anything to look out for inparticular? Malfunctions, inconspicuous wear, sinister tactics?

also, need some input... what would be a fair price for this car?
-Probably has high miles
-Assume the body is clean
-Completely stock

 

My cousin sold his for $8,500. Here's what the new owner received:

96 M3 Coupe 5 speed - Fair Condition
170,000 miles on stock original motor
M50 Intake Manifold
Shark (?) ECU Flash
Premium Package
Brand New Suspension
UUC Exhaust
Angle Eyes Headlights

I couldn't tell you what to expect to pay for a nicer example. He was hard on his. But I think this should help at least a little bit.

 

I am casually looking around for an E36 M3 also. In this area (Maryland), 1999 coupes in good condition with about 80k miles and little to no mods seem to be in the $14k range. This is ask price, so I would think a deal could be made for something in the $12 range. I had one back in '99 and for the first 25k miles before I had to sell it, it was flawless. One thing to look out for when you find one is the side bolsters on the seats. A lot of the cars I saw had a lot of wear and tear there.

 

got it... I have also heard fomr a friend about the windows coming off the track? Has anyone run into this problem?

 

id go with a 95 with obdI with low miles if i were planning on tuning it....otherwise its up for grabs....

 

main problematic areas on the e36 M3:

RSMS, RTABS, Cooling system at 60k miles (entire thing radiator, water pump, thermostat). Make sure the tranny sits in the center when not being used and there's no bulge in the center console. Also it's not a big issue but the OBC tends to burn out pixels so make sure at least most of the pixels works. Under 10k will buy you a pretty sub-par M3. 10-12k will get you a nice example with around 100k miles that's been well-cared for. I recently sold my mint '95 with 60k miles for 15k, another friend of mine just paid 8k for '95 w/ 130k miles so mileage really does affect the price.

Check out www.bimmerforums.com there's a sticky in the e36 m3 section with all this but this really is everything you'll need to consider. I owned my M3 for over 4 years it was such a perfect car in so many ways, among the most fun cars i've ever driven and still great to look at. They are the perfect track weapon it'll make even a novice driver look good because the handling is so neutral and forgiving. '95 M3s also do NOT have staggered wheel/tire setup unlike the '96-'99 models (these models also have the 3.2L engine with OBD II). Just because the '95 is OBDI doesn't really matter much anymore, 95s do tend to have a little more zip on the top end where as the 3.2L engines are just a tad more torquey. The 3.2L engine also has a slightly more aggressive gear ratio (3.23 v 3.15).

Hope that heps fewww I'm tired.

 

^great writeup....

 

+1, thanks

 

+2, thanks. I've been looking at these as well too. Mostly for my interest in playing with it and tracking it.

 

why OBDI?

 

rmain, thanks for the info! definately very helpful and I will check out the other forums for more info.

 

A few important things:

-check for cooling system problems (radiator/radiator neck, thermostat...). This is
notorious for having weak cooling systems.
-Bubbling on the door panels
-when putting the windows up, some mysteriously go down

 

np fellas glad to be of help.

 

The main benefit of OBDI is that you can actually buy a chip to swap for your current chip which will eliminate the top speed limiter, raise the redline, and increase throttle response a bit. You can do all this with OBDII but it'll be a few hundred more because you'll have to send your ECU out to a tuner and actually have it flashed and reprogrammed, and then sent back to you. OBDI also has more lax emissions but I've found it to not make a difference these days, with emissions requirements getting tighter and tighter if an OBDII car doesn't pass inspection, the OBDI car won't either.