[Eric_H]

Our son turns 16 in September and he picked a Jeep Wrangler for his first vehicle. Well trying to find anything in decent condition with lower miles for under $10k is pointless. Well, within 250 miles that is.
So his second pick was a BMW 3 series.
So we located a '11 328i with 86k miles within 100 miles and placed a deposit on it. His only requests were 4-door, blue, automatic.
My concerns were decent car fax, oil changed every 10k miles or less*, interval maintenance taken care of.
I grew up in a Jaguar family, so I am very familiar with high maintenance vehicles. My first car was an XJ6L. I pretty well drove it until it blew up. But what a fun car!

I spoke with my local, small Mom and Pop BMW/Porsche/Jaguar shop and they told me to check for oil leaks(oil pan, oil filter, and valve cover gaskets already changed), make sure the oil was changed earlier than the recommended 15k mile intervals(*), make sure there aren't any service engine codes. This I am assuming would result in an exclamation point on the gauge cluster from pictures I have seen.

Anything else I should look for when we take our trip to test drive and possibly purchase his 1st car?

[Greyfox]

Originally Posted by Eric_H

Our son turns 16 in September and he picked a Jeep Wrangler for his first vehicle. Well trying to find anything in decent condition with lower miles for under $10k is pointless. Well, within 250 miles that is.
So his second pick was a BMW 3 series.
So we located a '11 328i with 86k miles within 100 miles and placed a deposit on it. His only requests were 4-door, blue, automatic.
My concerns were decent car fax, oil changed every 10k miles or less*, interval maintenance taken care of.
I grew up in a Jaguar family, so I am very familiar with high maintenance vehicles. My first car was an XJ6L. I pretty well drove it until it blew up. But what a fun car!

I spoke with my local, small Mom and Pop BMW/Porsche/Jaguar shop and they told me to check for oil leaks(oil pan, oil filter, and valve cover gaskets already changed), make sure the oil was changed earlier than the recommended 15k mile intervals(*), make sure there aren't any service engine codes. This I am assuming would result in an exclamation point on the gauge cluster from pictures I have seen.

Anything else I should look for when we take our trip to test drive and possibly purchase his 1st car?

Actually, you best bet is to get some sort of OBD scanner and hook it up to the car for the codes.

Also, read the small print on any Carfax. I believe you have to register with them if you purchase the vehicle. Check every body, fender, hood and trunk bolt for any scratches. BMW's are painted with everything attached. If you find scratches, then someone has had things apart for some reason.

[ctuna]

Google Mike Miller BMW schedule download and
and read.
Look for sludge through the oil filler port.
The most common things to fail oil leaks
already mentioned . Water pump thermostat
and the accessory belt tensioner .
Tensioner is a cheap replacement water pump not
so much.
Some people here use a oil change of 7500 or less.

[Efthreeoh]

I'd not worry about 10K oil changes if the oil service was at BMW and used LL-01 oil and a Mann filter. I'm at 325,000 on 14K oil changes. I change the engine oil every 10K now. The service intervals for these cars is long compared to other brands, but if the service is to BMW specs, the E9X lasts well past 250,000 miles.