New guy here, found '85 325e

[deadsquirrle]

Found a '85 325e on my local CL. Guy said it's pretty solid and his dd. Has 300K on body and engine was rebuilt 2-3 years ago.

I'm really interested in this being my first car (I'm 14), I love European imports and wrenching on anything with a motor.

The guy wants $1800 for the car. Think it's a fair price? (I'll get pics up soon)

I've read that the Getrag 260 is near bulletproof, the M20B27 is fairly easy to work on. How are maintenance costs? Is it easy enough for a new guy with some common mechanical sense to fix and replace small parts/repairs?

Thanks for putting up with me!

[Ivan413]

Hey how you doing man welcome to bimmerwerkz. I'm new here also and I'm 17 with a 95 318i. I learned pretty much by trial and error and that's pretty much how everyone learns but start off small like speakers/audio system in ur car because everyone likes to hear good quality music in there car and work ur way up like I did. Oh and p.s. don't jump into anything crazy without doing a lot of research on parts and installation and also nothing that will leave you without a car until its fixed by a mechanic until you get some experience under that belt lol.


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[deafdog]

Anything that runs well is worth the money. See if he'd take $1500 for it, all he can say is no. I have an 87 325 and it's the easiest car I've ever owned to work on. Parts aren't too expensive, especially with the availability of the internet. I changed my plugs in under 10 minutes and the alternator in under an hour. Make sure you (or someone) takes it for a test drive first. Good luck and welcome to the forum.

[deadsquirrle]

I was gonna try knock him down some. My uncle is a GM mechanic and has been for 25+ years. He probably doesn't know much about bmws but he will beable to tell if anything is wrong

[deafdog]

It's good to have a mechanic in the family, my dad, brother, and grandfather are all mechanics and I learned from them. There's a Bentley manual available on this site for download, I would suggest getting it, it's a great tool to have and there's more in that manual than a Haynes or Chilton will provide. I've learned a lot about my car from that manual. I'm really impressed with some of the BMW designs. Be warned that a car of that age will develop electrical issues, if it doesn't already have some. It's just a word of caution, I'm not trying to deter you from getting the car. Electrical is not an area I'm too up on, but working on my own car I have learned how to diagnose electrical problems and fix them with little to no money involved.

[deadsquirrle]

Electrical shouldn't be too big of a problem for me
That's what my uncle specializes in I think and my grandfather is an electrician

[deadsquirrle]

Seat is tore up. But I've been looking at Recaro seats anyways

[Ivan413]

Cars not bad for the money a good project/starter car that you can tinker with and learn on.


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