1996 318ti w/ 80,000 miles
 

I just purchased a 318ti so I figured this forum is right for me.
it has front end damage that I'm currently working on but the engine and transmission work great. all I'm replacing is the front grill, hood, and left fender. it was a minor crash when the car drove into the rear of a truck. we got a hold of all the after-market parts for the car and will start working on it this week. we won't go over $2,000 in the hood, grill, lights, fender and a new paintjob for the car. so the final cost of the car will be just around $3,500 not bad for a '96 with only 80k miles.

it's a '96 318ti all stock from what I can tell
black exterior
grey cloth interior
5 speed manual transmission
1.9l 4cyl engine
15" 10 spoked bmw rims
stock exhaust
stock body kit (from what I can tell)
no window tint
all power options
alarm system
keyless entry (possiby custom installed)
radio and casset
speakers are unknown

I'm not sure on whether it's the 318ti active or sport
if I'm correct I know it's not the base because it has a sunroof but otherwise I'll need help identifying it

this is my first German car so I'll be sure to become an active member on this forum

i'll be updating this thread with pictures of the car as I go along this week and anything interesting or bad that I find out about the car, thanks for keeping this forum up and active!

Assuming the 15" wheels are stock, it's either a base or active.
if you have cruise, there is a good chance that it is an active.

Yeah, the Sport has 16" 5 spoke wheels and two tone seats. Black leather on the sides with cloth center inserts. Also, the Sport has the body colored M-Tech front and rear aprons and side skirts.

Grey cloth means either an Active or Base, but the 10 spoked rims points to Active. I think alarm + keyless entry means active too. Do the remotes have 2 buttons, the larger indented and concave and the smaller convex?

You have 10 speakers, as all 1996+ do as far as I know. They're made by Nokia most likely. The Radio (if stock) is made by Alpine.

the remote for the keyess entry hasn't been located so the alarm and entry have been disonnected for now until I can bring it into a place that specializes, and then we'll see if they can get a new remote or if we have to replace the whole system.

does anyone know if theres anywhere I can get aftermarket leather bucket seats for the driver/passenger, the people who sit in back can deal with cloth if they have to. electric controls built into the seat are my preference, those always seem the easiest to install.

not all 96+ have 10 speakers...

New Owner!!
 

I just bought a 96 318ti, it's not only my first German car, it's my very first car so you could call me a newbie... I don't mind, it's red-hot!!!!!
What should I look out for, it has 79 K miles on it and the engine sounds nice... my old man-a faithful affiliate of BM's thinks it's a neat little thing, he owns 2 cars, all BMW's, an 89 that he loves and a 2000 5 series that he adores.
what should I be on the lookout for in this my first year... besides excessive interest from young girls!!!!!

Wow... I think Kobe Bryant said the same thing, then got sued.

Haha, bad joke.

Come on guys.... what a warm welcome this is turning out to be....!
I mean... where's the fraternity? Oops.... I just spoke 'English'! 'fraternity?'-yeah right!

Welcome to the forum Kobe.
Doubleray, I think we can help you out. $2000 doesnt seem too unreasonable to fix your car. If you don't mind making a few aftermarket upgrades, you might be able to skate through this spending a little less. One thing I must suggest is stay the heck away from the dealer!!! Carbon fiber hoods generally sell on ebay from $300-$700 but keep in mind shipping to WI can be costly and I'm not sure that they'll hold up to the weather. Here's a deal Marleymon found a couple of weeks ago for regular steel hoods: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...ighlight=hoods $100 or http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...MakeTrack=true
you need to act fast on this though as this guy only had 4 of them. All of the parts you need will be the same as the e36 4 door models.
Fenders: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/92-93...80790054QQrdZ1 or http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/92-98...77139253QQrdZ1
Nose panel: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NOSE-...QQcmdZViewItem
Grille: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/92-96...QQcmdZViewItem
Headlights: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...MEWA:IT&ih=007
Clears:http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-E...QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/92-98...QQcmdZViewItemThis would leave you with about $1000-$1500 for a paint job. I just realized you mentioned that you already bought the parts after I looked all of this stuff up. Anyway, I think you have a good thing going and you're actually in a unique position to hook your car up since it sounds like you got a pretty good deal on it. It's cool that your dad's willing to help out. Make sure you have him take a good look at the mechanical side also. This is probably going to be just as much fun for him as well. Best of luck to you. Keep us updated and post pics as soon as things start coming together.

Hey welcome aboard. Your pops sounds like a true Bimmer fan. I just got my 318ti a few months ago. My first Bimmer, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

The OEM alarm can be reprogrammed to any e36 key fob ($30?) so much cheaper to keep it than upgrade.