1997 BMW 3 Series Reviews - Page 2 of 12

Cracked headlight from a stone chip.

Needed an extra key.

Neither are a fault of the car itself.

Have owned the car for a year now and nothing has gone wrong. Have serviced the car fairly regularly myself (twice a year/every 10000km).

For a 12 year old car it is amazing! Leather in great condition (no cracks what-so-ever). Fantastic smooth engine and great handling.

Excellent balance between performance and fuel economy in my opinion. On the high way she will sit on 7L/100km and around the city usually around 10L/100km.

I love the manual transmission in the car as it has a short gear stick and is very smooth. Very pleasant car to drive.

Only downfall so far for me has been slightly small legroom in the rear for adults for long distances, but that’s what the 5 series BMW is for I suppose!

Also a large stone chip cracked one of my headlights, which I would assume would have happened to most cars.

Major downfall relates to the dealer prices; $300 for a replacement key (not including remote function). $600 for a key with remote function. I tried avoiding the dealer, but the security is far too tight a top locksmith couldn’t even do it!

OVERALL: Fantastic car that I would easily buy without a doubt. Just do the usual used car checkups before purchasing a specific one!

Things that broke:

Reclining gear in driver's seat

Various exterior bulbs.

Things I replaced under maintenance:

Valve Cover Gasket

Spark Plugs

Shocks

Bushings (Suspension-related)

Clutch

Brake Rotors

Brake Pads

Serpentine Belt

Transmission Mounts

Center Support bearing

Guibo (Flex-Disc)

Other than the seats which were worn when I received the car, everything runs great.

1.5 years and 50000 miles after I bought it, this car still runs strong and there's no reason for it to break down. Maintenance costs aren't that bad either, but I'd only recommend a BMW if you're willing to work on the car yourself, which is pretty easy to do compared to some other cars. My car never has nor ever will go to a shop, unless it's body-related.

Performance-wise, my car out-performs most of my friends while comfortably and quietly commuting me through LA traffic and getting 27 mpg in return (35 city/65 hwy). Plus, with clear-cased indicators, silver paint, and Contour (E36 M3) rims, some people still think it's brand-new!

I'll move on to an E39 530i for my next daily, but as a car-crazed college student who can only afford one car and loves to drive hard, this was the best car for me to buy under $10k (got it for $6K).

Radiator neck failed at 89,000 miles (plastic- and designed to fail, as are the plastic impellers on the water-pump). Replaced radiator, all hoses, (all-metal) water pump, thermostat and all drive-belts for under $250 in parts (NOT purchased from Stealer.)

My time to do the replacements -as a novice at this- was about 3 hours start to finish.

Car appears to be designed for easy maintenance & repair.

Convertible roof has usual faults, due to 11 year old elastic straps in roof mechanism loosing elasticity. Paralleled original straps with rubber bicycle inner-tube and all is well for under $5 & 20 minutes time.

A/C cooling poorly in 2nd summer of ownership. Added 1/2 can of refrigerant; no need to evacuate system. Cost with hose I needed - $22.

Replaced all of the larger (5.25") speakers - 2 out of 4 were blown. Sounds good now.

This convertible is still a Head-turner.

It's a 2nd summer-only car, well... shall we say, over 65 degrees F car? It lives in the garage all winter.

Nice acceleration, wonderfully precise steering, excellent -if dusty- brakes.

Car came Standard with both ABS & Stability Control, a pair of features you won't find even today (2008) on many cars.

Feels as solid at 110 MPH as an average car at 50 MPH.

Happy with purchase, but watch out for the late 1990's versions, which have many teething problems.