Maintenance aside, this is a pretty cheap recent car with 300hp, RWD and a manual.

"Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle" (1500sand535) 12/12/2016 at 19:32 • Filed to: None

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I’ve noticed a few 335i cars recently. I gotta say, the speed to dollar ratio seems pretty damn nice. For $10,000 you can have a car with just over 100,000 miles, with a twin turbo inline 6 cylinder engine, that’s less than 10 years old in a somewhat compact car.

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I guess a Mustang GT from around the same timeframe might cost similar money and have similar straight line speed but it was still rocking a solid axle in those days.

P.S. The coupe will cost you an extra few dollars.

P.S.S. Using the salvage:clean title metric to predict a model’s beat uponness, it scores the 335i very high. Not quite WRX high, but there’s a lot of dinged title 335i cars out there.

LongbowMkII > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 12/12/2016 at 19:37

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It’s just a when the plastic coolant bits break issue. Which is scary. It is tempting though. Inline sixes are sweet.

Orange Exige > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 12/12/2016 at 19:43

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Twin turbo straight 6? Big and little one?

My X-type is too a real Jaguar > LongbowMkII 12/12/2016 at 19:44

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That’s really not that expensive of a fix if you do the work yourself. It is not all tha difficult and needs no special tools.

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > Orange Exige 12/12/2016 at 19:44

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Two little turbos. I think they don’t make much boost but get to work fairly early in the rev range. So peak torque happens almost all the time.

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > LongbowMkII 12/12/2016 at 19:47

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I haven’t researched them much but if things break predictably I’m less annoyed. Even if you throw $1,000-2,000 at this, it matched the previous gen M3 in a lot of ways so, it’s worth it.

Matt Nichelson > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 12/12/2016 at 19:47

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The high pressure fuel pump going out is a common issue with the N54. Another issue is with the turbo and wastegate rattle.

jimz > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 12/12/2016 at 19:49

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100,000 mile BMW? What could go wrong?!?

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > Matt Nichelson 12/12/2016 at 19:50

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Apparently hey extended the warranty on the fuel pumps.

And if the turbo goes out, well that’s a great time to get a bigger turbo(s)!

Appreciate someone with knowledge chiming in.

Quadradeuce > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 12/12/2016 at 20:10

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For what it’s worth, Autotrader has 13 CTS V6 listings with under 45k miles right now for less than $10k. Most are 2007 models.

MyJeepGetsStuckInTheSnow > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 12/12/2016 at 20:10

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It’s not that putting $1-2k into a used car is bad, it’s that every time it breaks it is $1-2k, which is often. I had an 07 or 09 that I put 70k miles on. By far it was the most fun car I have owned. It was almost the most expensive. HPFP x2 (only warrantied to 120k btw), 2 turbos x3, 6 injectors, thermostat, water pump, the coolant hose that runs along the top of the radiator, seat belt retractors, 1 O2 sensor, and rear tires every 15k not to mention new a new front tire if you even come close to a pot hole. Also walnut blasting every 60k miles because it carbons up so bad. About half this was covered by CPO. There is a reason they come up cheap at 100k. That’s when the warranty runs out.

MyJeepGetsStuckInTheSnow > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 12/12/2016 at 20:15

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Oh yeah! And brakes, wheel speed sensor, and rear wheel bearing to fix second wheel speed sensor.

MyJeepGetsStuckInTheSnow > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 12/12/2016 at 20:16

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And $400 head light module and oil filter housing gasket.

theloudmouth > Matt Nichelson 12/12/2016 at 20:29

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That has been resolved for quite some time. Only issue still around for later model years is the injectors (the only thing not resolved by 2010 when the high volume 335i discontinued). I know, my 335is has been flawless save for the damn #1 injector which has fouled the plug but they won’t extended warranty repair without a CEL. Debating whether to just spend the $1200 and do it for all 6 or wait.

Matt Nichelson > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 12/12/2016 at 20:35

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Ah ok. Haven’t kept up with it for a while so I didn’t know if they had extended the warranty or not.

If that’s the case, may not be too bad. Just remember at the end of the day if it’s a BMW, especially one that’s over 100k, there will be things that need to be fixed/replaced. Good luck though!

Matt Nichelson > theloudmouth 12/12/2016 at 20:37

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Yeah I didn’t realize they extended the warranty for some of the older ones. Haven’t kept up with it in a whils. Forgot about the injectors, though.

theloudmouth > Matt Nichelson 12/12/2016 at 21:07

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Oh it’ll be insanely costly, just meant the HPFP would be fine haha.

I drive mine for fun in the summer and maintain it like an OCD German and budget for the car like the new costs would be, but I know that’s not very common as these things get older. Mine only has 33K miles and it’s driven hard but minimal weather seen.

Tazio, Count Fouroff > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 12/12/2016 at 23:08

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BMW did extend the HPFP (fuel pump) warranty *just a little* on N54 engines but iirc not enough to be really helpful to those who’d actually need it...it seems like maybe to 80K miles instead of 50K? And no updates or replacements that eliminated the problem. iirc. These cars pretty much have timed out on warranty by now, anyway.

If you can learn to manage / deal with / pre-empt the HPFP, dual turbo, and injector issues an N54 335i would be a solid choice...maybe use the N54-ness for price negotiating leverage?

Personally, just my 02 cents, I’d look first for an N55 335i like the other poster mentioned where it’s mainly injector issues.

Cooling systems are a non issue *IF* you do the preventive maintenance, change the water pump every 60K and the other cooling system components every 100K. These are easy if you know how to do any of your own work, even basics.

Best wishes and keep us posted!

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > Tazio, Count Fouroff 12/13/2016 at 01:42

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We will see. I’m not heading out the door tomorrow but It’s become pretty apparent to me that while I like the 944, I don’t love it, so I’ll probably shop sooner rather than later. I’ll definitely post if I go to test drive or start shopping.

Thanks for all the good info. I’ve always thought it’d be way more likely for me to get a 128i(smaller, simpler, lighter) but part of me can’t help but be interested in the 335i.

Kanaric > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 12/13/2016 at 12:30

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Since the 90s JDM stuff has become available I don’t even look at cars like this anymore. I can get a JZX90 Toyota Chaser with a JZ based twin turbo I6 that is far more bulletproof than this car for the same price. Sure it’s 13-14 years older. I get it. However it would have LESS problems than this car and it has a far more bulletproof drivetrain on top of it as it’s an extremely overbuilt car from the pre-bubble Japanese period. On top of it cars from that era in Japan would have much the same features a 2000s BMW would, and more weird JDM shit like occilating fan vents and things like that, aside infotainment which can be bought at Best Buy.

That car is built to last, the BMW is built to last the lease.

I seriously considered a 135i purchase but the issues these cars have, and expensive to fix issues, are just too insurmountable.

If I want a newer used car I am not looking at this BMW at all. I am only looking at it if I wanted a tuner car of which the prime JDM stuff coming is better. Otherwise if I wanted a super confortable newish DD I would be looking at a CTS or something.

BTW I Have a Mustang GT Premium with the 5.0. The car has been absolutely bulletproof and is extremely comfortable. 0 warranty repairs and issues with this car since I owned it. I drive about 50 miles commute a day on a highway to and from work. Among the best highway cruisers i’ve driven.