 New member needs help buying Beemer!
Hello my name is Chris and Im another new member . Im joining up now prior to buying my dream car - my first BMW - which Ive been waiting to do since I could first drive (about 8 years ago)
Im in the market looking for a BMW 330 Coupe/Cabriolet E46 with a few gadgets on (dont like the new shape dare I say)
Im just looking for advice from experienced members on what to look out for when buying this car at anything up to five or six years old.
I went and test drove an '02 plate Red 330 Cabrio at a car place in Sidcup the other day and it was going for about £16k. It looked and sounded great and my only concern was the 88k miles on the clock which seemed to be a lot considering the asking price, but I thought what the heck, its a beemer, it should be solid!
When I took it out there were three of us in the car and I attempted a standing start 0-60. When I got into second gear the revs stayed high between gear changes and then when I re-applied throttle it just revved more but didnt accelerate. There were no lights flashing on the dash and the wheels were definitely not spinning. Then came the smell of clutch! And no I hadn't fried it by pressing the clutch early, it was a basic run of the mill 0-60, not flat out. My friend tried the same and the same thing happened.
I took the car back at the end of the test drive and told the garage sales manager that the clutch was going, he was adamant that it wasn't and took me out again to try and prove me wrong. As he was driving, there was no sign of the clutch slippage as before. He said the clutch wouldnt go until 140k...He tried to fob me off saying it was ther LSD. He didnt realise that I know full well what LSD does and it wouldn't have made the car do what it did!
I was sceptical and after speaking with a friend I was advised to walk.
Are there any owners of 330s that can tell me when they've changed their clutches/ when they are supposed to go etc?
Any other tips on what to look for on a 3-5 year old 330 coupe/convertable?
Apologies for the stupid length of this first post but I want to be well informed before the first purchase of what will hopefully be a long term relationship with my dream car.
Any help/reply will be greatly appreciated!
Cheers
Chris | 
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