#m42b18

What happened to shine’s E36?

shine’s first car was a BMW E36 318is with a M42B18 engine inside. It had M bumpers front and rear, recaro leather interior, alcantara roof (interior), aftermarket steering wheel, shortshifter, TA Technix coilovers all around, custom exhaust system that was quite loud and few other cool things.

shine: “When I was looking for my first car I knew I wont have a lot of cars to choose from because I didn’t have enough money on me to buy something really cool, and without help from my friends I wouldn’t even be able to buy what I ended up buying.

There were only few things I wanted from the car: rear wheel drive, cheap parts, ok reliability and good fuel economy.”

“Originally, I’ve always wanted a Japanese car like Toyota Corolla AE86, Nissan 180SX (200SX in Europe), Nissan Skyline R32 or at least something similar to any of these. In Europe none of these are easy to come by, not to mention how overpriced they are, especially in good condition. So for an Eastern European guy from poor Baltic country my best shot was BMW E36, as it is the cheapest RWD we can buy and maintain here.

I wanted specifically 318is with a M44 or M42B18 engine inside, as it revs higher than other E36 engines (except for M3, obviously), has plenty of power and does good on fuel. Also, I had people telling me that it’s quite reliable unless I go crazy on it without proper maintenance. I wanted specifically a coupe too, because compacts, sedans and tourings are ugly, but that’s just my personal opinion/preference.

I searched for quite some time and couldn’t find anything, until I stumbled upon this one ad in Neighbour country Lithuania. Next thing I knew I was on my way back home behind the steering wheel of my BMW. “

“When I checked it out back in Lithuania I didn’t have an opportunity to see the underbody, but I sniffed around it as much as I could, and it totally looked like the chassis was in a good shape. The car had relatively high mileage, but I thought it probably wouldn’t be too hard to pass inspection with it and deal with issues when I have to face them, so I thought the price was fair, and trusted when the person who was selling the car and said that there would be nothing too serious rust-wise. But back at home I got a good look at the underbody, and got quite disappointed... After poking it a bit with a screwdriver the floor under drivers seat just crumbled and started falling apart in big chunks. That wasn’t the only place that had this issue.”

“Although I was really sad about my first car being a rusty BMW (I used to hate BMW’s really much, by the way) I managed to somewhat get it all together and “fix” the car. I even got it registered and road legal with all of pay-check money, and as a result I got to drive it around for around two months in total, but I still spent countless days and nights working on it together with all of my friends, because it just kept breaking down no matter how much money I had put into it or how much work I did on it. Classic BMW cooling system issues, bushings, door cards, door handles, wiring, so on and so forth...

Honestly speaking, I enjoyed the process of owning the car way more than I expected. I enjoyed working on the car with my friends and getting to drive it after it finally started working as it should, but it kinda felt like it was not worth it all. I didn’t buy a BMW to sacrifice my entire life for it. The rust especially kept bugging me, because the welded places weren’t done by a professional and they probably wouldn’t last very long anyway. By the end of all this mess, I thought to myself that there are more fun and reliable cars out there, and that I should get rid of this BMW.”

“The worst part is that it was totally not a great car, but I still felt really sad when I was putting it out for sale. But, oh well... I managed to sell it on my first day off to the first person who came by. He asked some questions, said he knows that its nothing near perfect, but he owns a couple of other E36′s and he knows what he is dealing with more or less. And that’s how the story of my E36 Coupe ended.

Is BMW E36 a bad and a boring car? No, but finding one that’s well maintained, still in a good shape, without rust issues and it not showing its age is really hard, and it costs totally different amounts of money. Will I buy another BMW E36 and am I ready to pay more money for one that’s in a better condition? Not really. For me personally, it’s not worth more, and I don’t want to spend years of time and loads of money rebuilding a car like this.”