New to BMW and Forum

[Culprit83]

Hello,
I am new to the forum and thought I would introduce myself. This is my first BMW, 1998 328i coupe. I never had an interest in them nor imports in general. I took this as a trade for my Chevy truck in search for a gas saver. The car needed a few fixes; broken door handle, two bad seat recliner gears, faulty wiring on trunk lid, and removing goofy stuff off the car the kid who had it put on, it is now a decent looking vehicle. While working on it I was very impressed on how straight forward this car is to work on and how inexpensive replacement parts are as to what I assumed. My expectations were unreasonably expensive parts and complicated wiring and electrical, but this car has proved me wrong. I now have an interest in BMW and may attend a local meet-N-greet, if one comes up soon. I wouldn't mind meeting the BMW community.

[josephpeterka]

I'm also new to the forums, though I'm not new to owning a BMW. Congratulations on your purchase, as you said, your car is very decent looking, and I say that in the most positive way possible. I've seen E36's that are beat to s*** and yours doesn't look like that at all.

Anyways, the problems you described obviously aren't major issues, and are mostly cosmetic, with the exception of the trunk. I'm not surprised that the parts you mentioned are relatively cheap, but just wait until you start having to do some more heavy duty work. My dad always told me BMW stands for 'bust my wallet' and I've found that to be true. I hope you don't have the same experience that I do in terms of putting money into the car. However, I do hope that you begin to share the appreciation of BMW engineering like most of us BMW owners.