E46 and find yourself a real kick E36 and cherish it!

Just to sum up: I never knew what the big deal about BMW was until my friend would not shut up about them. I bought one and never looked back; money well spent. I will definitely buy another E36, and so SHOULD YOU!

Faults:

- Had to replace my WHOLE transmission and the clutch 6 months after I bought the car. Paid US$ 3000. The gear got stuck at 2nd while I was driving home, then I had to drive to the shop with 2nd gear all the way.

- ABS light appears most of the time, but don't know why it turns off sometimes.

- Still have to replace the valve cover gasket, because oil is leaking into the sparkplug holes. (found out while changing sparkplugs)

- Had to replace the factory alarm with the Clifford one, because the factory one drives me crazy.

- The rear plastic window on my convertible was totally "burned out", couldn't see anything, had to replace it. ($200 by myself)

- AND THEN after the plastic window was replaced, I realized that I have to change my whole convertible top, because the new window stretched so hard that the sewn part of the old top almost totally ripped open.

- The center fan vent is extremely hard to take out, I realized this after I accidently pour juice in there and tried to remove it to wash. Then I looked online and found out that I have to take out the whole stereo deck to do this. So I gave up on it and my car smells like orange now.

General Comments:

- If your convertible is getting old and the rear window is getting blurry or "burned", I suggest changing the whole cloth top instead of only changing the rear plastic window. I learned my lesson because the old cloth was too weak to hold the new plastic window.

- However, I really like the onboard computer that tells you everything that's happening to the car without having you to check thoroughly. The seats are fairly comfortable, but I expected a little more for a BMW.

- Handling is perfect, one of the best-handling car I've ever owned. German auto engineering is amazing. I drove my dad's 5 series, it handles just as good also. Totally different from driving any Japanese cars (don't take this offensively).

- Driving this car is very fun, girls check you out, guys get jealous. But you really need to spend time and money when things go wrong.