3 year owner review of my BMW

[sayerbloke]

It was three years ago today that I picked up my '95 BMW 328i coupe.

In that time I've only actually covered about 10k miles in it because I don't do many miles a year.

It now has about 104k miles on the clock, which is less than average for a car of it's age and in fact, the majority of the engine has only done 33k since it's Nikasil-free replacement courtesy of BMW. Of course, the rest of the car has done the full mileage and a combination of it's age and mileage covered means that does show in a few ways.

So far in 2007, I've spent over £1400 on maintenance. Everything I've had done has had a positive impact on the car so I don't regret spending the money. It's never failed on me; it's all been pre-emptive stuff [though the way the Idle Control Valve caused it to occasionally cut out at traffic lights was a bit annoying]. I thought about selling it last year but couldn't find anything I'd rather have so decided to keep it and spend the money putting it right.

So how does it compare to when I bought it? Well, it tramlines less now but it doesn't feel quite as stable under braking on some surfaces. It doesn't feel as quick as it used to, but some of that may be my perception. It doesn't seem to put it's power down quite as well as it used to either. Fairly sure I know why that is, but it's not something that needs dealing with just yet because it's only a problem at full throttle.

No extra rattles; still just the one from the sunroof switchgear, which is quite impressive. Interior-wise, it's stood the test of time/mileage well. The gearlever and steering wheel shows some sign of use, but the seats and all other surfaces are unmarked. The driver's side window won't always go up in one go, but as the saying goes "They all do that, sir". It's a "feature" all the E36 coupes had and you get around it by winding it up a little bit at a time so the safety circuits don't interrupt.

Fuel economy has improved a bit recently. It's not as good as it was during the days of Optimax, but it's back up to approx. 21mpg for my mostly short journeys/around-town type driving. On the trip to York a few weeks back, it managed an average of 35mpg, which I was very happy with.

The day after the drive to York was a run across the Yorkshire Dales and into the Lake District. That involved a few "higher speed" runs and even in the damp conditions, the grip from the Yokohama tyres was very impressive. I've since had to replace the two rear tyres with Toyo Proxes so we'll see how they do. It handled that whole 650 mile trip very well actually.

What else... Well, I still love the way it looks. I stand by what I said when I bought it, which was that I consider the shape to be one of the best looking "everyday" cars ever made. Oh, for sure, it looks dated these days, but I'm not sure that's necessarily a bad thing. AirCon would be nice, but on all but the hottest days I get by happily enough using the basic ventilation controls available. I still enjoy driving it, taking it through the gears, etc. Sounds good, too.

Will I still have it in another three years? Highly unlikely. However, there's a reasonable chance I'll still have it come summer next year. It will depend what happens in my own life between now and then, what happens to the secondhand value of certain other cars, how much I'd be happy to spend... things like that. Basically, despite occasionally browing Autotrader, I'm content with what I have and this is still the car for me

Thanks for reading

[sayerbloke]

Some pictures are HERE.

For reference, the six month review I did can be found HERE

[Snail]

10k in 3 years???

I've done 3x that in the last year in mine!!

[sayerbloke]

Yep; 4k in this last year, 3k per year in the two prior to that.

[Oli]

Good write up. They do drive well the old 328's, and sound amazing when giving it some