Faults:

The silencer on the exhaust needed replaced - got a replica part sourced and fitted for £60. Was quoted £220 to get this done with a BMW part.

General Comments:

This is an extremely well engineered car. I bought it for £1000 with 54k and a FSH. The body work is remarkable (it was a company car with a single owner until he retired last year) and has the condition of a 5 year old car.

This is one of the first e36 models released onto the market. It has a 6 cylinder engine and does 150bhp. The performance is excellent and the car loves doing long journeys on the motorway.

Unfortunately the car is heavy... both in weight and on fuel. It weighs around 2 tons and according to Parkers guide does 27mpg. I average about 200 miles from 30 litres of regular unleaded.

Acceleration is painfully slow, and you can feel fuel flooding into the engine, and yet not doing much! The car is too heavy to move fast. But once it gets to 60, it will really get moving.

The interior has a bland shade of grey (must be an early 90s thing). Although kept in great condition, the grey interior looks a little tired. Ideally I would like to get it removed and get leather instead.

All in all a great car for the price! Excellent reliability and looks great. After owning a beaten up Almera for 3 years, this has been a breath of fresh air. Worth every penny (even with the cost of fuel).

If you find one with low mileage - get it and convert it to LPG!

Faults:

Oil was leaking out of it very slowly.

The car in cold weather does not idle right; the revs just drop away from start and you need to manually rev it, so as not to stall. You don't look to cool stalling at the first set of lights in winter every time.

Handbrake only worked on back right wheel; made for interesting handbrake turns.

Handbrake then made such a squeaking noise at low speeds, it was a real head turner. The hand brake then just gave up altogether; it is now used to hold my mobile phone. The car has to be held in gear everywhere.

Each arch seems to be just rust.

None of the window cleaner spray hit the front window, but they do hit the back window which helps.

The air con seems to make the car warmer; I assume all the gas has ran out. Now the heater itself no longer heats the car.

The radiator had air in it, and the car would overheat. There is a release knob, which I used when the car was still warm. Enjoyed burning my face off at the side of the road.

General Comments:

The car was bought for very little (700 pounds), and was a cheap round around while at university.

The steering in the car is very good nicely weighted. It has power steering so you can park it. It is a very long car, and from normally dealing with hatchbacks, it takes a few times to get used to the back end, being an extra few foot out the window.

The engine is a mere 1991cc, but it is 6 cylinders, and has one of the best noises I have heard from a car. It's only 150bhp, and I find that is only if you thrash it about. Sitting in traffic, you will need to drop a gear to get any motion.

In saying that, performance is certainly better than most saloons. It can easily keep up with any TDI I have come across. 0-60 takes 9.1, but it feels lively past 4000rpm. On the motorway the car is very strong in pulling. It is easy to nip into the fast lane and not feel another car behind you.

I find the gearing a bit funny. It seems to be geared quite high. You will be well past 3000rpm in motorway traffic in 5th. Also it redlines before it tops out around 135mph.

Handling is not bad either; the 320i has disc brakes all around, which I feel it needs as it's heavy enough. The 318i doesn't have disc brakes all around, and I would not like to have to brake hard in it. The back end can get a bit out of line if you try. But normally you do have to be really trying.

It will roar past most boy racers with ease. I am afraid a VTR Saxo simply was unable to pull to a lose your licence speed of 135mph down the M1. But I am sure he would have laughed his head off to realise I did an impressive and ground breaking 9 mpg.

The car is quite accurate and handling certainly a strong point to this car. In the wet I have had the tail out all too many times; I frankly would not drive in the wet, it really will throw the back end out when you really are not paying attention. This has caught me out a couple of times, out of a roundabout, I nicely had to apply a good bit of counter steer to recover the car, which is not too hard to do in this model. But I am sure other motorists would have assumed I was on the Top Gear test track.

One downside to the car is it seems to have not realized the fuel crisis. I have never seen it past 30mpg; even watching the mpg needle it has never graced past 30mpg, but going down a large hill it would sometimes hit 40mpg. Around town you can expect low twenties or high teens if you really thrash it about. My dads 318ci has a 2000cc, and can easy do 40mpg, yet makes the same bhp. I wonder where the fuel goes? The road?

Tax is 180 quid, and frankly I find that dear, but lucky, as if it was to conform to modern standards, I am sure the Labour government would be making a small fortune.

The car is a fantastic car to drive and is a lot of fun to throw about. The RWD makes handling on the limit a joy, and the steering makes you hit corners nicely.

There are some small problems with the car, but they're not worth fixing. I spent little money getting some of the problems fixed.

Insurance for me is not too bad; 500 a year. For 22 that's pretty decent.

It hopefully will go for a few more years, then I think it will have to be scrapped.

I think next will be an M3 from the same family of 3 series.