brian
11-29-2001, 06:30 PM
ok, i was flipping through the classifeids of the local paper and came across this ad: "96 318ti 5spd black 47k sport package $9975" so i thought to myself 'wow, that's pretty cheap!' so i call on it, and of course the guy has a 'story' about the car (it's a dealer)... so he says that he got the car from the original owner who was driving it to ohio or iowa or somewhere and it quit running... so the area he was in the nearest dealer was a gm dealer... so he takes it there, they start to take the engine apart... he said the top end was removed when he got it... well, the gm dealer couldn't figure out the problem... so this dealer buys the car with basically a blown motor... so he orders a '97 motor, and is having it put in the car now... along with a new radiator... he said that the radiator was what his mechanic found wrong with the car... so it's getting a 97 engine, new radiator, new clutch, and other mechanical stuff... i'm very leary of buying a car that's got such a 'story' if you know what i mean. he said that he can provide the vin off of the 97 motor that will be in the car, and paperwork for all of the things that are being replaced on the car now. i would also have it checked out by a bmw mechanic other than his guy. any advice? other than buyer beware, and if it sounds too good to be true then it must be... http://www.happytogether.com/318ti/forum/smile.gif i'd just hate to get rid of my reliable '98 honda civic (current car) and get into a bmw (which i've always wanted) and then have to do a lot of repairs on it because it was a basket case! anyone in the kansas city area ever dealt with Autobahn Motors? i figure/would probably not get the car unless there was a warrenty of some kind on all of the work... wether it be 100k or 5 years or something like that... what would be reasonable in terms of such a warrenty?