Looking to buy 2001 330i, help!

[teal854t]

Hi
I'm looking to buy 2001 330i auto. I used to own 77 320i for about 10 years. I always love BMWs. I like to know what kind of problems are common with 330s. How about auto tranny, that's what I worry most. Since my budget is about 2001s, milage will be around 100k. I own 95 volvo 850T and it has 225k miles until I t-bone a truck last week with it (it was the other guy's fault, he didn't stop at the stop sign). What about gas milage? I'm a DIY guy.
Thanks

 

[William330]

100K is a lot of miles, here's one near LA with 85,000 miles for $12K (before negotiations):

http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp;?tracktype=usedcc&searchType=21&pageNumber=0&numResultsPerPage=50&largeNumResultsPerPage=0&sortorder=ascending&sortfield=PRICE+ascending%2cPRICE+descending&certifiedOnly=false&criteria=K-|E-|M-_5_|D-_3636_|N-N|R-30|I-1|P-PRICE+ascending%2cPRICE+descending|Q-ascending|Z-90067&aff=national&paId=136303689&recnum=10&leadExists=true


Generally, getting a car with very high miles doesn't save money.

Gas mileage is about 26 MPG for my 330 (model year 2003) using 93 octane fuel.

The things that have given me troubles:

1) The sunroof shade --- poorly designed plastic clips broke 3 times, and I babied the shade beyond what can be deemed reasonable, yet they still broke 3 times. That's a $1,000 dealer visit, but it broke under warranty each time, and I haven't touched the shade in 2 years. A waste of $1,200 to pay for a poorly-designed sunroof that doesn't work.

2) The felt/rubber door surrounds on the interior fell off. But on a 7 year old vehicle, if they haven't fallen off yet, they're probably stuck on for good. So you'll probably be OK with this issue.

3) Never had a transmission issue. The Sport Mode in the auto transmission is AWESOME.


In the end, those issues haven't been a huge deal, and I still LOVE the vehicle to death.

 

[Big Daddy]

Well said William, well said!

 

[William330]

Thanks Big Daddy!

The cars.com link above broke for some reason, but cars.com is a fantastic used car site where MANY dealers post cars, and many ads include a link to a free CarFax report for the car they're selling.

That's where I found my X3!