Hiya,

...Another same old M42 engine problem story I'm afraid:

My 1992 BMW 318is was bought in December 1998 from BMW UK, it had 
56,500 miles on the clock. I paid the full whack, 11,500 UK pounds, BMW 
made no concessions at all to the fact that I paid in cash, but I 
didn't care, it is in great condition, worth every penny, I thought. 
That's a lot of cash for a seven year old 1.8 litre car with a bad 
stereo. The same sort of money will buy you a Mondeo with air con, CD, 
leather, six cylinders and almost every other option I can think of, 
but no, I went for the reliability and prestige.
It lasted 2 months, 1000 miles, before blowing the timing case profile 
gasket and pissing my coolant over my drive. Not too much reliability 
there, and certainly no prestige from a car sat in a pubble of its' own 
oil.
BMW UK fixed it under warranty, fortunately for 'lucky' old me, but it 
took them a week and they gave me a boring old 316 saloon for the 
duration.
I got no apology for selling me a car with a known problem - the answer 
to my query "but didn't you check this before you sold me a car with a 
known problem?" was that they pressure checked the engine prior to 
sale. Whatever that means.

Just don't buy these cars second had without a warranty or a recently 
replaced gasket, because you *will* be staring down the smoking barrel 
of an extremely expensive repair sooner or later, and BMW don't give a 
rats arse who gets stung for it.

regards,
Justin Stringfellow
========================================================
Justin Stringfellow - justin.stringfellow@barclays.co.uk
CAS/OSS Group, Barclays Technology Services
Ext: 2338  Mobile: 07971 400116