[tracer bullet]

Originally Posted by jackson2005

Might’ve cracked a great deal let me know what you guys think:

Seems nice. If you're serious about it 1) Drive it and 2) Take it to a dealer or at least a specialized shop to give it a thorough inspection.

[jackson2005]

Originally Posted by tracer bullet

Seems nice. If you're serious about it 1) Drive it and 2) Take it to a dealer or at least a specialized shop to give it a thorough inspection.

Yep I plan on going to view in the coming days and will definitely take it to a mechanic to get it looked at first before buying. Only thing I’m iffy about is its being “sold on behalf” and the seller seems to not really know too much but says its all stock except for the exhaust but its “staged” but doesnt know what stage 🤣

[tturedraider]

Originally Posted by jackson2005

Might’ve cracked a great deal let me know what you guys think:

https://www.facebook.com/share/1F1WN6TR9c/

its got a custom valved exhaust and sounds pretty good too, 72k miles and hes bumped price down from 11.3k USD to 9k USD

I see no point in spending additional money on another four cylinder!! If you’re not moving to an inline six then keep what you have. I see the 135i hatch is sold. Too bad. You should have moved quickly on it.

[afadeev]

Originally Posted by jackson2005

I’m a little confused guys as from what I’ve researched the N55 is a decently reliable engine so why do so many people want to steer clear of them unless they have a larger budget

Because you research was too shallow.
Very few folks maintain N54/55 properly (courtesy of BMW's lazy maintenance schedules), and the damage accomulates to become the out-of-warranty problem for 2nd/3rd owners.

Consider this:

And this:

Originally Posted by X5MnM3comp

Reliability is irrelevant when you apply it to any car with more than 60k miles owned by who knows what type of owner(s) previously. Every engine is reliable otherwise they wont sell the cars. Reliability heavily depends on how owners maintain and do to the car.

Indeed.
And with BMW's N2x / N5x family of turbo engines, neglect is almost guarnateed if one follows BMW maintenance schedule.

I had looked into getting a used 1/2/3 series for my teenager, quickly uncovered lists full of top-10 problems with both N2x and N5x turbo engines, and ruled those out.
No way would I want to own one of them, even though I can DIY upto and including engine rebuilds, and with a reasonably unlimited budget.
It's just not worth the bother.

HTH,
a

[jackson2005]

Originally Posted by tturedraider

I see no point in spending additional money on another four cylinder!! If you’re not moving to an inline six then keep what you have. I see the 135i hatch is sold. Too bad. You should have moved quickly on it.

Realising now it might have been a good idea to add the fact that my younger brother is starting university in a month and getting a real job, and at the moment he just takes my car when he wants to go see his friends or whatever so a key part in me wanting a new car is that I will be selling my current to my parents who will let my brother use it for himself, also would like to add fuel prices are insane here, I converted what we pay to USD/gallon and its around 6.2USD/gallon for 95 which is what the car would be fueled up on and I just think the n55 is going to be too fuel consuming for me to afford considering the fact that the n55 will use around 25-35% more fuel than the 328i.

[pbonsalb]

Buy the 128i or if you need more space the 328i. Great engine, last of the NA BMWs, and significantly more power than you have now.

[jackson2005]

Okay so went to checkout the 328i and sent him a disgusting low offer when I got home BUT he accepted it… I’m picking it up tomorrow for 7.3k USD if that ain’t a steal I dont know what is, will post pics and vids when I’ve got it

[tracer bullet]

Nice, congrats! Did you get it inspected first? If not, at least do it afterwards. You'll probably have a big list of things to take care of. If you can DIY most of them it'll be a good way to learn about the car itself. Fix the mechanical stuff as needed (brakes, struts, any rods with bushings on them, etc.) as needed and then move on to detailing it inside and out.

[jackson2005]

Originally Posted by tracer bullet

Nice, congrats! Did you get it inspected first? If not, at least do it afterwards. You'll probably have a big list of things to take care of. If you can DIY most of them it'll be a good way to learn about the car itself. Fix the mechanical stuff as needed (brakes, struts, any rods with bushings on them, etc.) as needed and then move on to detailing it inside and out.

Will be booking it in for a full service at BMW ASAP so glad I managed to get it this cheap gives me some money in my back pocket for anything that may go wrong (timing chain from what I’ve heard is the most common issue) but on test drive it drove beautifully and sounded great, it had been staged 1’d which I found out looking at dyno papers could upload those if anyone’s interested in having a look. Picking the car up in a couple hours and I cant’t wait!

[jackson2005]

Absolute beauty heres a vid I just took of it: https://youtube.com/shorts/JcFv56zIj...JUZAk0Uq9RrPoj

Rear bumper was rewrapped a different colour as shop didn’t have the same white but thats alright I plan on getting rid of the wrap as its got that lovely dark grey paint undernearth, lucky me he left all his cords and plushie toys in the back window 😂

Will be booking into BMW for a full service tomorrow then in the pretty near future will be getting a aftermarket down pipe and charge pipe 100%