Tourings are great. They carry lots of stuff, look really cool, and are rare as hell. That is exactly why I just bought (another) one, this time to replace the E39 touring I already have.

Why? The E39 I have is in great condition, minus a couple of small rust-related issues, but those are really minor. Mechanically it’s sound, underneath barely has any rust at all, and so far has been dead reliable for the 10k miles I’ve driven it. But… it hasn’t captured my interest enough. I never really fell for this car, so of course I found myself “window shopping” two Sundays ago to see if E46 touring pricing has come down.

On previous occasions, I would check touring prices just to see where they’re at. When I was looking on this occasion, I still saw them to be holding steady at a minimum of $4.5k for a decent one that needs some minor work, which is way outside the budget. Really nice ones are more like $6k, and super cool ones with options I wanted, or colors I wanted, or even a 5MT, were well over that. The rare 330i tourings that people have converted command crazy high prices north of $10k, and I’m not about that.

There was one, however, that wasn’t $10k. It wasn’t $6k. It wasn’t even $4.5k.
It was exactly $1348, found at a relatively new Subaru dealer in Rutland, VT. Apparently dealers up there can list cars wholesale, as-is, in uninspected condition, which I’ve never heard of. No test drives, what-you-see-is-what-you-get, just like an auction. I figured it was at least worth checking out for that price, as it could have potentially been a super amazing deal in disguise.

This is all I saw in the ad, with the addition of another picture that I don’t have anymore:





The car appeared to be very dirty, but I expect that as an uninspected as-is vehicle. It was sitting on the side of the road, for cryin’ out loud. Screw it, I said it’s worth checking out, so I called the dealer at 09:10 the next morning, and a few hours later I found myself leaving work early to drive up there to check it out with my buddy. It was a 3.5 hour drive from my home.

Upon arriving, we were greeted by Todd, who was fantastic to deal with. Unfortunately, he thought we were talking about a 2008 328xi touring that was on the lot when we spoke on the phone, so the 2008 was on the lot but the 2003 325xi wasn’t there anymore and had gone to auction. To make up for the oversight, he called the auction house and had them pull the car so we could drive up there with him and check it out, which we did.

When we got there, the car appeared to be in a somewhat sad state of affairs. There was a hole the size of a half-dollar coin in the upper intake boot, though somehow magically the car still ran “fine”. Surprisingly it has an aFe intake on it, which is a very welcome mod. It also has euro clears front and back, though the front lights were Depos (yuck). New headlight lenses were also a surprising find. This thing is almost fully loaded. Some options from the window sticker that was in the original owner’s manual in the glovebox (score!):

* Grey Green Metallic (super rare color in general, let alone on a touring) / Sand Beige interior
* Cold Weather Package
* Premium Package
* Xenon headlights
* Automatic transmission (this is what I wanted)
* Park Distance Control
* Harmon Kardon sound system (not sure if included in Premium otherwise)

Some obvious issues upon inspection:
* There was ZERO brake pad left on the front left, and front right is almost right there as well – metal on metal
* A worrying amount of corrosion on the brake calipers
* The power steering pump was dead – made lots of noise despite reservoir being (over)filled
* Unbelievable amounts of this grey dusty crap caked all over the wheels and wheel wells. We couldn’t see under the car at the time.
* Air conditioning wasn’t working. Fan blew air, but it was hot air.
* Front left turn signal not working. It wasn’t the bulb, so this required further investigation.
* PDC not operational – it appeared to be a bad sensor according to an ISTA scan

What does my dumb ass decide to do? Buy it. I even managed to get them to roll the $291 paperwork fee into the price for $1348 out the door. That would mean I’d have to come back with brake pads and rotors to be able to swap them on site to be able to drive it home, which is what we attempted to do this past Saturday.

Saturday rolls around, and we get cracking. We spent the next 3 hours trying to get the front left caliper removed and the piston pushed in to be able to put newer pads in. The piston was seized, and this set the tone for the barrage of parts that I ordered over the next 2 days. We managed to get the shop there to push the piston in with a bearing press, since the vice they had wasn’t able to get the piston to move! It was enough to get the pads in, the replacement rotor on, and the car driven home. Upon coming home, we immediately put it on my buddy’s left to get a fair assessment of what the damage is.

Warning: THE FOLLOWING IMAGES ARE NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART.
I’ll put a few line breaks after this to prepare you…









Heart attack ensued:

















The amount of rust was so bad, that almost all of the hard brake lines were cut and replaced at some point in the car’s life, and some of the “new” ones are starting to rust. I swear it’s as though this car hasn’t been washed a day in its life, and this is considering is has lived its entire life in the Northeast since it was new, from NJ, to CT, to VT.

At this point, eff it. I’ll replace things as I go, with the mentality that if I replace something, I’m also going to replace every item attached to it (nuts, bolts, mounting brackets, other components, etc.) in an effort to reduce the amount of clusterfudge going on down there. I’m also going to try to grind/wirewheel as much of it off as I can in hopes that it’s not bad enough to be total corrosion. Only time will tell what will happen with this car…

For reference, this is what the removed pad looked like. To think that the dealer rep said the car was driven to the dealership for trade-in like this:





The wheels that came on the car are what appear to be Moda MD10’s, but in 16” size. Tire Rack doesn’t have the 16” available, only in 17”, so I’m not sure if this size was discontinued. I like the design of the wheel, but they’re too small for my tastes, and the tires on them are completely trashed, so we had to swap in my old Style 68’s I used in the winter with the ZHP. The tires are pretty shot on both sets, but at least my Blizzak WS-80’s have a tiny bit of life left to be able to drive the car around. The Moda’s tires were so flat-spotted that there was severe shaking on the highway, so I made sure to bring the 68’s when we went to pick up the car. I like the way the car looks way more with the 68’s anyway.

I took some shots from my visual assessment once getting the car home. These pictures are overall shots of the car and some closeups of the problem areas with the exterior.







































I see what look like WeatherTechs all around! All four mats as well as in the trunk. The floor mats don’t have logos on them but the trunk one does say WeatherTech. Too bad they’re beige. You’ll find out why this is important shortly.















What is that stuff in the trunk, you may ask? That, my friends, is a set of (4) Nokian Hakkapeliitta 8 studded winter tires, probably some of the most badass winter tires you can get, and they came included with the car! They all have great tread left on them too, though I couldn’t find a production date on them. Those Vermont folks sure don’t mess around! I’m not too sure if studded tires are legal to use in CT, so I will be putting these up. If anyone wants the set, let me know! I believe they’re 205/55-16’s.





Speaking of the trunk, I’ve got a pool full of liq… oh wait, wrong song.
But I do have a pool in the trunk…





Or should I say, had. I sucked that water out and will monitor to see where the water is coming from.
I even have a space-saver spare, though it’s rusted from the trunk pool.





Let’s end the intro on a good note: a relatively new, pit-free Genuine BMW windshield.





Stay tuned, as I’ve got several things cooking to get this thing road-ready, as well as mod I’ve been wanting to do to the E39 touring but will instead do to this one…