3 DEADLY MISTAKES You Never Want to Make When Buying a BMW 

There's nothing more expensive than a cheap used BMW! Everything you mentioned in the video is 100% true. You also have to be careful of rust if the car is from certain areas. On a lot of the older BMWs they have a really thick undercoating. It's so thick that your entire floor can be rusted out and the undercoating will hold it together as if it's solid.

Just bought a 99 323it with 265k on it. It was dealer maintained up until 200k and the guy I bought it from "did everything and maintained it perfectly" but it has no receipts for his ownership and sure enough he deferred almost all maintenance to me. However I knew what I was doing and knew what I was looking for and for $1000 it was worth the gamble since it ran perfect and had no engine lights and the interior was 9/10. I agree with everything you said, the deals are only to be had by mechanically inclined people with free time. However, I don't recommend a bmw to anyone I care about if I know they aren't willing to diy maintenance. I always recommend cheap Japanese or domestic, because labor and parts will be cheaper and they take to lack of maintenance better. Bmw needs someone to love it, it's not a Honda civic and if you don't stay on a proper maintenance schedule it will give you constant reminders that it isn't a Honda civic.

I have a 98 m3 and a 2000 328i. The 328 has over 230k miles and has been my most reliable ive ever owned. My e36 was the cheapest running example i could find and has needed a lot of work but the end result is totally worth it and your videos have helped me a bunch.

My 97 manual 318is has over 200k and runs great! good advice! When I bought mine about 5 yrs. ago I drove it and it seemed to ride well. I paid 4500.00 for it. I then brought it to a BMW specialist who said It needed a new brakes which I had done. Since then I have done all the things you mentioned: cooling system, oil leaks, pully's, tensor. Bilstein touring shocks, alternator, etc. All was done from 150k to over 200k. I have taken the car from NC to AZ 3 times, NC to FL about 10 times, NC to Montreal. The car never failed to get me to those places. Right you have to maintain them if you want them to last.

Not all heroes wear capes; you are saving people hundreds of dollars with these types of videos.

This video is just spot on my man. I made some of these mistakes with my first E36, absolutely paid the price later. But it really comes down to getting one that's well taken care of already, and just keeping up with maintenance. Sure, a BMW is no 90s Toyota, it won't just work without any expenses. But it doesn't have to be a ton of stress and money. I would say getting a water pump with aluminium impellers is a must though. Why go plastic when you can go safe.

When I bought my 99 e36 in 2018, it still had the original fuel filter in it! 74k miles! I literally had to perform every maintenance procedure on it. Luckily I paid a super low price. It has absolutely been worth every penny and hour spent.

N55 owner here at 155k engine is flawless doesnt even burn a drop of oil and i drive it very hard (and its been tuned for a couple of years now). Ive owned BMW’s for years and i must point out that particularly the inline 6 engines are BMW’s bread and butter so those are the ones ive always owned and recommended to new buyers.

Hey my dude love watching your videos, and the fact that your e36 is so clean just makes me want to get back into one. Anyway, big supporter here, wish much success and happiness in your life.

I recently purchased a stock 98 m3/4/5 in hellrot. Looking forward to your channel

Finishing university in two months and my stepdad just bought an e36, it’s gonna be my first project car and I’ve already learned a lot from your videos thanks a million btw, super excited to show it off after I’m done with the build

Love the e36 content! Keep up the good work

Great advice! I took the opportunity and upgraded all the cooling components on my e36.

Great video 🎉

Always a good day to wake up and see some new treats on the streets content

Used to have a 97’ 318ic as my first car. Sold it two years ago and just bought my 97’ 328i a few weeks ago! Loving every minute of it

Dude you seem like an awesome guy from your videos, I’ll be sure to send you a dm when I buy my e36 hopefully soon🤞

Great advise Gavin!

Your absolutely right about number 2 bro

Hey Gavin, yeah…my 1999 323i convertible is my first and only BMW and I made all the mistakes you pointed out. I still have the car but I have put a ton of money into it to bring it back from the dead. I wanted the car so bad, I ignored problems it had because I thought I could fix them myself. I bought it with absolutely no suspension under it. I mean, both front struts were blown, rear shocks were blown, a couple wheel bearings were bad, control arms and ball joints were shot and a host of other problems. They just kept driving it that way. Oh man, I made every rookie mistake in the books and I learned a very hard lesson. That was almost 7 years ago and I still have it and every summer we put anywhere between 5K and 8K on it just driving around Maine. The engine had the factory plugs in it when I finally changed them out last year at about 190K. This summer it will roll over the 200K mark. The engine and auto trans seem to be fine. Anyway, I love your videos and hope to someday own an E36 M3 convertible but they are very hard to find that are reasonably priced.

I’ve seen one with over 500k miles (800k km). A 330i e46 and still on the road.

Good advice! my M54B25 (01 325xi) is close to 200k mi... would be beyond that if I had not been working at home for a couple years! Lots of love... 1st owner (doctor in CT) sold to young enthusiast at a little under 100k, if I recall correctly... I think it was around 170k when I bought it back around 2014? He had brought the car to NC with college/job... I have redone the cooling system, all wearing suspension components (with poly and other upgrades), DISA valve rebuild (G.A.S.) as well as their CCV system which is a super cool oil separator that goes on top the oil filter housing and eliminates the failure points (google German Auto Solutions, if you don't know them)... lots of other new gaskets, etc... and it is a fun (slow) car! Cheers! I watched this a while back but did not get to commenting then!

I have a 1998 M3 sedan that I purchased new in June of that year. That first 4 years BMW did all the scheduled maintenance because it didn’t cost me anything. After the 4 years I maintained the car. The car now has 241874 miles on it and it is my daily driver. This M3 has been the most reliable automobile that I’ve ever owned and it is true that if you take good care the car it will last a long time. At 200000 miles I replaced the entire cooling system with aluminum parts because I figured I’ve been lucky that the plastic tanks hadn’t broken yet. The only other major thing that I’ve done is replace the transmission at 160000 miles because I literally wore out the synchronizers. So that being said, I love my M3 and will never sell it, unless someone offers me some really high price. In closing I just want to say I really enjoy your channel. Thanks!

Doesn't seem like 4 years since that car landed in Utah.....good on ya for all the things you have learned since that first day....

What happen when you have one with 400k?

Strut mount is also an issue on bmw. Good to buy a kit that reinforces it. I've seen one with the rear struts popping into the trunk. Coolant reservoir sucks replacing. I had such a hard time making it fit on an e46

All facts 💯

Im about to buy a 1996 e36 318i and im kinda scared but very hyped about it

Well here is my bmw story, the first one I purshased which was a bmw e36 had a subframe issue, it was cracked on the 4 frame bases, car was only 2k but I expend more than 3k in repairs, also had a bad guido but bc of my lack of knowlage I move it to the carage to fix it and broke my transmission. Then I bought an really nice looking e46 that had differet problems, the subframe was perfect of course that was the first thing I looked on, but it had cooling issues and was loosing coolant so i had to re do the whole cooling system.

I know you have headers but what is the setup of your full exhaust right now? IE mufflers, resonators, cats and piping size?

Aye bro I just wanted to reach out to you about an old car on your channel that I just bought, it’s a 2001 golf GTI with a K04 turbo

I own a E36 323i convertible with about 260.000 miles on the clock. I wish I could say it's still running fine, but I'm in the middle of restoring it and it's completely torn apart at the moment. The main reason is rust in one of the rocker panels, caused by a bodged repair done by one of the previous owners and is for me the trigger to do a full rebuild and use the opportunity to upgrade some parts, like getting a multi functional steeringwheel from a E38 to work. :) But in mine opinion it's a fable that a BMW isn't reliable. Most of the problems are caused by a lack of maintenance. Yes, the valve cover gasket will leak, as will the oil filter housing gasket, but any specialist will know this and replacing them is really easy. Both can be replaced within 30 minutes each. Same goes with the water pump. It's actually stated in maintenance documentation that the water pump needs to be replaced after some many miles and replacing is surprisingly easy (bleeding the system is the most difficult part of it). But often the car is then owned by the second owner, who cheaps out on maintenance.

Strut towers and subframe. especially on the e46 and e46 verts

My 01 E46 touring is almost at 205k and running strong!

I daily drive a 2002 325i manual that has never been to a dealership other than for recalls with 270,000 miles

I think you were surprised by the poll results regarding doing a PPI is mainly because; many of your viewers are the type that's "insane in the membrane" and most of us checked out the cars ourselves. We crawled under, poked and prodded the engine bay and even did the OBD scans ourselves. So, we (majority of your viewvers) don't consider that as an official "PPI". When we think of PPI, what comes to mind is sending the car in to a dealer or an independent BMW workshop for an "official" PPI. So yeah... that's why the poll results show that many of your viewers didn't do a "PPI". We're a different kind of crazy. The definition of PPI varies depending on who you speak to. 😁 Having said that, your advice is spot on and first time BMW buyer should definitely take note. ESPECIALLY the first point. Keep up the great work. I thoroughly enjoy your videos. 👌

2008 535i 71,000 miles 1 owner Florida car I be had it for a few months now it has 81,000 miles but it’s sitting because the serpentine belt snapped on the highway but honestly still the best deal in Ga . Wish I would have watched this video first but I should have just fixed the oil filter housing lid

Man like you said take care of your BMW and your BMW will take care of you. 2011 lci 328i 180500 still runs strong repeat strong best car ever owned. DIY everything. Thank's you tube

Where is the best place to get a ppi?

I feel like this is the case for buying all cars except for maybe Toyotas and Hondas. Since you get away with doing the bare minimum in maintenance and they still last for like 300k miles

i wanted to ask something, is taking an OBD 2 scanner with you and searching the problems the car has, a good way of negotiating the deal and lowering the price?

i saw a e36 with 480,000 kms once

Hi, how can i contact you about the business collaboration?

i own '95 E36 328 it has over 400k Km on it , stil runs like new

255k strong 2001 325ci and I still beat on it

Anyone else take notes when watching his videos 😂

In my country (Israel) this type of cars are kinda cheap about 8500$ for e46/e36 m3 in really good condition’s but perks and part repair are super expensive about 3500-5000$ for car kit and you can’t even put the whole kit because of stupid law + you can’t just do changes to your car without update the government about it. I really want to live in America just to build a crazy ass car that look like 1M$

Ｐｒⓞм??? ❤️