Should have told me! I'd have sold you my absolutely identical E90, white and all, for $2500.... just don't look at the odometer 
Photography by Tim Suddard
Unicorns. Sometimes you just can’t say no to one.
While attending this year’s Carlisle import show, we were instantly smitten by a rather rare iteration of a very common car: a 2011 BMW 328i sedan.
[Carlisle Import & Performance Nationals: All imports, all fun]
How can we deem this one as so rare, especially when BMW built more than 3 million copies of E9x, with offerings covering sedans and coupes, wagons and convertibles? We haven’t yet found the exact number, but our friends in the business say that less than 3% of the 328i sedans came with the six-speed manual transmission. And this is one of them.
This car also had no options and just the baseline trim: no iDrive, no sunroof, no heated seats. The color? White–perfect for our Florida home.
We were drawn in by the simplicity.
The 328i came equipped with a rather lovely 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder that reminded us of our beloved E36-chassis M3. In stock form, the 328i is rated at 230 horsepower; the much-vaunted M3 made 240.
While the 335is version of this car makes more power, it also has a turbocharger that adds complexity and weight.
After one test drive, we immediately saw this car as a spiritual successor to our beloved E30 318is.
Why not the coupe? We wanted the practicality of carrying four people. Coupes are sexy, but miserable for putting adult-sized people in the rear seats.
The car looked clean inside and out, with 119,000 miles on the odometer. We knew the seller, CR’s, as we have done deals with them before.
Asking price was $8995. As is typical at a swap meet, we paid considerably less and think we can keep the total budget–figure some mild mods are in the plans–to $10,000.
We were told that this was a good car and, as we’d soon find out, he was right.
Should have told me! I'd have sold you my absolutely identical E90, white and all, for $2500.... just don't look at the odometer
Grretel was our 2008 E90 with the N52. That inline 6 really sounded sweet when you wound it out.
That, my friends, is probably the last BMW I would ever want to own. My favorite BMW color, no sunroof, and brown interior. Bravo!
Whats it weigh?
In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :
👂👂👂
Start looking for some sport seats immediately. The base seats are pretty terrible while the sport seats are pretty sweet. Example below.
And call James and order his 3-stage intake manifold upgrade!
In reply to dyintorace :
Yeah, I had the sport seats, in brown, in a 328i I had for a while, was probably the only thing I really liked about the car. Oh, it did handle pretty well, and it did travel pretty well, but dealing with some of the control algorithms just got tiresome, dealing with way too many menus......
jamesclay said:In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :
👂👂👂
Mine is an '08 white 6spd base. Just crossed 300k miles a few days ago. Runs flawlessly.
I love these kinds of under-the-radar, rare cars.
Just about anyone can get their hands on a 335is, but a slicktop 328i with a manual and virtually no options? Good luck finding another one.
My eyes read "14 year old BMW" and my first thought was "Oh, so like e30?"
I hate this getting older thing, but I guess it beats the alternatives.
Can someone decode the alphabet soup for me and explain what makes it special?
Displaying 1-10 of 27 commentsView all comments on the GRM forums
You'll need to log in to post.
