Upon the initial approach the car did not look all that bad. There were a few nicks and dings. It did have 154,000 miles on it after all. The body panels were straight. The bumpers were fairly flush. No signs of anything terrible.
The gentleman selling the car had very little info in terms of the vehicle's maintenance. We popped the hood to have a look. It did have oil in it. The coolant looked decent didn't smell funny or look oily. The engine looked like an engine that should be in there. Stuff was fairly clean. Nothing out of place.
The front right tire was shot. A Kumho Esta AST, right on the verge of showing bands. I asked about this. He didn't have any idea. He said the two in the back were decent. They were a General Tire. The tread looked reasonable. So two Generals in the back, and two Kumho's up front. One of which was completely shot. New tires check.
After a twice over out front I proceeded to the interior. It didn't look terrible. The dash, door panels, and carpet was in good shape. It smelled funny, something fruity and smokey. The seats, ah the seats. These were in fact power sport seats. They were also heated. Oh yes. Powered, heated, sport seats. The leather on the driver's seat was worn and had a burn hole in it*. Passenger seat, pretty good indeed. The back seat looked at though it had never been sat in. All the leather needed a good cleaning and conditioning. The seat back adjustment was not working at all. The passenger side was stuck in constant gangster lean mode. The driver's was not as bad but I still felt like a Vin Diesel wannabe.
Missing mirror, I asked again about this. No details. He couldn't remember what happen. I'm just glad that she didn't clip the door during whatever happened. He did save the broken mirror. It was in the trunk. Glad to have that.
The stereo was not functional. He said that the battery had died. They put a new one in there just a few weeks earlier. This 328 and most BMWs have security stereos. If the power gets disconnected you have to enter a special code in order to activate the radio. Not a huge issue. It did have a 6 disc changer in the back. That's cool.
So, time for a test drive? Yes please. It started right up. So far so good. Once we got out to the "paved" road I opened her up just a bit. Felt powerful, it accelerated well. Wasn't smoking. There was a definite pull to the right. That Kumho that was worn to pieces up front was making a flop, flop noise. We drove for a decent distance then turned around.
While backing up the car felt more funny. It seemed like the motor was unsteady. Sort of a misfire or something. It was very minimal. Back in drive the car still felt good. The auto transmission shifted fine. Nice and crisp. With three peeps in the car it didn't miss a beat. No strange noises from the motor or trans. Just the sweet flop-flop of the worn Kumho.
We got back to where it was parked. I pulled it back into its spot. I smelled something like burning oil. When I got out the hood was smoking, not a huge amount but, enough to see. We popped the hood again. There was oil burning off the exhaust manifolds. :/ This was a little concerning. I discussed the causes for such with my buddy. Head gasket or valve cover gasket. Valve covers are a normally worn item on a 328i with these miles. This made me feel a bit better.
So down to the real business. Before we left to look at this car, I only took what I was going to offer max. Which of course was not quite what he was asking. The car had been on Craigslist for 39 days. The original ad posted for $500 more. My max give was going to be $250 less than what is was posted for now. Given the 0 maintenance records and issues with it in the current I felt that was fair.
I started $500 less than the current posting. He went +300, I countered with +250, my max give. A moment of pause, then, a head nod and a hand shake. A few moments later the title was being signed and it was mine. I was, almost, the official owner of my first BMW. Even in its auto glory. I still had to pay taxes to the state and get the official title in my name of course. Then it would be official, official.
It was time to head back home.
*Side note: Even after seeing that I never asked if the car had been smoked in. I didn't pick up on that fact until later.
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