How eBay turned a classic BMW into a modern masterpiece for just £2,000

Imagine you'd just picked up a tasty modern classic car - a BMW 330CI, no less, and someone gave you a blank cheque to bring it up to modern standards using anything you wanted to buy. That's what the lucky people at eBay have just been doing with their summer.

They set themselves a challenge; to buy a car on eBay and then modify it with all the tasty tech it would need to look and feel like a modern motor. All with parts bought on the famous online marketplace.

They ended up going a bit mad. They brought in automotive expert and TV mechanic Hannah Gordon who stripped the car completely and got to work fitting an array of cool toys that arrived in the post.

Some of the bigger, more costly indulgences included a fresh set of tyres - Michelin all-season tyres, from the eBay Tyres store, an XTRONS infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and a reversing camera, a Gladen speaker upgrade, and even a blind-spot warning system.

There's a head-up display, a Nextbase dual-channel dashcam and a GPS tracker.

And then they really pushed the boat out and visited the BMW store on eBay and splurged some more cash.

Genuine floor mats, kick plates, an M Sport gearshift knob, and even hub caps were bought, and fitted by Hannah, who carefully put the car back together and let it loose on a small group of journalists at Caffeine and Machine's The Bowl pub in sunny Bedfordshire.

Quite remarkably, the cost of all these upgrades, the total bill for bringing a BMW up to modern standards, came in at just over £2,000. And most of that was spent on a £650 set of tyres and a £699.99 speaker system.

But, boy, do they make a difference. I spent a very pleasant hour pootling around the Bedfordshire countryside in eBay's new baby and it's remarkable what a couple of grand can do to a car.

Importantly, they made a fine choice for their base vehicle. The BMW 330CI was always a lovely machine, but the 2005 example they found had been really well looked after, with only 85,000 miles on the clock.

The more superficial upgrades, such as floor mats and a gearshift knob just made it feel a little bit more special, but the modern accoutrements really did give it a modern twist.

The infotainment screen, for example, added wireless Android Auto, which I used to find my way back to the pub, and it fitted so well to the dashboard it looked like it had always been there.

The blind spot warning system was a really clever touch, and I loved the reversing camera. Something every car should have.

I was less enamoured with the head-up display. I don't mind these as a rule, but this one beamed up onto a moderately transparent panel on the windscreen that got in the way. Nice idea, but not something I liked.

The speaker upgrade, though, blimey... Its subwoofer was mounted in the spare wheel well, providing plenty of bass and depth, and the rest of the speakers added some mid-range punch and detail and clarity in the high notes. I've been in modern cars that aren't a patch on it.

At £699.99 it was actually the most expensive item, but if you like your music, it was absolutely money well spent.

The car cost £8,990 and the total cost of the extras was £2,247.17, so it owes eBay £1,1237.17. Would it have bothered me if these extras weren't fitted? No, it's still a nice car.

Does it all add enough to justify the extra cost? Absolutely, I'd have done it all to my own car in a heartbeat - especially the infotainment screen, reversing camera, and the BMW bling.

Buying the parts off eBay has obviously made it all a bit cheaper and, thanks to the Tyre Shop fitting service, the clever "My Garage" feature, and the BMW eBay Store, it was all so easy. A one-stop shop, in the sincerest sense of the word.

It's actually inspired me to hunt around for some modern trinkets for my oldest car. Sadly it's not a BMW, it's a Fiat Panda. But it's still going to be fun upgrading it.