Faults:

Wipers intermittently stop working.

Rust appearing on the tailgate.

Forever blowing glow plugs, but it could be due to the high miles, although engine component access is poor.

Broken clip in drivers electric window mechanism, easy repair for a good DIY'er.

Front side window rubbers keep getting trapped in electric windows, even after fitting new ones.

No major faults have occurred and I don't expect to see any, as otherwise it is a very reliable car, perhaps I'm to fussy.

General Comments:

Basic level of equipment is good, c/l, e/w, e/m, pas, es/r, ABS etc.

Build quality is solid inside and out, although the glove-box rattles (could be due to high miles again).

Quite poky for a 115bhp Diesel.

Very economic for a big Diesel engine.

You will often see 50mpg on a run, but only 20-25mpg round town due to heavy car. Expect 450-500'ish miles from a £40 tank.

What more can I say, it's a BMW, you won't be disappointed unless you buy a dog.

Faults:

Drivers electric window fell out of its guides, dropped into the door and shattered.

Paintwork marked ridiculously easily and looked very second hand after just a couple of years.

Interior quality not up to expected standard - quite a lot of rattles and squeaks, and dash looked cheap and nasty.

Drank fuel - apparently they all do, but 23 mpg for a car of this size and relatively modest performance?? Come on!

General Comments:

A pretty good car. Revvy and silky smooth 2.0 six sounds wonderful, and provides decent performance. Lacks torque low down though, and needs to be thrashed to get the best out of it. Perhaps this is why I found it unacceptably thirsty. Even on long motorway runs and staying under 80 mph, it would never better 29 mpg average, and you could knock 5-7 mpg off this around town. If the 320 is this thirsty, what is the 328 like??

Handling superb. A bit on the soft side, but beautifully balanced, and extremely well behaved for a 150 bhp rear drive car. Steering and gearbox both nicely weighted and felt good to use. The car could be provoked out of shape, especially with too much throttle in the wet, but it was quite difficult to get into trouble with unconsciously. BMW should be applauded for sticking with rear-drive as it is superior to front drive in all respects.

The car had a good driving position with clear instruments, but fiddly fuel computer and cheap looking, and - towards the end - creaky dash were disappointing in such an expensive car. Various minor build quality and trim niggles were also unacceptable in a car of this price, and seemed at odds with the first class mechanicals and the general quality of the engineering elsewhere in the car. I can't honestly say the interior quality was significantly better than my previous Peugeot 405.

A decent, fun to drive and, interior apart, beautifully engineered sports saloon though, and very affordable these days. My company recently sold off a clean 110,000 miler for just £3000 - for a second, I was actually tempted. But that fuel consumption with fuel prices nudging 80p a litre would be just too much for the performance on offer. 60 miles per £10 of fuel for just 150 bhp? No ta!