Is a BMW E36 318is a decent car for a college student?

no buy an E30 318i
t. college student about to get one

>slow
>implying a civic or a focus would be any faster

>BMW repair costs
Nice meme spewing. E36's are dirt cheap and easy to maintain.

i drive an e39 an also part time worker + uni student in nz
all the boomers and cunts say ull regret buying a bmw because of the price of repairs and parts but its the fuckn same and somtimes cheaper
ive only spent $300 on my car in the past year so its pretty good

>slow as shit
>old enough to where 100% of the rubber in the car is dry rotted
>needs a $900 fuel pump

nah

Oh, goodness me, that was NZD?
As a fellow NZDfag, don't do it.
They're getting sought after and people are starting to catch on to the ricer tax for these things. Mx5's are going up in value, for crying out loud lol.

Is the base model 3 series E46 with M52 Eng a reliable car? I replaced the fuel pump, entire cooling system, rebuilt the DISA valve unit, and etc. But now I have a trans leak, had my boss look at it and believes it's the rear main seal. You guys know how much that be cause I dont think I can wrench it myself in my current environment/situation

Of the transmission? You;ll need to find out if it's an internal or external seal. Changed the rear main seal of my 5spd miata transmission yesterday, took 30 minutes including removing the muffler and driveshaft. It just pops out and you bash the new one in. If it's internal, prepare for 3+ hours labour charge.
If it's the engine main, then same thing. Watch some videos.

What would you recommend instead? I'm a massive eurofag and I'm pretty dead set on a Euro car. Especially an E36

Honestly, I'm just giving you advice that I should take myself. I went from bikes to a cheap fun car, (mx5) that's ended up costing me 2k in parts (maintenance) and 4k in upgrades. I'm using 80 treadwear tyres for crying out loud lol.

Like you, I've got really low overheads, but I know you uni cunts get a hard life so my advice would be to stomach the pride for a bit and get a shitty, cheap and reliable ride like a civic. Take any money you'd spend on ricing it and dump that shit straight into a savings.

It is, but you'll regret it when you try a I6 one and see how much better it is

The transmission output shaft seal is NEVER called a rear main seal. Please refrain from posting until you have lurked sufficiently (possibly in an automotive college)

Hi fellow NZ fag. Tbh I wouldn't go for an old BMW, get some Japanese shit box.

Golf.
Also, get out of my country. This is JDM territory.

are you part of ENNZ on Facebook by the way? I'd recommend it.

Yeah I am haha. Pretty sick group.

>hurrr age
A 4cyl E36 is just as old you stupid fuck, they only made them early and mid 90s

what rims are those?

Get an E36 with an I6 if possible

As a former E36 owner, you're dead wrong about maintenance. I bought mine in very good condition and yet I still had to repair
>the plastic fucking water pump
>a coolant leak that required the entire system to be replaced besides the radiator
>the cooling system later broke to shreds because it was all plastic
>intake manifold gaskets gave out around 160k miles
>transmission was beginning to fail when the car got hit at 200k miles
They're unreliable shitboxes. I loved it but you cannot own one unless you're wealthy.

The cooling system overhaul is $200 and easy as shit to replace
> rubber went bad at 160k miles
Ya don't say?

Fuck off

Your opinion is disregarded on this board you dirty little runt

>ENTIRE COOLING SYSTEM EXCEPT THE RADIATOR!!!
So the water pump and thermostat.
Wow so much work!
And failures in e36 cooling systems are from using the wrong coolant. There's nothing wrong with a plastic impeller if the coolant doesn't react with it.
I have a 200k mile M52 on the original water pump, my secret? Factory coolant.

>wrong coolant
>anything to do with the plastic fan shattering

You're genuinely retarded

The fan is weakened by incorrect coolant and expodes.
This is well documented.
Use factory coolants in cars with plastic parts.
No one cries that Volkswagen water pumps explode if you don't use G12.

a ten year old civic or corolla is literally faster

t. some poor faggot
oh no

>I'm a massive eurofag
>BMW 3er
No, Turkey is eurasia and not european.

Continues to think his US spec BMW worth

t. can't drive an automatic lexus straight without crashing

> Dinan supercharged M3 sub 10k
I'll buy 4 rn

> doesn't have a 400hp Lexus
> nor ever will
> cause hes some loser from Veeky Forums

hahahahaha now he's making up that his e36 is supercharged...embarrassing

My other E36 has a GT35R ;)

Should cost ~$23k to get a good example of that.

Yeah 15-30, depends on quite a bit

fucking this OP
I6's BMW's will become rare and wanted

As someone who just bought a 328i e36 as a first car and is kind of regretting it, this is making me feel a bit better.
Now I want to drive a 318i, just so I can compare them and see how much the difference is.

0-30 they're about the same, but above 60 the 4's are a box of angry bees. Absolutely gutless.

328 is good if manual, has M3 transmission
Why are you regretting your purchase?