Best BMW Sedan (used) For $15K

[Richard]

Asking for a friend. Pro's and con's and TIA

[SteveJ]

If you wrench a lot on your own cars- a real clean E30.

If you wrench some on your own cars- a decent E36 (did I say that?)

If you change oil and brakes, but that's about it- maybe an E46.

If you don't wrench on cars, find out what some of the common fail items are on these cars and then price those jobs at you favorite mechanic. That way, you won't be suprised by a huge bill. As the cars get newer, there is less and less that the shadetree mechanic can do without special tools or a computer test program.

My choice, a clean E30.

[Jim_75Sahara]

I don't think I can go wrong with the $2500 '87 325e coupe I picked up in October. A friend of mine recently bought an '84 528e (5-speed) for $2800. A great deal and a very nice looking car too. (Mine lived most of its life in Calif. and my buddy's E28 is from GA. And remember, as Neil says: "Rust never sleeps.")

[dubois]

15k would buy a nice E39, last year was 2003. Best to buy it without the sports package.

We got our 530i in 2002, 145k on the clock, not a problem until last week, the radiator blew up and spill coolant on the alternator. The cooling system is basically a remove and replace after 100k miles on these cars. We couldn't get $10k for ours, so we are driving it to the ground. Still a very nice car, that drives the same as the day we picked it up in Munich.

Sport package tends to wear the tires quite fast - every 20k miles!

[Richard]

Thanks to all responders