Car valuation help please

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Mon 14 Nov 2005 22:55
Car valuation help please - burbs
Hi

I am not selling the car listed below, i am in the process of buying it, at least i want to buy it. I am asking for advice as i do not have a clue with regards to cars.

Basically i wanted to know if anybody has a clue on what the car is worth? Also has anybody got any experience of these cars, are they good cars etc etc.

Any help would be brilliant. The car is:

BMW 318i SE
4 Doors, Manual, Saloon, Petrol
1998 S Reg , 93,000 miles, Blue.
Clear lens kit, M-tec gearnob, M-tec steering wheel, Digital heating, Centre arm rest, Half leather interior, Air conditioning, Alloy wheels, Body kit, CD, CD Multichanger, Central locking, Child locks, Driver airbag, Electric mirrors, Electric windows, Power assisted steering, Sideskirts, Spoiler.

Thanks in advance
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Mon 14 Nov 2005 23:03
Car valuation help please - spikeyhead {p}
Have a look through autotrader, there'll be lots of similar stuff advertised with prices.

and also look through the car by car breakdown section of this site.
--
I read often, only post occasionally
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Mon 14 Nov 2005 23:10
Car valuation help please - Altea Ego
Anywhere around 4 grand depending on how tidy it is.

the tarted up look (skirts spoilers etc) kill its desirability.
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RF - currently 1 Renault short of a family
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Mon 14 Nov 2005 23:25
Car valuation help please - DavidHM
Stupid question possibly, but this was the changeover year so it could be either - is it an E36 or an E46?

An E36 looks like this:

tinyurl.com/bs576

And an E46 looks like this:

tinyurl.com/8c8tx


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Mon 14 Nov 2005 23:27
Car valuation help please - burbs
Hi

It is an E36 then
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Mon 14 Nov 2005 23:26
Car valuation help please - burbs
thanks both for your help, the car is coming from a trader with 12 months MOT, 8 months tax. It is going for £3995 and he will not accept anything less at all. He took it in part exchange for a Skyline.

I thought it was a bargain price myself, but as i say i dont really have a clue about cars. I have driven it and it is nice.
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Mon 14 Nov 2005 23:31
Car valuation help please - DavidHM
Since my last response, I've found the ad from AutoTrader.

I don't think it's especially cheap and it is still a 7 year old car with a 4 cylinder engine, but the skirts aren't particularly noticeable, it has the 140 bhp engine, and there are lower mileage, lower spec cars for a good few hundred less. However if you want a high spec 318i then I guess you could do worse than this one, especially as it's not quite in E46 money.

(Anyone else wants to find it - do a search on BMW 318i with gearnob as a keyword).
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Mon 14 Nov 2005 23:41
Car valuation help please - burbs
You did well to find that, didnt think i should link the autotrader listing incase everyone thought i was trying to sell it on here.

As you say it is 7 years old but all the cars i have seen of same spec and same sort of mileage have been over this price.
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Tue 15 Nov 2005 00:03
Car valuation help please - Aprilia
Really, if you don't know much about cars you should get this car checked over by RAC et al. There's lots of thrashed BM's about - especially with the smaller engine that gets worked very hard. If the owner was trading for a Skyline then he probably wasn't the local vicar.....
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Tue 15 Nov 2005 08:04
Car valuation help please - cheddar
IIRC 1998 318i saloons were not 140 bhp, rather 115, the coupe was 140 and the 320 6 cyl 150.
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Tue 15 Nov 2005 08:21
Car valuation help please - DavidHM
Cheddar, you're right, but... (and I should have made this clearer) I ran a reg check on the car at the RAC website to see if it might be a Japanese import, given the stock of the dealer selling it. (It's not, by the way, as far as I can tell).

It's actually a 318iS and they do have the 140 bhp engine. According to Parker's "01/02/1998 318iS Saloon (140 bhp) launched: 16" alloy wheels, air con, sports seats, sports suspension, colour coding, ASC+T traction control."
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Tue 15 Nov 2005 08:27
Car valuation help please - cheddar
Cheddar, you're right, but... (and I should have made this clearer)


OK so it is a South African built 318iS, a 318i saloon with the coupe's 16v engine, officialy imported as a run-out model of the E36 range, again IIRC most were metallic blue.
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Tue 15 Nov 2005 12:11
Car valuation help please - Mapmaker
>gearnob

;-o

RF> the tarted up look (skirts spoilers etc) kill its desirability.


DHM>but the skirts aren't particularly noticeable, it


Are the skirts a good thing or a bad thing for burbs?
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Tue 15 Nov 2005 18:30
Car valuation help please - burbs
Thank you all for your comments. I do not mind the sideskirts and spoiler etc, was actually looking for a done up beemer if im honest. I was just wondering, if on the whole the car was priced right. On first apperances i thought the car was very cheap coming from a dealer with everything it has. Obviously its not that much of a bargain is the general feeling i have got now.

thanks all
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