As a (fairly) recent R36 owner whose undergone quite a few issues along the way. You want to.
1. Scan the car for codes before even putting a deposit down, if you've got VCDS try and measure blocks 208 and 209 (these are for the timing chain stretch/wear)
2. Research said codes (if there are any)
3. If you cannot scan the car, get a pre purchase inspection done
4. You will want service history, buying without service history should be getting you the car a fair bit cheaper if you want to go that route though.
5. If there's history, you'll either want a lower km example that hasn't had the timing chain / clutch-packs replaced. Otherwise you'll likely want a higher km example that has had them both replaced. The general consensus is that the clutch-packs are a 160-250km item (depending on how it was driven/services) and the chain is around 160-200km item. Having both to do at once becomes very pricey.
6. Listen for timing chain rattle on cold start, you should expect a few seconds (usually 2-3 seconds), but it should not happen when the car is past this and it definitely shouldn't be happening at warm/hot.
7. Drive the car a tad harder on the test drive, change gears a bit when cold and hot. Ensure that the car gets up to temp while on the test drive (morso the box) and see how it acts then. Changes for the most part should be very quick on acceleration and (in my experience) a bit slower on downshifts as it'll rev match the motor first. Adding to this, do not downshift to 1 at all. I've found that going to 2 is sometimes harsh unless you're breaking or low revs in third and going down. Going to 1 is almost always a bad time and I've heard that it's bad for it as well.
A lot of that is based on my purchase and my regrets are not getting a mechanic to check it over and buying one without logbooks. I'll get to the point where it's all known, but for now it's a bit questionable (see my post about the timing chain noises).
Lastly, if you're purchasing a car with mods. Make sure you have most if not all of the OEM stuff incase you ever don't like x or y or something breaks/needs replacing/recall/warranty related things. I.E airbag recall, you'd ideally want to swap the airbag back over.
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