[karlhobe]

Greetings from Estonia

After owning 2 E39-s (525iA and a 535iA) and a E46 330dA M-sport i drove a Subaru Impreza WRX STI for about a month and soon realised that i missed the Bmw-s comfort and versatility.

Anyway i was lucky to get my hands on a late 2005 Bmw 325iA, that was bought new from the Estonian dealer and had 1 owner (i am the second one). For most of you, who live in a country that has a big population, buying a car that has a maintenance history that is documented and is not false, is a normal thing, but here in Estonia, most of the more luxurious cars are imported from all around Europe. That is not a bad thing on its own, but most likely a business man has bought it from example from Italy or Germany as a crashed or poorly maintained car for a cheap price and then sells it on after some cheap repairs with a profit in Estonia.

Information about the car:



As i said, my car is really quite a rare find in Estonia. It has done about 183000 km or 113000 miles. It is in good shape and has a full local Bmw dealership maintenance history. It was basically a steal, because the previous owner had a bran new F30 waiting in the dealership and just wanted to get rid of the old car. That was fine by me

The car is not fully loaded, but has all of the extras i need + some more, like the Logic 7 HiFi and Comfort Access

The full list is here:



The car is quite stock, but i have done and will do some minor mods. Mainly i would like to keep it looking stock.

Mods done:

LED angle eye bulbs
LED interior lightning
LED numberplate lights
5000k xenon bulbs
Style 123 18" wheels (E60 stock with ET20 all round)
225/40/18 Nankang NS-2 tires all round
Bluetooth aux music
Blackline rear lights

What i plan to do:

Tinted rear windows
LED or Xenon fog lights
New rear number plate and remove the holder
FRM2 module

Also some pics:

This is when i got the car and in winter mode





And here is the car with new summer wheels and the AE-s





A small photoshoot
Photos are taken using a Canon 600D + Sigma 30mm f1,4










Hope you like the car

[Taskmaster]

Nice! So far so good!

[Chris H]

Nice car, look forward to watching you mod it! It's always interesting to see someone else modding a 325!

[bimmette]

Congrats, nice SGM! I think the tint will make a big difference.
Interesting point about finding a car in a small country. (I've been to Tallinn, so beautiful!)

[Mardio]

Very nice, welcome.

[karlhobe]

Thank you! Tallinn really is beautiful. I will try and do a photoshoot in the old town

About the used car market, it really is hard to find a good used car in a small country. I have had 7 cars and 6 of them have been imported. All of them had been in an accident in their lifetime, and or had their odometers scrolled back.

[DC_Oldboy]

Very nice! Congrats! I think this is the first time I seen E60 wheels on a E90. Looks really good.

[karlhobe]

There aren't many E90-s out there with E60 wheels, but i think there should be, because the ET and the fitment with right tires is in my mind better than with the original E90 wheels, that have offset of 34-37.

In the rear i am actually thinking of using some spacers to bring the back wheels out even more to give a more aggressive look.

Also wanted to show how the 5000k bulbs work with the AE-s. 4300k would have been i little off, but these two match perfectly

Sorry the car is dirty - it is simply impossible to keep it clean right now...

[DOMs335D]

Congratulations on the new car. Very classy interior and I agree with previous posters that a tint would look great. Anyways enjoy your new car

[Tallest]

Tere! Happy to see a fellow Estonian here (first one really) - my old cars in my garage, including couple of e90s (and a 325iA to boot / had that before selling it and getting my current Z4C)

Looks like a decent set of mods, dont over do it (well with our roads you rally cant, right?) and keep her nice and clean! Very true what you say about car history, my E90 320d was from germany (bought by dealer with 20k km and I had so hard time selling it as noone believed me that a 2006 model in 2011 could have had 80000km..). Then I bought the dealer demo car / one of those blue E90s you see / 2 msport, 2 non msport. Sõidutreening autod. Mine had 10000km when it was sold to one guy, who later sold it to me with 30k. I never knew if that was a legit milage, but everything checked out with own mechanics and condition was tip top. SOld it for same as bought it year later... And again with the Z4C I bought the car from Germany via dealer myself as I cant trust local history. Sad but true.

Welcome to the forum.
PS: I removed the plate holder on my cars, totally worth it. If you want btw I got some matte black kidneys I dont need anymore and can sell cheap just to get rid of them.

[Tallest]

Originally Posted by karlhobe

There aren't many E90-s out there with E60 wheels, but i think there should be, because the ET and the fitment with right tires is in my mind better than with the original E90 wheels, that have offset of 34-37.

I always said this in threads and noone ever fking noticed. I swear, a good set of 18s, with 8 and 8.5 will 1) remove the need for stupid 275 width tyre on a little sedan to fill the arches and 2) will sit flush with fenders - what most want.

[karlhobe]

I have been reading the forum for a while now, and haven't seen many estonians here, but hopefully in time more will join

As for the black grilles - mmm, i think i like the current look more. If i would change the grilles, i would like to make it a full shadow line exterior. But i don't see that happening right now.

Actually my 325 was also part of the Bmw training program, but wasn't one of the cars they drove there, but mine was given to the now deceased Eedo Raide as a sort of loaner car for the time he worked there. He put about 2000km on the odometer and then the car was sold basically as a demo car to the previous owner. When i bought the car i did a full checkup on everything - the United Moters (local dealership) 24p test, which only showed some worn rear bushes, that i will take car of as soon as i have the time and fault reversing lights. I also checked the history via the DMV website and other places. As for the price, i mentioned it was a steal. Basically i got the car for 6k euros which included 2 sets of alloys and brand new Goodyear winer studded tires. Hopefully i will be able to sell it on in the future (at least 1-2 years) with little or no loss at all.

I will keep it clean and mod it with minor stuff - no plans on lowering etc - as you mentioned our roads here just are not made for lowered cars

[karlhobe]

Originally Posted by Malbolge

I always said this in threads and noone ever fking noticed. I swear, a good set of 18s, with 8 and 8.5 will 1) remove the need for stupid 275 width tyre on a little sedan to fill the arches and 2) will sit flush with fenders - what most want.

Actually the Style 123-s are a square 8" with ET 20. And you are also right about the 275 tires - in my mind for a small sedan there is no need for so wide rear tires. It will only increase fuel consumption.

Originally Posted by Malbolge

PS: I removed the plate holder on my cars, totally worth it. If you want btw I got some matte black kidneys I dont need anymore and can sell cheap just to get rid of them.

I have ordered a new set of numberplate LED lights and i am also waiting for the new number plates from the DMV. Will do all of those things at once.

Also planning to tint the rear windows in a couple of days

[Tallest]

Eedo was cool, I managed to do the BMW training course with him back in 2009. In the car I bought few years later.

6k is a steal for E90, they should go 9-10k, but 325i is not ideal engine for this car to be honest so it should be cheap-ish (at least that was what I thought - after comparing it to 320d I thought 320d was superior intown in terms of pickup and economy, I think torque on 325i is weakish and you need to rev the nuts off it to make it move, especially with an AT).

[karlhobe]

Lucky for you

But i agree with you. I really miss the low down torque on my 330dA. But other than that, the engine has plenty of oomf for me - of course it is no Impreza STI (was heavily modified and did 0-100 in about 4,5 eek).

The 325 does go quite well at higher revs and thats fine by me

[karlhobe]

Did a quick photoshoot after a wash in the countryside. Usually there would be meters of snow, but as you can see, spring is has really arrived

[Tallest]

brave with summers, im still on winters, but rims look great with that offset. I bet you enjoy the refinement here a lot more than in 330d never mind the Impreza. After I got into 325i from 320d i had that double take on traffic lights "is this thing on?". haha.

[karlhobe]

Got some new stuff from ebay, and modded the car.

New numberplate lights (the are really-really brite - thinking of ways to make them dimmer) - 12€ a pair
New AE-s (now all 4 work perfectly) - 14€ a pair
Removed the numberplate holdings - just manual labor

[karlhobe]

Did a smaal photoshoot with my new lens.

New pics are on the first post