Hey guys, almost bought a M/3/4/5 this weekend but had to hold back to make sure I did my due diligence properly. Was hanging out at a BMW specialty shop this weekend and the owner said he had a friend trying to sell a Estoril Blue M/3/4/5 with 72k miles for 3.5k and a rebuilt title. I quickly set up a meeting with the guy and the car was clean just needed a bunch of TLC and probably a full paint restoration. That isn’t what made me hesitant to though. Upon further digging I think this car might be victim to an odometer rollback as the mileage amount from my vin check didn’t check out. Per Autocheck it has the car listed at 84k miles back in 2009! Let me know what you guys think, what is the deal with this potential lemon. Told the mechanic and he said the engine looked decent and he was just judging the engine on his opinion not even considering miles. I’m on the fence about inheriting a potential money pit.
Last edited by jestein007; 05-26-2020 at 10:45 PM.
Lots of ‘red flags’ here.
Salvage Title, what caused that? Is it missing matching OE VIN stickers on hood, fenders, trunk lid, and doors?
DOT R stickers? No VIN/DOT R stickers.
Panel gaps, edges of doors/hood/trunk and upper edge of front/rear bumper gaps look OK?.
Odometer roll-back? Documentation of cluster replacement? Red tamper light illuminated?
Friend of mechanic selling? Known trusted mechanic?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Probably has more like 200k miles.
Tamper light can be reset.
Attn. NEWBIES: Use the search feature, 98% has already been discussed.
Click the search button, select "search single content type", select the "e36 sub forum" specifically, try the "search titles" then try the "search entire posts".
Wow... for 3.5K I would buy that in a heart beat. I wouldn't care about the rollback, I would clean it up and have a fun toy without the worry of keeping it mint. I wish we had those kinds of deals in Canada!
Check for mold and flooding damage
Bookmarks