Was: 1985 BMW E28 520i / Now: Moggie is Now Go

[DodgeRover]

Bide your time ,a better one will be always pop up unexpected ..

Immediately after you have spent the money on something else in my experience

[SiC]

I had a close friendship with the service manager at smart during my ownership. He looked after me though, he was a fan of the roadster and always managed to swing me some discount when I needed something doing.

The air con was the most expensive thing I had to fix on it actually. The only other thing it needed over the couple of years I had it was the crank sensor.

I really loved that little car.

I do miss mine. Only car I really regret selling. Had it a year and sold for my MGB GT. If I had the room at the time, I'd kept both.

Wasn't particularly quick off the line but once the slow single clutch gearbox was fully engaged, it wasn't too bad. Did run out of puff at 70mph though.

I DIY all my repairs. Wasn't too bad a car to work on tbh. Even the bottom plugs weren't that bad to do. Still got the special (expensive) plug lead tool kicking about in my toolbox!

[Bazfr69]

We’d likely still have ours but my other half fractured her spine and couldn’t get in and out of it at the time.
I didn’t have the free time to work at it then though.
I think we replaced it with a C30.

I lose track at times.

[SiC]

Mine was so cheap as a Mercedes dealer diagnosed the gearbox loosing gears (three bars) as a failed SAM unit. Actual fault I found the day after driving it back was a chaffed wire to the gearbox control motor. Soldered it together and not a touch of problems. SAM unit I took out later and was in perfect top notch condition. Even if it had failed, I was going to do a dump of its EEPROM into a second hand replacement. Probably those second hand SAMs are mega bucks now I bet.

My DS150e also would do the clutch bite point adjustment. Made a world of difference to the gear changes. Apparently the car doesn't auto adjust and it was expected to be done every time on diagnostics it was serviced at a Smart garage. Which was fine until people got them serviced at normal garages who were unaware of needing to do that.

All somewhere on a AS thread documented.

[Bazfr69]

They did suffer from not being serviced properly. One of the ones I saw before buying mine had been serviced by a garage that had only changed three spark plugs ffs.
It’s roof had also peeled back like an onion but that can’t be blamed on servicing, just neglect.

[SiC]

This is a good candidate for a chassis number swap...


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324610938214

[SiC]

This looks reasonable


Oh


Oh dear.


Looks like it's been parked only ever one way and facing the sea. I'll admit this one scales high on my "It is Fucked" scale. Presumably rust perforation on many of these panels?

Still fetching good money already. The price between utterly fucked, a bit hanging and good Minis doesn't vary a lot. Only when they're super mint do the price go to stupid levels.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265144636556

This is now pretty much a three grand Mini ffs

LOL @ the price of this.

At its peak it hit £3550.

As I write this, its back to £2550 with 3 minutes left.

[SiC]

Just sent an email to the Dolomite club for ordering panels ... £620 worth

Still going to keep a look out on Minis, but wait to see if bargains come up instead.

[Eddie Honda]

Just sent an email to the Dolomite club for ordering panels ... £620 worth

Still going to keep a look out on Minis, but just going to get my welding mojo up first.

FTFY

[SiC]

It's actually pretty much revived now. Even got changed to go out this afternoon but the jab is giving me quite a kicking at the moment.

Reality is, I'll probably end up buying a Mini with plenty of external visible rust. I usually end up with a car like that