All four tyres needed replacing at 140000 miles.
Seats had started to show there age.
Smell of petrol was always coming into the cabin. Took it to two garages and both of them could not find any problem.
Power steering leak, £500 to replace.
This was my first BMW, and for damn sure, it was the best driving experience of my young life.
The 6 cylinder engine sure put a smile on my face every time I started the car, a big roar and then it quietend down ready for the road.
This is not a very powerful car, 0-60 in about 8.5 seconds. What it is, is a comfortable drivers car that will get you ready to move onto something more powerful. In other words, it's a good car to learn real driving.
The gear change is the best I have encountered so far, smooth, slick and very responsive.
The interior, even though this car was 13 years old still made it very inviting to drive long distances, unlike Mercedes from even as late as 98 have the most dull interior.
I am convinced with BMW, in my opinion, the best car manufacturer in the world that combines comfort with real drivers cars.
I drive a new shape Passat at the moment, I miss the BMW oooohhhh I really do.
I also had a BMW 320 SEi and have experienced two of the problems you mentioned.
1, A petrol smell that occasionally came into the cabin of the car. The dealer couldn't solve it. This could have been because the occurrence of it was intermittent. In the end my usual mechanic solved it, and I think he replaced/tightened the metal clips round pipes through which the petrol flows.
2, Power steering fluid leak which would have cost as much as the car is worth to have it fixed.
Saying that, my car had done over 100000 miles when these problems occurred!
Cheers
Sanjay.
Note: A Comments RSS Feed 
is available. New comments appear in the Members Area before the main site