Do or don't
 

First off, I just joined this forum a matter of minutes ago but I've been a long time lurker.

Anywho, the short of the long is I just moved to Hawaii a month ago (military) and my 10-speed just isn't jiving anymore. I went and looked at a '96 318ti with 136k miles today and it needs some work. Well, a good bit of work. It has an array of the common issues - interior is falling apart (pillars, headliner, etc.), hatch struts are shot, both windows don't work, the sunroof doesn't work, and the passenger rear shock mount. The engine sounds great and the transmission shifts smooth. I did notice that there was an odd, and slightly excessive, vibration near the firewall that was only noticeable inside the car. Once we got going it went away and never came back. The paint is faded really bad, but there's no rust. I've been working on cars for years, so these won't be difficult to address myself. The guy wants $1,500 for it but I believe I can talk him down. Do I pull the trigger? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

We bought our 1997 in about the same shape, less the shock problem. Our mechanics comment was it's a BMW, it'll run forever.

I took out the A pillar covers and may strip the headliner when it gets to sagging too bad and paint the fiberglass panel instead or re-installing a new headliner.
We plan to use the car primarily for autocross and as a backup DD. So as I change out old rubber components, I'm adding more track ready parts...M3 control arm bushings to start.

Your price seems reasonable. We paid $2k, but it came with DS1 wheels, and from a friend.