1997 BMW 3 Series 323i e36 review from Australia and New Zealand

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!