2004 e46 330Ci - Sale Advice

[DarrylvanNiekerk]

Good morning all,

A friend of mine is wanting to sell her late brother's car but has no idea what sort of price to ask or where it is best to advertise. I thought it would be best to ask advice here first or even advertise here for a private sale instead of going any other route.

Please can I ask for some opinions on this or if anyone knows of a Fanatic that might be interested - car is based in Fourways.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Tinuva]

Well it has a few issues you want to fix and sort out probably before the sale.

The good:
It looks clean and like it was garaged which is excellent.

The bad:
1. Coolant level light. You want to sort that out a.s.a.p. to prevent engine overheating which you can imagine will tank your selling price.
Take it to a shop that can do a pressure test. Insist on a pressure test after filled up, so that they can find the leak and quote you. It may end up costing you(or her) quite a bit of money, but its far far cheaper than having the engine overheat.
2. Window washer water level. Top it up, you literally just need to add water. Then check if there are leaks. Probable leak is at the oring for the pipe going to the headlight washer jets. They go for a few cents or at most R1 or R2. Take out the current ring, go to any place selling general maintenance items, buy the same sized oring. I bought 2 sizes to get the correct one that stopped leaking on mine. There is no BMW specific part for this oring, they will sell you a while jet for over a R1000.

Those 2 items alone, will fix the 2 lights on the dash. Then I would only do a service to make sure oils and stuff is new and then you will be able to fetch a decent price for the car. These can easily go for between R100-R120k but if the engine go I suspect you will get closer to R40-50k because the cosmetics look good and it will need an engine swap.

 

[DarrylvanNiekerk]

Well it has a few issues you want to fix and sort out probably before the sale.

The good:
It looks clean and like it was garaged which is excellent.

The bad:
1. Coolant level light. You want to sort that out a.s.a.p. to prevent engine overheating which you can imagine will tank your selling price.
Take it to a shop that can do a pressure test. Insist on a pressure test after filled up, so that they can find the leak and quote you. It may end up costing you(or her) quite a bit of money, but its far far cheaper than having the engine overheat.
2. Window washer water level. Top it up, you literally just need to add water. Then check if there are leaks. Probable leak is at the oring for the pipe going to the headlight washer jets. They go for a few cents or at most R1 or R2. Take out the current ring, go to any place selling general maintenance items, buy the same sized oring. I bought 2 sizes to get the correct one that stopped leaking on mine. There is no BMW specific part for this oring, they will sell you a while jet for over a R1000.

Those 2 items alone, will fix the 2 lights on the dash. Then I would only do a service to make sure oils and stuff is new and then you will be able to fetch a decent price for the car. These can easily go for between R100-R120k but if the engine go I suspect you will get closer to R40-50k because the cosmetics look good and it will need an engine swap.

Thank you so much for the advice, I will pass it on.

She mentioned there seems to be a leak when the roof is closed, where should she go to get this addressed?

 

[Tinuva]

Thank you so much for the advice, I will pass it on.

She mentioned there seems to be a leak when the roof is closed, where should she go to get this addressed?

I would mention that as part of the sale and leave it up to the buyer to decide if they want to fix it. It doesn't affect the most important working of the car.

Sent from my Mi 9T using Tapatalk

Edit

Basically it will cost you a lot more than it will give you back in the selling price.

 

[DarrylvanNiekerk]

I would mention that as part of the sale and leave it up to the buyer to decide if they want to fix it. It doesn't affect the most important working of the car.

Sent from my Mi 9T using Tapatalk

Edit

Basically it will cost you a lot more than it will give you back in the selling price.

Thank you, most appreciated. 👍🏻