With summer and a less emphatic call to isolate at home both close at hand, today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe 325Ci convertible couldn’t come at a better time. Let’s see if it could perhaps, come with a better price.
One of the more effective of Stephen King’s brain worms is his 1979 work, The Long Walk. It was written under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman, and concerns an annual contest in which 100 teenage boys undertake a grueling non-stop walk. The winner is the last one walking. He gets whatever he wants for life. The losers—those who have lagged or strayed from the path—all get shot to death for doing so along the way.
You know, if you need to go, and go, and go, and never slow up, walking is probably not the best decision. Better would be yesterday’s 1998 Toyota 4Runner SR5 wagon. That truck had already done 323K and it showed little sign of those miraculous miles anywhere.
Unfortunately for the seller, those miles did matter to the majority of you when it came to price, and at $5,500, it was deemed too expensive by 59 percent of you, giving the truck a Crack Pipe loss.
Summer is here, in case you hadn’t noticed. Well, I mean, not officially. After all, we’re still a week and a half away from the Solstice (happy Alban Hefin, Druids!) Still, seeing as it’s after Memorial Day, we can settle in and all start wearing our whites shoes and belts again.
Another thing we might consider doing for the summer is purchasing a nice convertible car so that we might enjoy the long days and warm nights while cruising around. That is, should the opportunity arise.
That’s right, many of us are still sheltering in place awaiting a second wave of COVID-19 or some other biblical plague to descend upon us seeing as that’s just how 2020 rolls. Just in case, however, let’s have a look at this 2006 BMW 325Ci convertible since it has both that droppable top and, on the flip side, a manual gearbox.
Those aren’t the only attractions here either. The car also comes with both the Sport (ZSP) and Premium (ZPP) packages. The former includes the three-spoke steering wheel, sport seats, and an uprated suspension, while the latter brings multi-function buttons to that wheel, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, and rain-sensing wipers to the party. Those last features are just a couple of the electronic gewgaws BMW added to the 3-series in the E46 series and some of those can prove agravatingly finicky over time.
The car features a Jet Black exterior over a black leather cabin and complementing blacktop. Seventeen-inch Star-Spoke alloys underpin with the right-front one looking like it has lost at least one fight with the curb. The seller notes some clear coat peel on the bodywork as well, but it otherwise looks seemingly intact and without major flaw.
The interior appears up to the task too, although the driver’s seat shows rips in the leather on the lower squab. That could definitely stand repair. On a happier note, the top and rear window look to be in good shape.
The 325 is powered by a 184 horsepower M54 inline-six and that gets back up here by a Getrag five-speed manual. The 2494cc engine features variable valve timing and a lot of somewhat fragile plastic parts in key systems. Those can all cause bother as they age.
To head off some of that, the seller notes a recent thermostat replacement, along with the requisite coolant flush. There’s also some older work done, I guess thrown in for good measure. The car has just shy of 160K on the clock and is said to all work “like it should.” The title is clean and it appears to have recently passed its state smog test.
Due to the addition of all the electronics, LED tail lamps, and whatnot, the E46 can be considered a more modern car than the 3-series’ that came before it. Those features also mean that it can be a more expensive proposition to maintain and repair—and we’re already talking about an old Bimmer, which isn’t going to be anything like, say, yesterday’s Toyota to keep up.
That all being said, these are really nice cars and with the soft top and stick, this one is primo summer fun. You just need to make sure that fun doesn’t come at too high a cost of entry. The asking price here is $3,300 and it’s now up to you to decide if this 325Ci could realistically command that much as presented in its ad.
What do you think, is $3,300 a fair deal for this lightly worn but nicely kitted E46 convertible? Or, is that too much to drop on this drop-top?
You decide!
San Francisco Bay Area, CA Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to RevUnlimiter for the hookup!
Help me out with NPOCP. Hit me up at rob@jalopnik.com and send me a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your Kinja handle.