’99 E46 318i SE opinions?

My old man ran an E36 318 for 4 years from 110k on the clock to 140k when he switched to an early MY99 E46 318 auto and he's run that from the 70k on the clock when he got it to its current 120k and counting.

When I chopped from the 535 to the current 328 my viewpoint was that theres a lot around so you can be choosy and if any servicing ran out of the 'norm' then I'd walk away from it. E46s IIRC run on about 15000 miles between servicing but the OBC will adjust intervals down to how the car's driven but 30k for me would be too long and either a negotiation point or a walk-away point dependant on the rest of the car.

Couple of issues as standard with all e46s in front suspension bushes and wishbones, corroded radiator, split rad pipe, but really thats been about the extent of it (touch wood) apart from servicing and tyre and brake etc costs.

Being the auto its not the most exciting car in terms of straight line oooomph but its better than you'd expect and the 4cyl engines are very revvy.

If your budget will extend to a MY 2001 on 51 plate and onwards the 318s get the uprated 145bhp engine.

If you want more power you're better off getting a 323 or 328 straight off.I've had a couple of the 145 bhp units in E36 guise on the 318iS coups and loved those so for the same cash I'd keep my eyes open for a MY99 318 coup with the sports trim.

HTH.

Edited by Stone-IslandV8

Thanks for the input. I didn't get to test drive one yet but I will. I will be on the lookout for the windows working perfectly, the bushes (suspension?) - how could I test the balljoint?

One dealer did mention that there were problems with the back end of the car in that area (cant remember specifically) but they were fixed during service. Is this a bad omen?

I honestly prefer the look of this to the pre facelift models, although some of them are very nice. I have just two other questions:

If the car doesn't have the OBC, I heard I can add this functionality by replacing the indicator stalk. Is this true? Difficult? All I really want is the outside air temperature, which is a must on any car to me.

Is it possible to remap the 318i saloon, and if so, for what kind of performance increase?

Help/adivce is greatly appreciated.