335i advice?

[Peter-E36]

Moe hit the nail on the head there really!

That space grey car has been in my saved ads since it went up and I'd been "umm...ing" and "errrr...ing" looking at it since but ultimately decided to go for something different. Looks great though, the right maintenance done, the right spec, and the right wheels... LOVE those 230s.

The only thing I disagree with is the suspension, but that can be subjective and I've never had run flats on mine so wouldn't be a fair comparison, but with standard tyres I thought the suspension was perfect, comfortable for daily driving and more than capable when the going got twisty.

Mine was probably my favourite car I owned and also the first properly fast car I owned, I still remember the night I picked mine up and how excited I was driving it home!! It was great...!

In my ~year of ownership I changed an O2 sensor, replaced both vanos solenoids (only 1 was faulty), did a "full" service and then an oil service after 6k, some cosmetic touches (tints, kidneys, window trim and lower grills wrapped) and fitted a Quaife LSD which is a must-have on these really when you consider you get the max 400NM of torque at 1500rpm and it also played very well indeed with the factory stability/traction control system.

Generally though: Coils, injectors, HPFP, Turbos/waste gate rattle, and these cars come with an electric water pump you'd wanna make sure was replaced on schedule. After that I guess it's regular stuff.

Don't let any of that put you off though, just get Courtney Motors or Motor Confidence to do a pre-purchase inspection for you, and set aside a rainy day fund and enjoy the hell out of it because they're a fantastic car!

I love the sound of those turbos spooling up and down....

[Moe]

Peter - you know the m4 is basically the same car turned up to 11. The engine sound, the nervous laughter when accelerating and the torque letting you be lazy, and with the reliability issues mostly ironed out. When I test drove the M4 the thing I though was this is just like I remember my 335i, so i immediately put my money down and arranged to sell that spare kidney. I did find the ride improved once off the runfalts, but by god mine had so little travel in the shocks. I remember doing a lot of motorway miles at the time, and I would play a game where I would try not hit the cats eyes with either axel so jarring was the sensation, maybe it was lowered of something I dont know.

Maybe it was the way I lost the 335i (it was stolen and burnt out), but I have such a soft spot for it. I have a picture of me and it on my office wall. Its not a future classic, but I cannot think of better motoring for the money, and in a lot of ways its a better choice than the e92 m3 if you not after the raw m car feeling. Coming from a Clio the op will see a night and day difference in build and interior quality, and performance on another level all together.