E90 owners please weigh in - am I looking for a unicorn?

Hi all,

After some thinking, I think I am ready to begin my search for an E90 to meet my dog hauling, occasional autocrossable needs. But there's a few parameters that, together, probably complicate the search a bit. Listed in order of inflexibility

• Rear seat fold down. Need this for my dog's crate. I know that this was either part of the cold weather package or a standalone option on the E90s. The odds of this being reliably listed in a fb marketplace or craigslist ad begin with a decimal.
• Manual. Again, gotta have it. Nothing against the auto in these cars, but if at all possible, it's gotta be a stick
• Sub 8k or so. That's the budget I'm working with. I'm ok spending a bit more to get a car with a good maintenance history, and I dont at all mind a high mile car that's been cared for
• RWD. X-drive just complicates things, IMO. Have driven a few RWD E90s and really liked them, and that would be my preference.
• Sport package would be nice, but now we're really getting into the weeds...

So yeah, a manual, RWD sedan with fold down rear seats. I know they're out there, but darn if the search isn't tough. Someone wiser than me please tell me I'm not wasting my time. Or if I am, just indulge my BMW buffoonery for a few minutes.


Thanks all,

Christopher

Wizard_Of_Maz said:

Hi all,

After some thinking, I think I am ready to begin my search for an E90 to meet my dog hauling, occasional autocrossable needs. But there's a few parameters that, together, probably complicate the search a bit. Listed in order of inflexibility

• Rear seat fold down. Need this for my dog's crate. I know that this was either part of the cold weather package or a standalone option on the E90s. The odds of this being reliably listed in a fb marketplace or craigslist ad begin with a decimal.
• Manual. Again, gotta have it. Nothing against the auto in these cars, but if at all possible, it's gotta be a stick
• Sub 8k or so. That's the budget I'm working with. I'm ok spending a bit more to get a car with a good maintenance history, and I dont at all mind a high mile car that's been cared for
• RWD. X-drive just complicates things, IMO. Have driven a few RWD E90s and really liked them, and that would be my preference.
• Sport package would be nice, but now we're really getting into the weeds...

So yeah, a manual, RWD sedan with fold down rear seats. I know they're out there, but darn if the search isn't tough. Someone wiser than me please tell me I'm not wasting my time. Or if I am, just indulge my BMW buffoonery for a few minutes.

Thanks all,

Christopher

Having searched for many BMW unicorns, I sympathize with your plight. My MO is to search all of the common places (autotrader, cars.com, cargurus, CL, FBMP, etc) with the manual transmission flag set. Also check BMW enthusiast groups. BMWCCA has a classifieds section and there are a ton of BMW groups on FB, including just for classifieds. 

From there, you're going to have to either try to decipher the fold down rear seat from the pictures and/or ask a lot of questions. It can be done though!

There was someone offering that exact car here about a week ago somewhere in the Carolinas. IIRC, it was half your budget, and the only unknown was the folding rear seat.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/which-of-these-cars-do-i-completely-avoid-which-do-i-investigate-frsfiesta-ste36-content/265362/page1/

Yeah, they are out there, I have one.  My is an xi, but the solenoid for AWD is bad so it's RWD full time.  Otherwise it's a manual sedan with the winter package.  They are relatively uncommon but not unicorns.  Keep searching and be patient. 

My experience with BMWs is they more often than not have folding rear seats.

I think you'll be able to find one. If you had said slick top, that would be a different story.

Even nonfunctional AWD still spins the front axles, so you still get some of the negatives without the positive. Between the dead weight and added complexity when trying to work under the car (like the inevitably leaky oil pan gasket), RWD was a major requirement for me. I sold my E91 RWD 6MT for $11k, and I believe they all have laydown rear seats. Could a wagon be a better fit? Or at least a smaller haystack to dig through. 

Came here to mention Dan's car.

I see that it is listed above already.

Fairly nice car that could use a touch of loving to make it great!  Took my kids to school in it last week.

Paging Brassssss....

Slippery said:

There was someone offering that exact car here about a week ago somewhere in the Carolinas. IIRC, it was half your budget, and the only unknown was the folding rear seat.

Actually, bbbbRASS's car is the one you are looking for. 

It has:

- Folding rear seats.
- Manual.
- RWD.
- Sport package

And under budget. 

Yep, you're a bit north of me (Charleston SC) but I've got the car you want. I've found a few others like it, but I spend almost a year finding the right spec and history. All the sedan RWD seats fold down. All the 330i have the sport package (and you are correct for wanting it, for the front seats alone)! I would add you don't want iDrive, as archaic infotainment is much worse than no infotainment. 
 

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1eervwz8LMpZDuo-bHvvazrUfdwoh-OYmE_2hnhqzEok/mobilebasic

bbbbRASS said:

Yep, you're a bit north of me (Charleston SC) but I've got the car you want. I've found a few others like it, but I spend almost a year finding the right spec and history. All the sedan RWD seats fold down. All the 330i have the sport package (and you are correct for wanting it, for the front seats alone)! I would add you don't want iDrive, as archaic infotainment is much worse than no infotainment. 
 

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1eervwz8LMpZDuo-bHvvazrUfdwoh-OYmE_2hnhqzEok/mobilebasic

In case it wasn't clear, this is Dan.  His car is the one pictured above and the one that I have driven and fell in love with.

In reply to bbbbRASS :

Disagree on the iDrive. It's much easier to interface with the computer and various warnings and crap the that pop up. My '11 had it but my '07 does not and I miss it. 

In reply to chknhwk :

IMHO, your '11 was an LCI, which is better than the pre LCI. So, if the car is LCI its ok, not so much for pre LCI like this car. 

Me, I rather skip it on an e9X. 

We're going to sell my wife's car when the new M2 I ordered arrives in a couple of months, but it's a 2011 335i automatic with xdrive so it fails two of your major requirements. The AWD on the car is damned magical though in the rain or snow. The thing that can be a lot of work on the xdrive cars is the oil pan gasket leaking, because to get the oil pan off you have to drop the front subframe and pull the front axles since they go through the oil pan. I've already done that though a couple of years ago and it's dry as a bone still.

It does need suspension bushings as it's getting a little clunky over some bumps, but I'm probably gonna let the next person deal with that.