1999 BMW 3 Series 318i SE from UK and Ireland - Comments

OK I've just read all of the above, I've got an E30 tourer 318i, it's now 14 years old. Previous to this I've had lots of other cars, the longest I've ever owned a car before is 3 years, that was only because it was a classic triumph that I spent 2 years restoring! normal cars last 18 months to 2 years in my hands, I get bored easy. The 318 I've had coming up to 5 years, it's been fantastic. it looks dated! the red paint has faded to pink. it doesn't even have alloys, but it's put together so well. It's the nicest car I've ever had the pleasure of working on, but that's not to say I've had to do a lot to it. nothing more than routine maintenance till now. It just had it's first ever serious MOT failure!!! (last year it failed on a wiper blade!) but as I said it's 14 years old, the failure was a steering rack! I put a recon in for £175.00. It's just gone over 140k and I'm thinking about replacing it at last. I've decided to go for a 318 E36 after test driving nearly new renualts, fords, vaxhauls I'm happier to spend my money on an older QUALITY car because I know it's good for it. OK so an imprezza might be fast, if you can afford one that 2 years old at most and don't plan on keeping it more than 2 years then it might just be worth having one, but what state will it be in in 14 years? rusty? trim fallen off? interior tatty? electrical faults left right and centre? think about it. there's faster cars, there's sexier cars, but are there better cars... well not many! Sorry for going on, but at least I've got that off my chest!