2000 BMW 3 Series 328Ci 2.8L from North America

Summary:

Lemon service, mediocre car

Faults:

Back seats rattle.

Clutch sticks.

Moon roof is unpredictable.

Cheap materials. Poor craftsmanship.

Slow pickup. Slow car.

Thin paint. Thin leather.

General Comments:

BMW is incapable of customer service from the dealership to the headquarters.

Cheap service and a cheap car at a premium price.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 12th April, 2001

23rd Apr 2001, 01:02

I too have a 328ci and I believe this is the most reliable and best all round car I have ever owned. I think you have been a bit harsh in your comments!

18th Nov 2004, 01:34

I own a 328ci 1999 model and it will take some beating to own a better car in the future.

The only problem is the drivers door handle that seems to stick now and then.

29th Jul 2006, 07:53

BMW 328ci and you are calling it a slow car, when you have come from a Honda Accord?

Even if you have come from a Type-R, it would not be slow unless you had heavy 18inch alloys on your 328ci.

23rd Feb 2007, 12:04

I too just bought a 99 328ci and I am not impressed.

The ride is far too firm for Irish roads, even considering it is wearing 18" M3 alloys. I find the handling is not as entertaining as the E36, which gets better and better the harder you push it. It also has an annoying rattle coming from the rear somewhere, can't quite find it! I was also disappointed in the acceleration although the large wheels don't help. I'm going to replace it with the best E36 328i sport I can find!

13th Sep 2008, 17:44

Slow???

6th Sep 2009, 08:02

I own a 328i year 99 for about 16 months. Nice car, smooth engine, good ride, average reliability, not bad handling, and to be honest not that fast. Had a Nissan 200SX, about the same power, but lot faster. Good car the 328, but over rated.

2000 BMW 3 Series 328Ci from Luxembourg

Summary:

Well behaving but over-rated heavy car

Faults:

Radio and CD had a persistent cracking noise, dealer denied fault, acknowledged and changed the equipment after the 4th visit only. A pain.

Left front window makes a cracking noise when driving over not-perfect roads.

General Comments:

Fine, smooth engine, which would be great in a smaller car.

Fine handling (I bought it because of the rear wheel drive) for such a heavy car.

Car is about 300kg too heavy for this engine (must be tedious to drive the ones with smaller engines, maybe that's why they call the diesel models 'TDS'... ).

Build quality is about average, outclassed in this price range by i.e. Audi. Optional leather is average quality too.

Original equipment radio (top-of-the-line option) is an INSULT. A fifth of the price buys an equivalent piece of equipment at the local supermarket. They should make the car a bit more expensive if they do not earn enough instead of fooling the client.

Both for performance and comfort alone there are better options in the market. Although it is a good car for longer distances on the highway, the much advertised 'driving pleasure' is somewhere else.

As for dealer service, general stages are: deny fault - client must be source of problem - client can get lost. I experienced this both in Luxembourg and in Switzerland. The company must be desperate to save money after the Rover episode. Heavy cars may be accepted in the US target market, the European level of service certainly is not.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 21st January, 2001

2000 BMW 3 Series 316i 1.9 from Croatia

Summary:

Go for the 320iX

Faults:

Nothing yet.

General Comments:

My old E30 316i with only 100 HP (this one has 105 HP) had much better performance - probably due its weight (only 1080 kg). My hope is that the difference between 318i and 316i is only in the software and that I will upgrade it to 118 HP after the warranty expires.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 26th October, 2000

10th Mar 2001, 15:38

Yes, the only difference between the new generation 316 and 318 is the ECU and exhaust manifold. The engines are the same.

2nd Aug 2001, 06:12

The 318 is a 16v unit whereas the 316 is 8v.

I think a little more work may be required to increase the performance of the 316 I'm afraid.