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Ignoring the pleas from my friends and family I went ahead and bought a 2002 BMW 318Ti Hatch. Unsurprisingly within a week of ownership the car was overheating with a blown radiator expansion tank, much to the dismay of my wife who drives it to work on a daily basis.
Seeing as though I have never owned a European car before now, and have only owned Japanese cars, this did come as quite a shock. My wife’s previous car, a Honda CRX, had zero mechanical issues since new in 1997.
Going into this new adventure in luxury motoring I was totally prepared for the Beemer to burn a big fat hole in my wallet. On the contrary I have found that all the issues that occur with these cars are quite common, and fairly easy to fix, with plenty of “better than factory” replacement parts available online.
I have said it before and I will say it again, when looking for used or new car parts, look everywhere. From the local wrecker, to web forums in the US and UK, to Ebay and the Trading Post. You will find the parts you need at a decent price even for luxury Euro brands.
After a bit of web forum hunting, and orders through US distributors online, off to the mechanic I went. A few days later the car is all good and my wife is once again ecstatic about her pure driving machine. Thanks Inter-Webby!
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