Among all the bizarre listings for furniture and missed connections, there are some really great finds living on Craigslist. Like this 5-speed 318i Convertible with one owner and nearly 400,000 miles.
This car has been in Story Vogel’s family since 1995, primarily driven by his late wife, Judi. You don’t keep an E36 for 30 years and that many miles without being a bit of a BMW nut, and Story tells me he’s had 2002s in the past and still has an E46 wagon and an E91.
For being this old with this many miles, this E36 actually looks pretty great. Story seems to have taken excellent care of it, too. Here’s what he told me over email:
I have done routine maintenance on the car since I bought it and have every receipt for all the work done. It’s about 8 inches high! In 2022, the engine finally gave up the ghost somewhere around 329k. I bought a E36 Ti engine off of eBay from a Canadian dismantler. It had about 110K miles and I did a head and valve job. I have friends who own a BMW/Tesla Dismantling Repair place and they swapped the engines for me.
Photo: Courtesy Story Vogel
It spent about 20 years as his wife’s daily, spliced with trips up and down the Caifornia coast with dogs in tow. It appears to be in remarkably good shape cosmetically. There’s wear and tear, some dings and dents, and the driver’s seat could stand to be replaced-he’s including a spare-but overall it looks like it has less than half the miles.If you’re in San Diego and are looking for an E36 with a lot of history, this could be the one.
Craigslist
“I’d love to sell my E36 to someone interested in preserving it,” Story says. Sounds like a job uniquely suited for CCA member. Check out the listing here.
