wally509

I pretty much gave up when they went from E to F

As rare as any other 318is... I did a quick google and 41,234 were made worldwide in 1990 and 1991, about 16k of those were U.S. spec. 

first off, who the hell cuts the bulkhead at the rear seats?! its structural!
oh yeah, that's right, homer glen guy would. he thinks he knows everything about e30s
that car is way too crusty for 7k. the sunroof delete is taped on. 

i think every italian designer has 'nude women' somewhere in their design inspiration

And now he wants $8000? seems like a stretch lol.
 
As a buyer on BaT your credit card immediately at the close of the auction gets charged the buyers commission of 5% of the sale.  So the only reason not to go through with it is when you get there to pick the car up it's not as described and it would be better to take the loss on the commission and walk away.  So $312 for that auction.  If the car was crusty I would say forget 300$.
There is another V70 R for sale along side mine, the guy didn't even vacuum it out good and his response to questions about mechanical problems is "my mechanic didn't say I should do that".  People like that are unrealistic and just trying to jump on the bandwagon.  It has to be a nice car with good information to bring top dollar.  And then actually be the car that was represented.  After the auction it is totally between the seller/buyer to complete the sale, the money doesn't go through BaT.
 

I have a lot of those!  I'm much more likely to work with a customer or give them the benefit of the doubt if they are calm and professional when talking to me.  I'm working with a customer right now that had purchased a set of Cooper tires about a month ago and feel that the tires "don't fit right" because the tire doesn't cover the rim.  They believed that their last tires were closer to the hubcap and covered the rim.  I've spent weeks talking to these people trying to find a solution for them that fit's their cosmetic want while also trying to convince them that the way the tires fit is indeed how they are supposed to fit.  I've taken pictures of other cars with steelies and hubcaps to show them the gap that exists between the hubcap and tire is normal and reached out to other professionals for their opinions on the pictures of the tires on the wheels.  I've spent weeks building trust with these people... Weeks.  The customer sent an email to Cooper when they started talking to me and Cooper JUST responded to them saying the tires don't appear to be seated on the beads... Cooper has ruined weeks of trust that I've built up with these customers by making an ill informed comment.  Cooper is also refusing to stand behind their "diagnosis" and will not reimburse me or the customer for the time spent reseating the tires.  Thankfully the customer sounds like they still trust me as I continue to try and find the right solution for them.  If this customer was a jerk I would have sent them packing but because they've approached the situation calmly I am putting in the time to try and make it right for them.
That's pretty standard in dealers.  A poor CSI score can impact someones pay depending on how the pay structure is set up for that team.  If you want to get a dealers attention then give them a poor CSI score.  We utilize a CSI but don't receive many back.  We spend A LOT of time responding to online complaints and reviews and a lot of them just make me shake my head.  We had one within the last few weeks that stated we took 2.5 hours to do a rotation/tire check on their vehicle.  Well, when my Service Manager looked into it the vehicle was dropped off an hour before the appointment, the customer left and came back 1.5 hours after the appointment and the vehicle had been completed before they showed up.  When the Service Manager reached out to the customer and asked why she wrote the complaint she stated that she wasn't inconvenienced by the situation at all and had in fact left with someone so she wouldn't have to wait in the waiting room.  She wrote the complaint because she saw other bad reviews and thought she should add one... I wish I could say this was abnormal.  When customers are confronted about these reviews they act like they had no idea someone would actually read them.  Keyboard warriors waste hours of my time every week.
Dude, don't even get me started on JD Power!  Quickly, the Initial Quality award that GM LOVES to tout awards a manufacturer for making a vehicle with few issues WITHIN THE FIRST 90 DAYS OF OWNERSHIP.  They claim that within the first 90 days of ownership you can determine a vehicles long term reliability.  Well, according to a report I saw recently of vehicles most likely to still be on the road after 15 years roughly ZERO of the winners from 2003 were on the list.  Making a car that won't break for 90 days of ownership is like making a meal that won't give you diarrhea until 36 hours after you've eaten it instead of 24 hours.  Congratulations, you still made shit.  JD Power is a marketing company.  They sell the right to tell people about your car getting an award.  It's in their benefit to have as many vehicles as possible get an award.

I commend you for not hitting the guy with something along the lines of:
"Wait a minute, you get God on the line, and instead of asking what the meaning of life is or how we got here or how big the universe is...YOU ASK HIM ABOUT YOUR FUCKING TIRES?!?"

I commend you for not hitting the guy with something along the lines of:
"Wait a minute, you get God on the line, and instead of asking what the meaning of life is or how we got here or how big the universe is...YOU ASK HIM ABOUT YOUR FUCKING TIRES?!?"

I commend you for not hitting the guy with something along the lines of:
"Wait a minute, you get God on the line, and instead of asking what the meaning of life is or how we got here or how big the universe is...YOU ASK HIM ABOUT YOUR FUCKING TIRES?!?"

I commend you for not hitting the guy with something along the lines of:
"Wait a minute, you get God on the line, and instead of asking what the meaning of life is or how we got here or how big the universe is...YOU ASK HIM ABOUT YOUR FUCKING TIRES?!?"

This ^
I bought an STS in my early 30's and drove Caddys for.....well, let me know if you want me to tell you how this plays out.  I don't want to spoil anything for you.

Part deux
2 days after we serviced said customers vehicle and she tells me shes going to take it to the dealer I receive a call on my cell phone from her.  She tells me that she took it to the dealer and they told her the light was on because she had 3 dead sensors so she wanted to know what I was going to do for her.  Thankfully I took a screenshot of the sensor readings and sent this to her before her appointment with the dealer so I asked her if she showed this to them.  She said yes and that they said our tool wouldn't work because only the OEM tool can scan these.  That's a lie.  I explain to her how untrue that is but she's still adamant that we need to pay to fix this.  I told her that i'm happy to set up some time to have the Service Manager look at it again but as far as diagnosing it goes we've already determined that the sensors are not bad and it's impossible that I would get a reading with 4 individual ID's if the sensors were bad.  She says that the dealer told her it was common for "other" places to break sensors when they install tires and this is probably what happened.  I reminded her that the light was on when it came in, all four sensors read before we started working on it AND she watched me scan all four sensors multiple times AFTER we installed the tires and they all read.  Logic need not apply in this situation, she still believes it's our fault.  I told her that I'd be happy to put 3 new sensors in but when that doesn't turn the light off i'd like know to what level of responsibility she'll hold the dealer to for misdiagnosing the issue and how she plans on compensating us for our time spent following their misdiagnosis.  She hadn't thought about this and went silent.  She agreed that in that scenario she didn't know what she would do but knew that she didn't want to pay for this mistake.  After more discussion I told her that i'd pay for half of her deductible for her warranty to have the dealer fix this issue but I wanted to see the invoice before I paid anything.  A couple days go by and she emails me the invoice... the last page of the invoice with a total.  I asked her for the rest of the invoice with the detailed line items.  She sent this over and I quickly realized why she didn't want to send this to me... *gasp* the dealer misdiagnosed the issue! *gasp*  It stated on the invoice that they replaced 3 sensors and AFTER replacement found that the light turned off BUT they also found that a TPMS initiator had failed.  
Here's a tech lesson for everyone.  In some vehicles there is a TPMS sensor in each wheel.  This communicates to an initiator in each wheel well which communicates to the control unit that deciphers the inputs from the sensors and spits it out to your dash.  These sensors do not typically become active until the vehicle is in motion.  So, you may be asking "well if the dealer replaced the sensors and the light turned off then there MUST have been bad sensors AND a failed initiator.  What a coincidence!"  And to that I say no.  What happened was they replaced the sensors, cleared the TPMS codes and did a TPMS relearn which turned the light off.  In most cases if there is an active TPMS code you cannot complete a relearn without clearing them.  So, the tech probably thought very highly of himself until he actually took it for a drive and saw the light pop back on because the sensors communicated to the initiators and the system saw that one initiator wasn't working.  He thought, "Oh shit.  Well fuck it, she's only paying her $350 deductible anyways and we're already over that amount so might as well say it needed both!".  This is wrong.  This is immoral.  This gives the auto repair industry a bad name.
So, after further reading I also saw that the dealer says they replaced 3 sensors but in the line items they only have 2 sensors on the invoice.  Maybe the advisor screwed up, maybe they only put 2 in, who know's.  Either way, it's another discrepancy to prove their incompetence.  I take it a step further to call that dealer AND a second and third dealer of the same OEM to ask if the initiator will cause the light to be on.  The dealer she took it to said "I don't know what that is let me ask a tech.... My tech has never heard of a TPMS initiator."  The other two say "Yes, it will cause the light to be on even after replacing sensors but not until the vehicle is driven."  I point all of this out to the customer who chooses to ignore all of the facts I just laid out and ask when she can pick up her check.  Now, by this time I'm angry and want to tell her to go pound sand and rip the dealer apart for ripping her off and slandering my name.  I calm down and think about how much more time i'm going to spend arguing with this person and how much higher my blood pressure will rise.  I had the store cut her a check for $175 and told them this was "go away" money.  Win some, lose some.  This was a moral victory for me but still hurts thinking about it.

emotion is a pretty key concept here. At the end of the day, the people who love something are always going to care more and be opinionated about it. So those of us who truly love cars are attached to the concept of what we love. 
I enjoy driving my E46 more than my E92, but I daily something from 2018. Pretty much in line with what you're saying. We all want to drive the older stuff but many people aren't dailying those things. I also think not having something like an older M3 as a daily, and instead as a weekend car, makes it more special. Same way that bringing a car out of storage feels in spring time. People can say whatever they want - the fact is everyone becomes numb to a certain degree to their routine. Cars are no different - if you drive a classic BMW every day, it doesn't feel as special. Intellectually you know what you're driving all the time, and as an enthusiast you are like "cool" and have some level of appreciation but it's not quite the same as leaving your modern daily for something special to you at the end of the week, or whatever.

Not disagreeing with you but I'm a sarcastic smart-ass and can't help myself...not sure if it warranted a "repeat" because I don't think it's really relevant to this discussion.  If VW/Audi said they were phasing out IC engines in 2226, then maybe.  The ability to extract it from the ground and/or refine it into something burnable by the current form of internal combustion engines being (effectively) legislated out of existence is, however, a definite concern as that can happen at just about any time in the future.
So we're all going to drive electric cars, and that electricity will be generated by burning coal.  Sounds like a plan...

The seller re-wrote the ad based on what was said here on the forum:
https://appleton.craigslist.org/cto/d/2011-bmw-528i/6765554534.html
My previous comment about the car being a "deferred maintenance nightmare" was inappropriate, I apologized to the seller for that.  That came out because I consider the water pump/thermostat, coil packs and oil filter housing gasket on N52's to be "maintenance" and not "repairs" since pretty much ALL of them will need to be done at some point.  Whoever buys this car will have those to look forward to, more than likely sooner rather than later.  Just because those haven't been done, doesn't mean it's a bad car or that the seller wasn't properly maintaining it.

What a steal 😕
" The removal tool for the center caps I cannot find available anywhere. "
Apparently didn't try googling "bbs center cap tool"
 

It was a little nerve racking the first time I drove the 911 under there.  It's close enough that I think if the two cars weren't lowered, it might not make it.
The other thing to think about is one has to raise the car on top an inch or so to take the load off the locks so they retract and will let the car down.  There's a story out there about a guy with a Viper that raised the car up, the locks latched, then he didn't have enough clearance to raise it to unlock the latches and the car was trapped up there.  Never heard how he got it down, if the old "let the air out of the tires" was enough.

For guys considering a lift, one other comment is my garage only has a 9' ceiling.  Maybe all 4 post lifts are like this but the detent slots in the bars the car hangs from are 6" apart and they have 6" of thread at the top you have full adjustability.  In order to stack the e21 over the 911, I had to move the bars a couple inches.  It's a tight fit.  There's 4-5" to the ceiling and about the same from the apex of the roof of the 911 to the drip trays.
Later,
Wally

I fear that in general these tech advancements are basically the end of the DIYer as we know it. When I look at the S4 under the hood, or when I pulled the wheels off to put my winter setup on and I took one look at the suspension and barfed, all I can think of is "dear god how would i ever work on this?" - the complexity involved in removing stuff for replacement on newer cars is becoming absurd. Combined with the amount of electronics to deal with that are all intertwined, it scares the shit out of me in terms of maintenance costs. 10 years from now, a new car will be completely foreign to me I think. As cars move further and further towards being 100% appliance as opposed to "driver engagement required" products, more and more will become internalized and black-boxed. The tech is impressive and I love my S4 - honestly it is so much fun to bomb around in that I don't even care that it's autotragic. But I still wouldn't want to touch the thing outside of warranty. 
The F30 is trash to me and I also know people with them who have had engines grenade below 60k. IMO it's a reflection of why BMW has lost me as a customer for anything new and why I am currently in an Audi. There's way too much bad shit being posted about F30s online for such a highly mass-produced bread and butter car. I get S65 and S85s blowing up with rod bearings 10 years ago because M cars are performance oriented which carries some risks, and are lower production. A basic beta bitch 328 that they produced hundreds of thousands of should not be so unreliable and it goes to show how badly the bean counters have taken over. 

Considering kbb is mid/upper 8s and people usually pay under Kelly's blue book for a vehicle that isnt special aka M car or such. Also this being only 2wd and can pick these up at dealer auctions for 6k with close to same mileage I'd say that's your issue.

Me either, I was going to give up on BMW after this one (meaning the e92) because I typically run my cars to 200k+ and don't really want to dick with turbo and DI systems.  I also don't have a problem with RWD, with good snows never had a problem.  Hmmm...wonder if I could get anything for the e92, getting tired of the MT.

For guys considering a lift, one other comment is my garage only has a 9' ceiling.  Maybe all 4 post lifts are like this but the detent slots in the bars the car hangs from are 6" apart and they have 6" of thread at the top you have full adjustability.  In order to stack the e21 over the 911, I had to move the bars a couple inches.  It's a tight fit.  There's 4-5" to the ceiling and about the same from the apex of the roof of the 911 to the drip trays.
Later,
Wally

I have one of these:
https://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Atlas-Garage-Pro-8-000
Been using it for about 8 years and haven't had any issues.  I've never used any other brands so I really have nothing to compare it to.  When it was at the warehouse it would regularly trip the breaker but here at the house it never has and my garage only has a 15 amp circuit.  The heaviest thing I've ever lifted with it here is the e92.

He says "Car had 230,xxx miles on it. Ran and drove perfectly, It was changed around 120k miles at Zimbrick BMW"
 
Does that mean it ran and drove perfectly until Zimbrick changed that around 120k miles?

39k seems high to me for that with the mileage and paint issues. This price is the going rate on BaT auctions if you look at the graph plots IF the car doesn't need a significant amount of paint work. Cars in this price range usually have only very minor spots of clearcoat issues at worst. For the convenience of local, this would be a pretty cool car if you could get it for like 35k. Still a lot but you probably won't ever lose money on it.