New here. No TI (yet) but looking
 

Hello New guy here. I have not owned a 318ti or any e36 for that matter but am not new to BMW's either. I currently have an '85 325e with a hopped up 'i' swap that I was autocrossing until rust got bad. I have a clean e30 shell that is about to get the motor and drive train swapped into and a few parts e30's cars. I have also owned an '92 e32 740il and an '98 e39 528i. My winter beater is a 2002 VW Golf. My dad owned and raced a half dozen 2002's in the 70's and 80's. I grew up with him talking about the virtues BMW's and fun, light, practical, rwd cars. I've been wanting to find a 318ti for a couple years now. However, I havn't really be searching much until a TI purchase fell through a few weeks ago :( Thanks for having me! Looking forward to finding one and starting my next project! http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/...g3hmj1ndb7.jpg

welcome fellow E30 pilot!

I have a '90 325i that turned into a garage queen after getting the ti.

Good luck finding your ti!

Welcome and don't give up.. It takes awhile to find the right one.

Don't be afraid of hopping on a plane and driving the right car back home. It sounds like you and your dad have plenty of car savvy to determine the condition of a car by using pics and conversation with the seller. I have done that successfully on three occasions. Good luck and keep us up to date on your search. John

Thanks. Yeah I have been looking nation wide. Flights are super cheap right now. I have had a few that were close to what I am looking for but had bad Carfax's. I have been tempted on numerous occasions to ignore that and buy anyways but I've had bad experiences buying cars with reconstructed titles. I also have a limited budget so I am not looking for the cleanest or lowest mile example.

My current criteria:
- Must:
- - Manual
- - Less than 240k miles
- - No rust

- Ideally:
- - Sport seats
- - Heated seats
- - M bumpers
- - dark color interior
- - not a swapped car
- - '96-'99
- - $2,500 or less (I can go higher but am trying to keep it under that amount if possible)
- - Owned by BMW enthusiast

I am running nation wide craigslist searches, have alerts set on ebay, have joined several forums, checking BMWCCA classifieds regularly, checking the bimmer forums Panjo classifides. Am I missing any places? Where else can I look?

How do you set up a nationwide Craigslist search??

I was using searchtempast and running several searches that may result in finding a TI including: 318ti, BMW hatchback, BMW 4 cylinder 1995-1997, BMW 3 series 1995-1999, and a few others from time to time.

Ended up finding a car by putting out feelers on several east coast/New England Facebook groups. Someone sent me a link to a fresh cl add and I took a trip down to RI to check it out and it was pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

So did you end purchasing the vehicle ?

Yes I found one and brought it home tonight!

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media...f6mmknwmfy.jpg

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media...hhgdq7uexy.jpg

The good: A little over 200k miles but very clean on the outside. Interior is decent but the seats are a bit weathered. Armrest, roof rack, Remus exhaust and Bilstein suspension (one rear will need to be replaced). Came with 2 additional full sets of wheels.

The bad: Bad headliner but have a friend who has done several headliners. No parcel shelf but I can track one of those down. Needs a windshield as the current one is cracked.

If the ad is still active there are a few better photos of the car. http://providence.craigslist.org/cto/5420364809.html

Congratulations and welcome to the family. Very nice looking car, hellrot has always been one of my favorite colors.

Don't feel bad about the mileage. I saved mines from scraper... 263k on original m44. Not much known about previous Maitenance. Still running strong.

Very nice find! Looks great

Mines hellrot also.Hated at first but it continues to grow on me.
It appears your rims are off a z3?

Hellrot herr too! Welcome to the forum and very nice addition.

Thanks guys. Yeah I never thought I would get a red car but I really like this red on this car.

The wheels it came with where BMW style 18, style 35 (on the car) and style 42 2-piece (3-piece?) wheels. I like the style 35s that are on the car. I think ill probably sell the other ones. At first I thought the style 42's were gross but the more I look at photos of them online the more I like them and maybe they just need a refinishing.