Head gasket failed at about 180000 miles, and the head itself was cracked and needed replacing.
Alternator, battery and drive belts needed replacing.
Brake rotors, lines, master cylinder and one caliper (along with the pads of course) needed replacing.
Replaced all four tires.
Dash is cracked and the driver's side seat is worn, and the heater doesn't work (not sure why it doesn't work).
Looking at that list the car would seem to be a disaster, but that's hardly the case. The previous owner seems to have spent nary a penny in the upkeep of the car other than oil changes. Judging by the condition of the brake lines, for instance, I don't think the owner ever bothered to flush the brake fluid as BMW recommends. Beyond that the car has never once broken down and left me stranded.
The engine itself is embarrassingly easy to work on. Before owning this car I had never done anything more complicated than replace an alternator, yet with the help of a repair manual and various web sites it took me only about eight hours total to complete the head gasket repair (the only labor charge was from a machine shop to assemble the new head). Replacing the brake system took about six hours, mostly because of the master cylinder (which gave me more trouble than I expected). Doing the work myself I've saved thousands in labor costs. My only advice is get good tools and use good quality German built parts, otherwise you're wasting your time.
The car handles very nicely, and I've found that treating the automatic transmission like a manual (starting in first gear and shifting) you can get descent acceleration, and it cruises nicely at 100mph. But, being the smaller 2.7 liter engine you won't get too much power, the trade off is that it's a good California car since it passes our draconian smog tests easily.
If you can find one that's been taken care of snatch it up, otherwise you'll be shelling out money for repairs. My complaint would be with first owners who spend $30000 or $40000 on a car then act as if they never have to maintain it. But having put in the time and money to repair it I feel as if this car will run for a few hundred thousand more miles.
Nice. Those cars are harder to find in good condition as time passes on. To me, they are one of the better bargains you can find in a BMW. Simple to work on, yet it's a Bimmer, and a good highway car that will last for a while with proper maintenance and will even put up with bad maintenance for a while. I wouldn't mind buying one if I found one in good condition.
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