Faults:

Original exhaust was on the car. This needed replacing as soon as I bought it. It hadn't lasted too bad though, 116000 miles! These are not cheap from BMW! I plan to replace it with a stainless steel pattern exhaust.

In-car headlight adjuster does not work. Have been told this is very hard to get working again properly. Luckily, there are manual adjusters with which to aim the headlights and doing it like this is an easy job.

The gear knob needed changing as it had somehow snapped. Cheap from main dealer!

General Comments:

I bought the car because it was a 4-door car with a big boot/trunk, but with a large engine and a reputation for being reliable. I have not been dissapointed with the performance of the car or its reliability (yet). It handles well enough considering it has soft suspension, but I would like it to be firmer. The driving position took a lot of getting used to at first as the pedals are quite offset to the right (righthand drive cars). The power steering makes the car very nice to drive, but makes it very very light at high speeds.

Considering its age it has lasted very well, it has virtually no rust to speak off on it. The red paint has started to pale a bit on one side, but I blame this on the fact that the car stood for 7-8 months prior to me purchasing it!

It eats motorways and isn't as thirsty as you would think at 70mph.

I have carried out all the basic servicing myself since I bought the car. I have changed the engine oil/filter, gearbox oil, differential oil, front brake pads, air filter, fuel filter, windscreen wipers and distributor rotor arm myself. All these parts were bought from my local main dealer and were certainly not as dear as I had originally thought!

The 325i needs specific tyres, V-rated radials, shopping around I managed to save £31 per tyre!

Faults:

Engine Shudder after two weeks of buying this from a local BMW dealership in Berkeley.

Spent $200 bucks to replace #4 injector, and get coolant flush.

One day later, the transmission fails.

Estimated repair cost $1200 -- $2000.

Dealership offered no assistance and was quite arrogant and rude.

General Comments:

Everyone tells me these are rock solid cars - but I've had little proof of that so far.

If you think you are buying a better quality car from a dealership - you're not. Car salesmen have experience lying to get a sale. Private sellers don't do it for a living.

Buying from a dealer? Don't take their word that they did anything - take the car to a non-related mechanic to verify condition.

The most troubling comment I heard from a mechanic - is that the auto trannie on these may not last past 160k miles.