RE: [e36] Risk of buying a rusted M3

[Mark Colasante <mcola@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You may want to do what I did when purchasing my used BMW.  I started
out by getting the VIN from the seller.  It is even a better idea to get
the VIN yourself and check all the body panels, etc. and make sure they
match.  My car was in Florida and I was in Ohio, so getting it myself
was impractical.  I just verified them once I saw the car in person.
Decode the VIN to make sure it makes sense for your car.  You can do
this at http://cbsgi1.bu.edu/bmw/complete_faq.html.  Section 1 describes
all the body and engine codes and tells you how to "decode" your VIN.

Once you find that this checks out OK then go to researching the title.
I took my VIN and got a CarFax report on it.  Cost $9.  You can do this
at http://www.carfax.com.  This will tell you if the title has always
been "clean".  It will also tell you how many times the car has been
titled and in what cities.  Keep in mind that a car may be titled to a
bank (lease or loan) and the driver may live in a city other than the
bank.  (If the bank held title, you might first think that the car was
in one city, but the driver/"owner" could have actually lived in a
different state.  I took it a few steps further and called each of the
municipalities' auto title bureaus and asked who the people were that
previously owned the car.  One I got there names and addresses, I looked
them up and gave them a call.  I asked about the care of the car,
accidents, anything else I should know, etc.  They were very helpful and
not put out by this at all.  I also asked if they had any left over
service records that they may have forgotten to forward on to the next
buyer.  I actually got some records sent to me that they had overlooked.
I was satisfied with the vehicle's history after doing this.

My last step was to hire two BMW shops to check the car out for me.
This cost me $53 and $57.  Both gave a clean bill of health.  All this
was done before I got down to Florida to check it out for myself.  I was
well informed prior to getting there.  This left me pretty free to be
able to negotiate a fair price and feel good that I was getting a good
value, with very little uncertainties.

Mark Colasante
90 325iC
Columbus, OH
#163942

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