BMW E46 330 Sport coupé considerations

Hatter The Mad

Hatter The Mad

Hatter The Mad

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Hi,

I'm considering buying (at some point in the next few months) a E46 coupé. I have spent hours and hours reading up and checking some out, buy still have some questions for the OcUK Bayerischacks.

Some details:
- 22
- I'm coming from a Fiesta
- Not mechanically skilled
- Wanting something different (compared to others in my age group), special (compared to typical cars for people my age), not outrageously uneconomical on the motorway, not uncomfortable on the motorway, something engaging to drive on the country roads
- Can carry stuff or four people when really needed

I have poured over cars for a long time, come to the conclusion that an E46 coupé is one of if not the only car which fulfils all of this - agree?

Questions:
- What is the difference, if any, between 330ci and 330i?
- How much does a full set of above-average tyres cost?
- Can I maintain this car on less than £1000 a year (excluding petrol and insurance)
- How rare are these cars with wide-screen nav at dealers? I struggle to find many on the web
- What kind of prices are reasonable? I see some 2004 and 2005 models for £10k - £12k. I'd rather not like to spend more than £8 - 10k. I'm sure I'll find a sound example for this? Ideally I'd like a facelift model, but if it was the choice between wide-screen nav and facelift, I'd take nav. I'd rather not have something older than 2002/3.
- What are the common faults? I've heard of the cooling system - what are the chances of finding a >2002 example with this having been dealt with already?
- When do the problems with the cooling system tend to crop up?
- Can you recommend an insurance broker who specialises in youths with BMWs? Seeing quotes for around £2500 - 3k for me on the usual comparison sites, which probably aren't the best to search for this kind of thing
- What is a better way to buy a BMW of this age: look for a dealer who offers some kind of first year warranty (and pay the dealer premium), or buy private?
- Do you have any other general BMW or buyer-beware advice for me which I won't have already read here?


Thanks in advance :D


PS: Some people might wonder what happened to my plans/ambitions of getting an E92 (I know some people will probably scoff and think I was living in cloud coo-coo) - I've simply decided I don't want to spend that kind of money on a car right now.

PPS: I am sure that there may be some threads asking about this exact type of car which predate me and which I haven't managed to find. If you can recall the title of them, please feel free to send a link this way
 
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I can only answer a few of the questions and these are just things I've read on here and other forums.

Tyres should cost you about £400 a set if you want good ones, make sure you budget for pads and discs as well though as tough driving may mean you go through them pretty quickly as well.

Cooling systems fail every 5-6 years and 80k, apparently.

Pretty sure the difference between a 330i and 330Ci is simply the two less doors and look. I think as the Ci came later it had a few slightly updated things that were introduced to the saloon i at facelift time.

I would imagine you could maintain the car for £1k a year, Fox quotes this as his figure for the 530i which is the same engine. His is quite high mileage and starting to get on now so I would imagine a lower mileage, newer one could be done for £1k as well.

I've managed to get a quote for a 2003 330Ci for when I turn 21 and thats about £1100 on Confused.com. I do have a really good post code though.

Common faults - check the Nav for dead pixals, as with any car check everything like air con, memory seats etc works. Listen for knocking on the suspension as this could be costly.

You can always buy private and buy a warrenty from a company like Warrenty Direct or Tesco. I know a lot of the Porka drives have Tesco warrenty and claim it's pretty good, plus that way you can meet the seller and see if he's likley to have been an idiot and missed services or run it on cheap tyres etc or looked after it with no expense spaired.

FSH is important, as is the first service (which is usually after like 1000 miles I think?).

Check it's had Inspection1 Inspection2 and Oil changes done in the right order and everything looks good.
 
Hatter The Mad said:
Hi,

Questions:
- What is the difference, if any, between 330ci and 330i?
CI is the coupe, i is the saloon.
- How much does a full set of above-average tyres cost?
Around £500-
Can I maintain this car on less than £1000 a year (excluding petrol and insurance)

£1000 per year will not be enough if something goes wrong. My first 6 months ownership went without a glitch apart from oil top ups.

By the end of next week my car over the last 2 weeks will have cost me ~£1000 Roof motor, £300 Service, £250 Rear tyres.

- How rare are these cars with wide-screen nav at dealers? I struggle to find many on the web
- What kind of prices are reasonable? I see some 2004 and 2005 models for £10k - £12k. I'd rather not like to spend more than £8 - 10k. I'm sure I'll find a sound example for this? Ideally I'd like a facelift model, but if it was the choice between wide-screen nav and facelift, I'd take nav. I'd rather not have something older than 2002/3.
- What are the common faults? I've heard of the cooling system - what are the chances of finding a >2002 example with this having been dealt with already?
- When do the problems with the cooling system tend to crop up?
- Can you recommend an insurance broker who specialises in youths with BMWs? Seeing quotes for around £2500 - 3k for me on the usual comparison sites, which probably aren't the best to search for this kind of thing
Im 21 with a 3.0i Z4 and zero NCB. I paid £1150 for 10 months cover with Elephant. The only other 2 who came anywhere near were Admiral and Bell.
I get the same kind of quotes from comparison site and those 3 I mentioned were the cheapest by a long long way for me.

- What is a better way to buy a BMW of this age: look for a dealer who offers some kind of first year warranty (and pay the dealer premium), or buy private?

Private, and buy a 3rd party warranty for around £500. This will still be far cheaper than buying from BMW-
Do you have any other general BMW or buyer-beware advice for me which I won't have already read here?



PS: Some people might wonder what happened to my plans/ambitions of getting an E92 (I know some people will probably scoff and think I was living in cloud coo-coo) - I've simply decided I don't want to spend that kind of money on a car right now.

PPS: I am sure that there may be some threads asking about this exact type of car which predate me and which I haven't managed to find. If you can recall the title of them, please feel free to send a link this way
Click to expand...
 
I just bought a jan 03 330ci for 7800 with 70k. So far over 400 miles im on a reasonable 26mpg. Insurance is 650 for me at 23 with 4 years ncb. Manuals seem to be a bit rarer than autos. Avoid the suede seats as they wear terribly. Front arms and bushes are common to go as most in your budget will be on the rite milege for them,arms are about 60 a side bushes 40 a pair. Tyres can be expensive depends on the brand. Rears are wider than the fronts. Check for any signs of rust and walk away!! There are some out there believe it or not! They also burn a lot of oil. Sorry,there is more it just takes an age to type on my phone:-P
 
@rare; thanks for the effort (double points for doing that on the phone). You're right about the manuals, they are rarer. I'm not that bothered between the two, really. Is your 400miles/26mpg figure combined, mway or urban? I understand I can expect 30 - 40mpg on long motorway runs.

@mrtommo; maybe £1000 (in a bad year) might not be enough, but I mean, if I was to own the car for 5 years, would I be expecting to shell out more than £5k to keep it going (excluding petrol and insurance)

@Peerzy - Didn't even think of independant car warranty companies. Good call, this would have completely slipped under my radar. Understood regarding FSH and inspection 1 and 2.

Looks like I'm being pretty screwed on the insurance quotes (having said that, I only have 1 year NCB and have had my license for just one year, too). I'll try a different post code. @mrtommo - uber jealous regarding the 3.0l Z4, and kudos on having such a nice machine at your age. If I didn't need to have some space, or use to motorway for a fair few long journeys, I'd have a Z4 too.

Re. the 330i / 330ci question - big duh for me. Didn't clock on :)

Thanks for the help everyone!
 
Mines an auto and in all honesty i think it suits the car perfectly. 26 is a combined,i think with good driving on a motorway you could get 35. Insurance will sting you who ever you go with tbh. My 4 years ncb and having a license for 6 makes a massive difference. They are very nice well built cars,i hope you find a good one. Dont setle for a bad one,there are to many out there.
 
rare said:
Mines an auto and in all honesty i think it suits the car perfectly.
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I agree entirely.

I have an e36 328i Auto, the box indeed suits the car (& engine more to the point) perfectly.

Not having to concentrate on gearchanges imo can only be a good thing in our increasingly congested roads, sure, on a track a manual is better, but 99% of us don't do day to day driving on a track.

Most HGV's I drive these days are auto's - I only truly appreciate the auto after a day in a manual equipped truck, only then do you realise that actually auto is a damn site better han manual imo.

Perhaps, @ 38 I'm just getting old?
 
SSG sucks. £1k a year for repairs is about right but a bit low if that figure includes your servicing and tyres. Nav is rare, looks good but the functionality is dire - its a 9 year old computer after all.
 
Sorry to jump into your thread OP, considering a 330i or 330d for the 80 mile commute. Any major problems to look for on a 04/05 plate?
 
To try to help (having owned our 330i sport for a couple of years now):
- My fuel consumption varies between 20mpg in London to a best of around 30mpg whilst cruising at motorway speeds
- I put Falken 452s allround on mine and they seem to suit the car (definitely better than the Dunlops I bought the car with). They were £180 for a pair of fronts and £250 for a pair of rears. In 22k, I've needed one set of tyres, so it doesn't eat them, though being fair mine is hardly thrashed around
- In two years, excluding servicing, my car has required a new power steering pump and a set of new front bushes. Total cost around £700.
- If your car is over 4 years old, you'll get the BMW discount, making servicing nearly as cheap by a main dealer as by an independant at some garages
- I believe the Sat nav cars demand quite a premium. Personally I was quite happy with a TomTom
- As a car, it is a great compromise, ie. really can do everything well. However, not the most exciting car out there, but VERY capable. The only car that I've managed to make myself feel ill in
- IIRC, they were facelifted in 2002, worth making sure that you get a post facelift as there were some nice updates, including the strengthening of the boot floor to prevent it ripping under power (see a few threads on that)
- Common faults include the bushes that I've already mentioned and be aware that if you regularly make full use of the engine that it'll use a bit of oil. Nothing serious, but you should be aware

Hope that helps.
 
[TW]Fox;14096971 said:
its a 9 year old computer after all.
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True - I just want it for the looks. Oh what I'd give to be able to have 2008 iDrive retrofitted. TomTom and iPod connection will suffice!

Mr_Sukebe said:
- As a car, it is a great compromise, ie. really can do everything well. However, not the most exciting car out there, but VERY capable. The only car that I've managed to make myself feel ill in
Click to expand...
Great, that is what I am thinking too. I'm not looking for the most exciting car for the money - I'm looking for something solid, German, pokey and sexy :D

- In two years, excluding servicing, my car has required a new power steering pump and a set of new front bushes. Total cost around £700.
Click to expand...
Was the pump failure something caught in an MOT or inspection? One thing I am assuming is that when things go wrong in a post-2003 E46, they do not go wrong spectacularly (i.e. there is a reasonable degree of reliability to them).

- IIRC, they were facelifted in 2002, worth making sure that you get a post facelift as there were some nice updates, including the strengthening of the boot floor to prevent it ripping under power (see a few threads on that)
Click to expand...
Wtf at the boot floor problem. I actually thought the facelift came in 2004 - I can say for certain the car I'll get will be post-2002, so will hopefully avoid design faults like this.

Thanks!
 
The pump failure was caught by my wife going to the car, starting it, having an interesting racket from the engine bay and finding the steering to be VERY heavy. Luckily we didn't need to go anywhere and our local BMW dealer resolved the issue within 2 days.
I've not read of this being a common fault, but at the end of the day you're buying a car that will be 5-7 years old, therefore it's always going to be a bit of a lottery as to whether you'll have some serious go amiss.

I've read of the mounts for the rear suspension ripping themselves from the floor in early E46 330is. Something to do with the torque from the engine vs strength of the steel in question. I'm told that a revision was made to cars newer than 2002 that resolved the problem. Assuming you're buying a newer car, don't worry about it.

If you're not too bothered about outright performance, do checkout the autos. Once you get used to it, driving a manual again seems just sooo much effort. On top of that, you can practice left foot braking (no clutch to worry about) and never need to take your hands off the wheel again whilst pressing on.
 
I wouldn't worry about the subframe issue too much. It only seems to really affect the early 6 cylinder e46 323/328(c)i's - my own one included. It is very rare to hear of it happening on a 325 or 330.

BMW fixed mine for free despite the car being 9 years old.

The e46 Nav is nowhere near as bad as people make out either, the mk4 computer is not 9 years old and you can add things like an Intravee or CarPC to it. I really miss it in my 328. :(
 
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