00/01/02 Coupe - 318 v 320

Hi guys,

I am considering buying a 318 or 320 Coupe in the next month or so and am looking for advice.

- What kinda price would I expect to pay for a Coupe in the UK? VRT?
- What is the mpg of a 320 v a 318?
- Any specific problems to look out for when buying?
- Any recommended places to look for a Coupe, e.g. UK BMW specialists, private sales, etc ?

(I am a panel beater by trade so I have no problem checking out cars myself)

Thanks

318CI

Having owned both, the 318 is better on juice (slightly) and the lack of power only becomes an issue if you're hooning around. It will also keep it's value better and cost less to insure, tax and run generally.
I'm not sensible so I went for a 325 next. In just about every way it's a better car than the 318 from a petrolheads perspective, the straight 6 is an amazing engine. In fact it was one of the principal reasons I went for it instead of a GTI. Although that'll be the next car!
In short forget the 318 and the 320, test drive a 325 and you'll be laughing.

Mrs D has a 318Ci 1.9 at the moment and its quite a pleasant car to run.  It doesn't have the grunt necessary for daring overtaking and such but its entirely adequate for most real world driving.  Economy on hers has averaged 38.1 (per obc) for the 6-7k miles she's put on it, in a mixture of a 30 mile round trip commute in to town and longer runs.  Her car is the big part of what pushed me to buy the 330.

A 320Ci should top 30 in the same circumstances but there really isn't a huge difference in consumption between one of these, a 325 or a 330 driven in a similar manner, the additional power and torque means that you don't have to work the car as hard to achieve the same outcome in performance terms.  Its actually one of the reasons I've liked the bigger engined BMW's, the economy penalty from running a powerful car is relatively minor by comparison to other models/brands (e.g. a Monedo ST220 is lighter, slower and heavier on fuel than a 330 petrol).

From a VRT perspective there is virtually no difference in VRT between a 318Ci and a 320Ci - for a moderate mileage '01 the difference is less than 100euro but a 320Ci will cost more inthe UK.

As an example, a '01 318Ci with approx 50k miles will retail for 8.5-9.5k stg depending on the dealer and spec.  A similar standard of 320Ci will probably be at least a grand (stg) more to buy.

There is no doubt that the sound of a 6 pot engine is addictive but don't let that put you off a 318Ci.  I'm not sure what your budget is, but if it stretches to a 2.0 318Ci then the case for the 4 pot could even be stronger because the 2.0 engine is significantly more powerful than the 1.9 (143bhp vs 118 iirc).