Faults:

The car underwent a partial body refurbishment between October and December 2002 and both front wing panels were replaced, as well as the nose panel.

The front steering sub-frame was also replaced in 2002.

The cylinder head and head gasket were replaced at the 130,000-mile stage in September 2003.

All brake discs and pads were replaced in February 2005.

General Comments:

This twenty-two year old car with its distinctive shark-nose profile has become a classic in every way.

It has a serious amount of power and easily keeps up with many newer performance cars despite its own age.

The handling can be slightly untidy round corners, but gives you plenty of warning!

The luxurious interior has room to seat four people adequately, despite being a two-door coupe.

If used daily, a full tank of petrol will only last one week!

The original metric-sized tyres are very expensive and are usually priced at between £130 and £180 sterling per tyre.

Changing the oil and servicing the car every 3000 to 5000 miles is a good habit to acquire.

Faults:

The distributor and rotor arm has been replaced.

One of the tires blew out at 70mph.

Both front wings have been repaired/replaced.

General Comments:

The car is very solid feels very well built and is, in my opinion, the last BMW with shape. It's also very fast. I suppose it's relatively expensive to keep and run (especially when comparing to my previous car) but it gives me a lot of pleasure so them's the brakes.

Rust was a big problem, the two front wings are often weak points with these cars. I had them repaired/replaced at a great cost.

It uses metric tires which are insanely expensive.

The car is also deceptively long. It's as long as my friend's 4-door Jaguar. It sometimes feels unwieldy and cumbersome.

Apart from that, it looks gorgeous and it drives and handles beautifully.

Faults:

Head gasket blew at 105,000 miles. Repaired quickly and easily by specialist.

Clogged injector - had the whole lot ultrasonically cleaned which must have restored around 40 bhp! The best £100 I have ever spent.

Timing chain started rattling at 102,000 miles. Very expensive replacement needed!

General Comments:

This car looks stunning and with 286 bhp will seriously worry a lot of Porsches, Ferraris and other so-called supercars, whilst sounding every bit as good as any of them. The noise of this M Power 24 valve straight six as it snarls past 5,000 RPM will raise the neck hair of anyone with an ounce of soul. It is also significantly quicker than the standard Sierra Cosworth I had before.

There have been problems, but then no car of this age is going to be troublefree. Servicing it every 4,000 miles (regardless of the silly indicator), using a good independent for servicing and parts, and use of pattern parts for certain jobs keeps the costs and problems to a minimum. Running costs are quite heavy, as the car averages around 23 mpg with a mixture of town and motorway driving. But it's worth it.

Handling is OK. The car is very tail happy in the wet, and tyre choice is limited because of the metric sizes. Having said that, this car is not about back road blasts, but about burbling along gently winding A-roads, and frightening sports cars off the lights. Above all it is about looking and sounding drop dead gorgeous, and at that it really excels.

Faults:

Subframe mounts, Tie rods, Front engine mounts, Power steering pump and Air conditioning.

Not too bad for a 12 year old with 140K!

General Comments:

Most fun you can buy for three grand! The rare manual version is a lot quicker.

Uses far less fuel than you'd think but tyres are 175 quid a time.