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Old 05-15-2021, 10:16 PM
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Default Would you buy a ‘06 325xi?

Looking at an E90 325xi auto with 60K miles, supposedly well-maintained. first year of production, for less than $9K. Before I get seriously interested, and I usually stay away from early production years, what’s the reliability of this year vs. later E46’s (which I’ve owned) or later E9X.
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Old 05-15-2021, 10:40 PM
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There can't be any worse reliability than an e46....
But I stay away from first year models.
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Old 05-16-2021, 10:47 AM
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I had an early '06/E90 (built summer of '05) 330i. Had about 60k when I bought it.
Most unreliable car I've ever owned. Sold it after 2 years due to all the maintenance headaches.
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Old 05-16-2021, 04:06 PM
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Thanks guys, confirms my thoughts.
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Old 05-17-2021, 11:27 AM
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I have an 06 330i. Also first year, but March 06 production.

I've had my car almost 10 years and it's actually been fairly reliable. There were some teething issues early on with typical first year E90 stuff: water pump failed, some of the seals failed, window regulators, starter @ 100k. Definitely not Toyota reliability but not as bad as Jerome's experience either. 90% of the time the car's great.

That said, I would NOT buy an 06 325xi. In addition to typical first year stuff there's first year XI stuff, which... no thanks. Plus 325 - price difference between a 15 yr old 325 and 15 yr old 330 is almost negligible, while the "enjoyment of driving" difference is astronomical.

Compared to an E46? The build quality (especially the interior) is night-and-day better in the E90. My E90 interior looks almost new. My E46 interior has all the sags and droops and smells of an old car. IME stuff breaks less on the E90, but when it DOES break the repair is more involved. More stuff breaks on the E46 but it's usually a lot easier to repair. Step one of all E90 repairs is usually "get the computer out and plug it into the car".
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Old 05-18-2021, 09:55 AM
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Late in 2017 I bought a 2006 325i. It had 109K miles at the time, and I paid $6500 for it. It was a very nice car for a daily driver--very comfortable, silky smooth motor. That being said, I would never buy one again. In the three years and ~44K miles that I had the car, I replaced the following due to failures/leaks: differential input seal, water pump, radiator, oil filter housing gasket, valve cover gasket, L/R window regulator. The stereo had a problem and I could not figure out how to deal with the fiber optic system, so I paid the better part of $1,000 to the dealer for a fix.

Maybe 100K is the sweet spot for things like that to fail. However, the PO provided me with a folder of service records, which included receipts for numerous other repairs throughout the car's lifetime. Maybe I should have paid more attention to that.

Other than the radio issue, I did all the other work myself, so it didn't cost me a lot of $$. Had I paid a mechanic for the work, I'm sure it would have been the better part of $5K.
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