Tasberley

hiya guys,

Thinking of getting an e36 m3 or e36 m3 evo. I have a budget of around £7k.

Does anybody own one on here or has previously owned one? What are they like?

Whats the typical mpg?

Whats things should i be looking out for when looking at cars to buy. If its the evo ive heard that the vanos unit can cause problems?

ANy help, much appreciated.

Cheers

The Chief

I'm no expert but dont get the evo - it has vanos issues, get the pre evo it still chucks out over 286 bhp and is deemed more reliable.

Brendan Hughes

I think Leslie has one and BigMan had one...

Scooby400

I've had three.

My first was a 1995 3.0 Coupe. Over 120k miles - went like stink. A really strong car.

I then bought a 1996 3.2 Evo Convertible. I actually had them both for about 2 weeks and whilst the convertible Evo was more desirable, the 3.0 was noticeably quicker and stronger feeling. It may have been because the 3.2 was a convertible, or it may have just been a rough one.

I then bought a 1999 3.2 Evo Convertible. This was a better engine than my other Evo. I fitted a heat shielded induction kit, a supersprint exhaust and had it remapped and it got 332 bhp at an e36 rolling road day. Most powerful one there.

So both my Evo's were convertibles, and my 3.0 was a coupe. I went in my friends Evo coupe the other day and that was quick. So whereas I first thought the less powerful 3.0 felt quicker than the Evo, I'm beginning to think now that perhaps it just that the convertibles are slower. Although on paper they are not.

Evo's do have a problem with the double vanos. I personally have never had a problem - guess I've just been lucky.

My advice to you is to try and buy a 1996 N reg 3.0 with as fewer miles as possible. I think with your budget you'd end up with a rough Evo which could cost a fortune to keep on the road. If you could get a 60k miles 1-2 owner 3.0 car that would be a very good buy which would lose little money.

Good luck.

Tasberley

cheers for the advice. after looking at prices etc it does look like i would be better getting an 3.0 m3 coupe...

whats the handling like??

Scooby400

If I had £7k to spend thats deffo what I'd be going for. Black preferably.

Handling's quite good. Eibach Pro springs improve it a lot though.

Tasberley

what sort of mpg should i expect?

Scooby400

How long is a piece of string??

I have a pretty heavy right foot and all my driving is short local trips. I used to get just shy of about 200 miles out of a tank of Optimax.

On a run you'll see 20-25.

Tasberley

how bigs the tank? 60 ltr?

Scooby400

About that I think. Took about £55 worth when it was just under £1/litre.

FletchCSL

Hi, another former Evo coupe owner here. Mpg is good about 28 if your on the motorway. Its better with the evo as it has six gears as opposed to the 3.0's five. Check out www.bm3w.co.uk

As for VANOS if you get past 70k mileage then general feeling is there will be no problems. About 40% of the cars in total were affected including mine which was done under warranty then had no problems. But there is a considerable performance loss if the VANOS goes awol.

I dont think you budget will stretch to it but look out for the limited addition GT1, its had the bulletproof 3.0 engine but uprated to 295bhp - the one in evo magazine managed 305bhp standard.

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Just buy one with the vanos already sorted?

TX.

fatscoobyfella

Ive had a 3.0litre coupe,I thought the car was fantastic.Car went very well,only mod was a supersprint exhaust.I regularly did 300 miles a week in mine,mostly motorway and i used to see over 30MPG.
Personally i would go for the best non evo i could..Not only does the vanos have issues,but the 6 speed box is a bit unreliable too,and you Cannot repair them..Just be aware as i think a second hand unit are currently around £1200.

Go on www.e36coupe.com and have a search,there is loads of info on there..

HTH

shustir

Owned a 1999 M3 EVO Cab. One thing I did find quite bad was scuttle shake, go over a bump and the car felt as if it wobbled. This did go away after a while though probably couldn't feel it any more. MPG was so so I used to do a few short journeys and some medium journeys (8+ miles) and would get 220 miles from a tank 60 litres. Performance was OK and fairly good on motorway. Best of all was the just the pleasure of driving on a nice day with the roof down, although I wouldn't miss it in winter.

I did have a few problems with mine in 2 years of ownership even with a full BMW service history. Required a new water pump and new gear selector fork, clutch and flywheel. Servicing and maintenance costs are not cheap ! Although no problems with VANOS but it had been replaced by previous owner with a bill of £2500. I'm glad I owned it but wouldn't bother with another one.

Brendan Hughes

I've tried to follow MCoupes, and the comments were that just because it has been done once is no guarantee that it won't go again. I'm guessing it's the same engine.

rb5_336

I had an E36 M3 EVO and loved it. There are plenty around that have has the vanos work performed under warrenty, or are still under extended warranty. I've had loads of desierable cars, and the e36 m3 evo is a fantastic all rounder

here's a list of cars i've had

Sean

Scooby400

Despite it having that awful steering wheel??


Nice e30.

rb5_336

yeah the wood pack wouldnt be my first choice The sport evo is a legend!

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Blimey, that's mad

gatty

the m3 e36 3.0 was my first real fast car(started with a pug 1.9) looking back the bmw was a real cracker. fast and smooth. it takes a real good driver to get the best out of one, which i aint.

cant comment on the evo but heard a lot of negatives which are covered on this thread.

as for tunning , i had my bmw de catted new shreik cams fitted new panel filter then got it mapped, it was around 340 bhp at the flywheel. this cost me around 2k to do . and looking back the standard 286 bhp was enough so theres my account on owning a e36 m3 . a real beaut.

scoobynutta555

What fuel do they run on, ordinary NUL or Optimax and the like?

gatty

either. (tunned) optimax

FletchCSL

always ran better on optimax, but normal stuff is fine

Tasberley

hiya guys,

whats the smg box like?? any good or should it be avoided?

leonpoole

https://www.scoobynet.com/whats-m3-smg-t535111.html

I know its about the SMG 2, but that was ment to be an improvement

Tasberley

ta

Mentor

that wood pack option looks vile!

Yakker

we ran a 98 evo coupe for a couple of years

gorgeous motor - quick, smooth, reliable

downside is it attracted the wrong sort of attention - sold it on (huge depreciation) - but really miss it


difficult to get the kids in the back though ;-)


customer service (dick lovett in swindon) was brillliant - way way way better than any other garage I've ever dealt with - miles ahead of any of the ******* volvo dealers that I put up with at the moment...