Should I buy?

[FireMonkeysHead]

I'm looking at a 1998 318i BMW with 151,000 miles on it. It has a brand new radiator and four tires. A friend of mine has been trying to get rid of it for a while for $5,000 because he now has a boat and Exploder and doesn't want 2 vehicles. I could reasonably talk him down to $4,000 at best imo.

He has owned it for 2 years and took good care of it to the best of my knowledge. He's kind of into it so I suspect he knew what he was doing. Unfortunately, I don't know who previously owned it or how well they took care of it.

I would be using it mostly to get to and from work which is under 20 miles away city driving. I'm an avid bicyclist so when it's nice out I would bike instead.

What do you think? Should I buy? What other information should I get from him? What parts should I be concerned about replacing? And how much would that cost? How many miles could I reasonably expect to get out of it?

Thanks!

[ncktuley1]

you could easily expect another 100,000 miles out of it under routine maintenance. the m42's last forever. now the one thing you would want to ask him is if the profile gasket has ever been replaced. If it hasn't, run. If it has, ask when. Because that is a very common problem with the m42 where they would go out about 80,000 miles into one. But if you want to get it replaced, it would cost quite a bit. Not for the gasket its self but the actual work because it takes ALOT of work to get it out. like a couple thousand in work to get it out. but other than that, they are great cars. Easily 31 mpg highway, and they're pretty fun cars to have too. so i would defiantly consider buying it if you can get it down to $4,000.
Good luck!

[Lord Vader]

As an E36 its Definitley worth it. As a 318, it's up to you. Are you interested in performance? Do you like to mod the engine to make it faster? If so, don't get a 318. You will probably find it way slower then you want it. Just my opinion.