Can I triple my investment on this common BMW E46 sedan?

About a month ago I bought a 2000 BMW 323i sedan from the local Copart auction for $350 (Disclaimer: after fees and taxes, the total was $583) sight unseen. Of course, the auction site lists pictures and all of the basic info but I have never paid money for a car that I haven’t at least seen in person. The listing informed me that the car was donated (pro) and had a clean title (another pro.) However, it didn’t run (con), was wrecked (con) and I have never owned a BMW before (big con).

 

 

Copart offers a Carfax report for most of their cars and this one had a clean history of only 1 accident and just a handful of previous owners. I started to try to piece together the puzzle that was the history of the car. If you can understand why a car is for sale then you can use that information to help decide to take a chance or to run away. So in review here is what I knew from the listing:

2000 BMW 323i sedan

2.5L I6 Engine

5 speed manual transmission

146k miles

2 prior owners

1 accident on Carfax

Front Accident Damage

Putting on my sleuthing hat, here is my best guess of what happened: a younger aged driver wrecked the car, dad had a higher insurance deductible, dad decided that the car would be a great tax write off and would just buy the son/daughter another car. After putting together that conclusion, I decided to take a chance. I set my limit at $400 on this car (after figuring out fees and taxes, it would be about $650 out of pocket). Best case: get a couple of body parts from the local junkyard, discover something minor for the “no start” condition and sell for high profit. Worst case: body damage was significant, the engine was damaged in the accident and repair costs would exceed the value and it would be worth scrap value.

Luckily on auction day, it was the second car on the block. This played to my benefit since only a small portion of bidders were logged in. I quickly bid $150 and before I could consider upping the bid, the auction ended and I got an email saying I was the high bidder. Now the car was sold “On Approval” which meant the owner would be contacted with my high bid and decide if he would sell at that bid or offer a counter offer. Within the hour, I received notice that a counteroffer of $475 was entered. I wondered how low the seller would go so I offered $175, a $25 increase from my original bid. To speed up the story, the seller and I spent the next 3 hours going back and forth. He would counter with an offer $25 less and I would come back with $25 higher offer. So we met in the middle at $350. Wow I just bought a BMW for $350. I was ecstatic. I quickly researched the 323i model and watched hours of Youtube videos on common repairs and what to look for when buying a used car. I got lucky…real lucky. The car had the near bulletproof 2.5L inline 6 engine with 5-speed manual transmission. (I am a sucker for manual transmission cars. The auto vs manual argument is as old as the automobile itself but my personal preference is almost always for a standard transmission. It lets you “feel” the car and increased sensitivity to the road and to the car. I feel more connected to the car.) The car also had the Premium package that included black leather power sport seats, heated seats, Harmon Kardon stereo system with 6 disc in trunk CD changer.

I had to wait 3 days until I could slide over to the lot to pick up the car. I was excited. I spent those 3 days researching everything from common repair issues to how to LS swap the car. It’s really unhealthy to be this excited about picking up a $350 18-year-old wrecked car from an auction, but here I am. When the car was loaded on the trailer, the body damage looked limited to the hood, core support, and headlights. The bumper was untouched and the radiator still had fluid in it. That’s when I started to get excited. I surveyed the exterior and I couldn’t find a major dent, scratch, or blemish anywhere else on the car. The interior looked amazing and other than some wear on the seats (no rips or tears) and the headliner sagging in places, it was near perfect.

I was so excited about the car that I stopped at the local Pull-A-Part yard to salvage some body parts. The junk gods were looking down on me this day. I located a white 2003 325 coupe that had a near perfect hood and core support. I purchased a core support, hood, sun visor, and some other small pieces for around $150. I brought the car to my buddy’s shop and we quickly unloaded it. As he looked it over, he started to get excited which in turn really got me excited. Within hours of owning the car, we swapped out the core support and the hood. We found a couple of the engine connectors (camshaft positioning sensor and electric fan connector were smashed from the accident. We separated the wires and rigged them into the respective sensors, we held our breath and turned the key…vroom! She fired right up and idled smooth. Everything worked, the radio, the air conditioner, power seats, power windows, sunroof, EVERYTHING. I couldn’t believe it. We took it around the neighborhood for a shakedown run and had no issues. So now we had a running and driving BMW for under $1k. Nothing ever works out like this and the junk gods were definitely favoring me that night.

Over the following weeks, I sourced a couple of various parts from scrap yards. Scored a set of OE headlights for $50 from LKQ Pull A Part. The radiator actually had a small hole from the accident so we replaced the radiator and coolant expansion tank with OE parts from the junkyard. I even found a set of smoked Depo side markers for $2. I got a can of automotive interior dye that was called “BMW black” and it matched the seat and interior trim perfectly. Ebay had some good looking M style gloss kidney grilles that I couldn’t pass up and I ordered a set of clear corner lenses from ECS Tuning.

So for less than $1000 of total costs, this car is road ready. I researched comparable cars and I will ask $3500-4000 for the car as is. That’s definitely on the high end for a 2000 sedan but the mileage is still relatively low, it has a clear title and the car is really clean with many factory options. Hopefully, someone else sees a clean, well-kept BMW E46 and decides to make it theirs.

If you have made it this far, leave me a comment about this BMW E46 flip!

Check out the link below for the Craigslist ad:

Craigslist Ad Link – 2000 BMW 323i

Ebay Start Up & Walk Around Video

 

EDIT: In the time I wrote this (about 2 months ago) the radiator leaked and I had to replace the radiator and expansion tank again along with a new electric fan & shroud. I also replaced the leaky valve cover gasket. So my actual costs are up to $1400.