I am the happiest guy ever after taking possession of this beautiful thing. The previous owner was using his garage space for his Fortuner and his wife's Audi A1....she had been neglected and was standing for almost 2 years gathering dirt under a carport. I managed to rescue her for a ransom of R20,000, full knowing that due to the circumstances and her age that wouldn't be the only money I would be spending ( which turned out to be the case ). What was most important to me was that the engine and gearbox performed and sounded as they should, which I happily found to be the case with only 164000km on the clock at the time. I spent another R15,000 to fix all the issues that there were....all of them perfectly understandable for a 22 year old vehicle. List of work done:
1) Major service
2) New multi V-belt and aircon belt
3) New water pump
4) New MAF airflow intake pipe
5) New propshaft flex-disc ( guibo )
6) New throttle cable
7) New tyre
8) New sump gasket
9) Transmission - new filter, pan gasket, fluid change
All in all it cost me R35000 to own this car as she is now - and she is awesome. All the electronics and switches work perfectly including the original Bavaria C Professional RDS radio with 6 disc shuttle in the boot, cruise control, electric seats, sunroof...everything. The engine goes from purring like a kitten to roaring like a lion and pulls like a beast, especially in sport mode
. There are also no signs of shuddering under braking or the dreaded shimmy caused by suspension issues. There is however some more work to be done on the two bumpers which I would like to respray, especially the front bumper/spolier which has some nasty visible paint chipping and flaking. Other than that, I would say the paintwork is still very solid and would really benefit from a good buffing ( on my to-do list ) and the bodywork is dent free.
I know she isn't a 'new' BMW, but she's mine and also the first one I've owned. Even though the new models are more high tech and 'cooler' I wouldn't swap her in a million years because I fell in love with this shape all those years ago when they first launched.....and I count myself very fortunate to be able to now say I have one of my own :=):
PS I know the throwing stars are facing the wrong way on the back wheels and it looks weird....need to swap the two back wheels around, but I bought her like that. Like I said, she was neglected....they even dressed her funny!
1) Major service
2) New multi V-belt and aircon belt
3) New water pump
4) New MAF airflow intake pipe
5) New propshaft flex-disc ( guibo )
6) New throttle cable
7) New tyre
8) New sump gasket
9) Transmission - new filter, pan gasket, fluid change
All in all it cost me R35000 to own this car as she is now - and she is awesome. All the electronics and switches work perfectly including the original Bavaria C Professional RDS radio with 6 disc shuttle in the boot, cruise control, electric seats, sunroof...everything. The engine goes from purring like a kitten to roaring like a lion and pulls like a beast, especially in sport mode
. There are also no signs of shuddering under braking or the dreaded shimmy caused by suspension issues. There is however some more work to be done on the two bumpers which I would like to respray, especially the front bumper/spolier which has some nasty visible paint chipping and flaking. Other than that, I would say the paintwork is still very solid and would really benefit from a good buffing ( on my to-do list ) and the bodywork is dent free.I know she isn't a 'new' BMW, but she's mine and also the first one I've owned. Even though the new models are more high tech and 'cooler' I wouldn't swap her in a million years because I fell in love with this shape all those years ago when they first launched.....and I count myself very fortunate to be able to now say I have one of my own :=):
PS I know the throwing stars are facing the wrong way on the back wheels and it looks weird....need to swap the two back wheels around, but I bought her like that. Like I said, she was neglected....they even dressed her funny!
