Might be jumping ship to the dark side...
 

Guy in my home town is selling a 1996 e36 325i sedan for $2 grand, looking at it, it may need another $500 of work -- windshield, ABS sensor, blown radio speakers, but otherwise it's in very good condition with 120k miles. Quite entertaining to drive, 5 speed of course, and shorter than a w123 so easier to park in the city.

Honda Civic: Entertaining to drive, just as cheap, better built.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/cto/4184302181.html
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brx/cto/4180188437.html

NFW I'd be caught dead driving a wrong-wheel-drive ricer-mobile. I don't do FWD, and I don't drive cars where a wing, hellaflush rims, and a gold chain are mandatory.

Gotcha. Body mods not mandatory :).

The used Civics around here seem either to be autotragic or molested in some fashion by wannabe "ricebois." Honestly, I wouldn't mind a final-generation Civic hatch or even a good CRX, but good luck to me trying to find one that's (a) not rusty (b) not molested.

A windscreen with out interference from insurance would eat up most of your $500 budget here - I don't know about prices where you are (of course) but I'd check on that first.

If I spend $1000 or even $1500 on it, it's not the end of the world.

I just got my first BMW, too, at the end of May '13 and LOVE driving it. Been to Canada, already, last week to LA again, and the SF area, and Carson city/Reno all within the past several days, If you enjoy driving, this is the car for you.

I have already racked up 16k on it and just can't get enough time behind the wheel!

Mine is the M-sport version though.

http://i353.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/P1000357.jpg

I have heard that some of he 3 and 5 series ones around the age of yours had problems with radiator parts being plastic, but there are ways to upgrade them to metal, so look into that for sure.

My 240D also seems to have a plastic-tank radiator, as did almost every car I've owned (Saab, Volvo wagon, Miata).

I got a manufacturer correct windshield for a 250sl for less than 300. Have prices spiked that much in five years?

When I had the Saab, I went to a junkyard in Philly that swapped a new/used one in for $125 or so installed.

I think the prices here are more to do with "little country syndrome". The sellers are used to getting mega money from the insurance companies so there's little incentive to sell at a reasonable price. I tried to buy a windscreen here for a Honda about 6 years ago and I couldn't find one for less than 600 euros - whereas in the UK they were about 200GBP (with the exchange rates back then it was about half price in the UK)

$2k at 120K sounds like a good deal. Myself, I'm liking Audi more and more all the time. :eek:

Problem is that they're as rare as hen's teeth with a proper transmission, and I don't DO autotragic.

We have a fair number of manual A4s down here and the very sporadic manual A6...but...most of them have been beat to hell and/or require significant amounts of service.

I love the interiors and the ride...but the ones in the 2-3k range are looking very dated AND require a ton of work compared to the comparable Bimmers I've been seeing...

The E36 is a nice ride that still looks good if you find one that hasn't been abused (sadly many around here suffer the same fate as the rice mobiles)...