worked for a prestige car specialist including bmw for 12 years. to sum it up BMW's are no better than say a ford and tend to be overpriced and overrated reliability is no better than any other car. still built on a production line the same as others my view you can buy a better car for less money. if buying lookout for electrical and sensor faults on older cars

All in all, not a bad car, however I won't buy a BMW again! We purchased this car mid 2006, ex lease car with 53K on the clock in 4 and a bit years we have only managed to wind the millage to 103K, All in all it's been OK, however the RAC have been called several times mainly for silly little things the first call out it just stopped on a motorway by the time the recovery team got to us it was working again, it was then sent to a BMW recommended garage for a diagnostic check, no faults were found. It went wrong 3 more time's, eventually on the final diagnostic the Cam shaft sensor was identified as being faulty, with this replaced no probs! Until it started losing coolant, we had realised it had a problem so, back to the recommended garage (I don't use main dealers) they changed a hose replaced the coolant, but again the light on the dashboard came on showing water level low, RAC was called again they topped up the coolant and off we went (at this point we were about 200mls from home) so, at the next service station I purchased a petrol can which I filled with water it was never needed, so back to the garage they said it had over heated and required a new head gasket, I said no it has never overheated (one thing you do when the low level coolant level light comes on) is keep your eye on the temperature gauge.

I OWN A BMW 318CI AUTO YEAR 2000.IT LOOKS GOOD BUT IT LACKS IN POWER.THIS CAR WILL BE MORE IDEAL FOR BACK ROADS THAN THE MOTROWAY,AS THE 318CI IS A 4 CYLINDER 1895CC.I HAVE HAD PROBLEMS IDLE VALVE GOES UP WHILE ON GEAR P AND N,COOLANT LEVEL NEEDEDS TOPPING UP REGULAR AND THE ENGINE MANAGEMENT LIGHT COMES ON TO OFTEN.WILL RECOMMEND A 320CI OR 325CI AS I HAVE TESTED BOTH AND IS SMOOTH AND QUICK WITH 5 GEARS NOT 4 GEARS WHAT THE 318CI AUTO HAS.


PS CANT GO WRONG WITH BMW 850CI AUTO!