Possibly looking at a 99 318i right hand drive, I could use some opinions and input.

[XOIIO]

Hello all, so I'm currently looking at possibly getting a 99 328i, which is a jdm import, or at least it seems like it.

Unfortunately I don't have a whole lot of history on the vehicle, I have to wait a full week for the canada wide vin check to come through, but I know it's been in my province for about 3.5 years, previously owned by the PO's brother.

He has the service records from when he owned it but no info on when it was imported.

Now, the thing which is a tad suspect is that it has about 77k km on it, or a tad under 48k miles. They are asking 5900 CAD or 4600 ish usd.

I am slightly concerned that this mileage seems, well, pretty low for a car of this age, and that it's either been tampered (i am looking at it tomorrow morning so I'll look for the tamper indication, though I guess it can be worked around), or maybe it just sat a long ass time and may have dried up seals or stuff like that. I don't know, does this seem like an oddly low amount to you? Everything else around here in my price range (well, I'll be going into debt to get this but I need something different) is much higher mileage.

Also not sure if this is a good price or not, there's nothing with mileage quite this low available, this thing is kind of light on options, no sunroof (i know, boo hoo lol, I just had my eyes on a magnum with one before, woulda been cool to have one), cloth interior, but it is in really nice shape, though it could have just been cleaned up, if they did tamper with the mileage. I'm not sure if being a right hand drive from japan ads much value to the car, as I could probably find something, granted in worse shape with higher mileage, for 2-3k if I really wanted, though that would be out of province most likely.

I've been googling and have a rough idea for things to look out for though honestly these cars are so complicated compared to my current car that I'm bound to forget a fair bit, if anyone has some input that would be great, I do plan on getting an inspection done at a shop that works with imports, or at least cars that aren't all north american.

Here's the vin report, it's actually a little more detailed than what I got at a bmw dealership, not a huge amount though. https://www.etkbmw.com/bmw/EN/vin/decoder/FK87819/EN

So, aside from input on this particular car, and I guess on right handed variants in specific, I'm also curious what sort of 0-60 time I should see stock, and if there are any decent, though budget, turbo kits out there for when I pay off the debt. Getting it up to 300rwhp would be a nice boost I think, and would definitely be faster than my current car.

My biggest complaint about the car is the color, I was hoping to find something black, or a dark grey, I had been looking for a dodge magnum as I could use more room than my current car (an ex police crown vic), but my work pays gas since I travel a lot, and even though the v6 and v8 magnum get the same gas mileage essentially, all they care about is cylinder count and I don't know if I could stomach settling for a v6 that's slower than my car, even if they still look good.

This thing on the other hand, being rhd, has a little splash of personality that's making it more appealing. If everything goes well, and if it grows on me some more when I test drive it, I may be joining the bmw family.






I suppose this color is quite nice in it's own way, just not what I had in mind, or really even knew it was a color out there, I think I have to get used to it.

[XOIIO]

Well, unfortunately it's not registered so no test drive today, looks in pretty good shape considering the age, there is a scuff on the rear fender, also some decent rock chips on the front I'll have to get touch up paint for.


Bit of loose moulding on one door at least and the little cap is missing from one door handle but apparently a pre painted one has been ordered from BMW.


Sounds good, there's a slightly metallic rasp to the engine but that could just be what they sound like, nothing sounds super bad.


I'll have to plan that vehicle inspection and then they will register it for the day, also turns out that since we have that 15 year import limit it was imported from Japan sometime after 2014, with 27k km on it.




Also, a little later on after I got gas, went into a store to get some juice, came out and opened my car and I hesitated because I thought I should be getting in the other side. Looks like I adjust fast lol.