Evo, E39 M5, E46 M3 or FD2?

MilanoChris said:
Uses of car - 30 mile a day commute.
Shopping
Driving to old Lady's (350 mile round trip) once every couple of months
Generic social.

Like to hear opinions and possible alternatives...
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The M3 is a Jeckyl / Hyde car. A perfect docile sleeper when you're bimbling around town doing the shopping, but when the roads are quiet and you're ready to have some fun, the moon comes out and the evil Mr Hyde turns up, snorting and wailing up to 8k rpm. :D

1)For your daily 30 miles, it's great, because as long as you're not drinking the Hyde potion daily, you're going to be filling up the car once a week at most.

2)Shopping, a decent sized boot, no problems there.

3) Long distance? as long as you're not too tall, the car is a great unintentional GT. I drove mine to the south of France last year, two of us, back seats down and the boot / rear was full of holiday stuff. Never missed a beat and gave pretty good mpg in return. (circa 28~35)

The only other car I can see that does that in the list is the E39 M5. However, getting a decent one, is going to be difficult now. The Evo is always a Mr Hyde car, you're never going to go slow in it.

My only reservations for you is that with approx 15K to spend, you might find that you're spending a lot more after the initial purchase on keeping the car running. Once they have run out of warranty, M3's and M5's are not cheap to maintain. My M3 is a July '03 model and has only done 42K. It's in pristine condition, but still cost me over 2k last year and is going to cost me more this year as I have to replace all four discs. If these after purchase costs make you think twice, then do not buy a ///M car. They're 42k+ at new for a reason.


So, go buy an Astra Diesel. ;) :D

P.S. If you decide to get an M3, then whatever you do, DO NOT try to take one of M's finest and ram it through Halfords with glue on and pick up all that crap tat. Mint condition, clean OEM style M3's dont have an image problem...
 
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Elric said:
The M3 is a Jeckyl / Hyde car. A perfect docile sleeper when you're bimbling around town doing the shopping, but when the roads are quiet and you're ready to have some fun, the moon comes out and the evil Mr Hyde turns up, snorting and wailing up to 8k rpm. :D

1)For your daily 30 miles, it's great, because as long as you're not drinking the Hyde potion daily, you're going to be filling up the car once a week at most.

2)Shopping, a decent sized boot, no problems there.

3) Long distance? as long as you're not too tall, the car is a great unintentional GT. I drove mine to the south of France last year, two of us, back seats down and the boot / rear was full of holiday stuff. Never missed a beat and gave pretty good mpg in return. (circa 28~35)

The only other car I can see that does that in the list is the E39 M5. However, getting a decent one, is going to be difficult now. The Evo is always a Mr Hyde car, you're never going to go slow in it.

My only reservations for you is that with approx 15K to spend, you might find that you're spending a lot more after the initial purchase on keeping the car running. Once they have run out of warranty, M3's and M5's are not cheap to maintain. My M3 is a July '03 model and has only done 42K. It's in pristine condition, but still cost me over 2k last year and is going to cost me more this year as I have to replace all four discs. If these after purchase costs make you think twice, then do not buy a ///M car. They're 42k+ at new for a reason.


So, go buy an Astra Diesel. ;) :D

P.S. If you decide to get an M3, then whatever you do, DO NOT try to take one of M's finest and ram it through Halfords with glue on and pick up all that crap tat. Mint condition, clean OEM style M3's dont have an image problem...
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Thanks for your post. Where are you getting your parts from? And where are you servicing it? Any specialists in the South? I get my Teg serviced at TGM and would happily take an M car there but unsure if they have done M cars.

The only modifications I would do are a new exhaust (stock sounds like it's wheezing) and perhaps an intake. Apart from that, I highly doubt I'll touch it.
 
MilanoChris said:
The only modifications I would do are a new exhaust (stock sounds like it's wheezing) and perhaps an intake. Apart from that, I highly doubt I'll touch it.
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Probably one of my only gripes with the M3/Z4M is that the engine/exhaust sounds really crap from outside.

Sounds like a raspy bag of nails, and doesn't do the cars justice.

I've looked at aftermarket exhausts and seen things called rasp removers but I think a fine balance needs to be found between retaining a subtle yet nice sound opposed to a motorsport earache fest.
 
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The rasp is a love hate thing. But... It's part of the character of the car. It sounds worse when the car is cold. The engine really sounds like it's churning a bag of nails around until it warms up, but it does have the variable rev limiter to keep reminding you of when it's time for my hyde to come out and play.

I've got a K&N panel filter fitted to mine, I wouldnt bother with anything more exotic than that, it'll only make the induction roar a bit more. As to the exhaust? Yup, the stock pipes do look like they are scaffolding tubes cut to fit, I nearly put a milltek full exhaust on mine, but those end pipes look even worse. So it's either an Eisenmann or Supersprint box for me.
 
I saw a vid on YouTube where it sounded like an F1 car. Was straight through pipes I think. Mental sound, but too much for day to day.
 
MilanoChris said:
Thanks for your post. Where are you getting your parts from? And where are you servicing it? Any specialists in the South? I get my Teg serviced at TGM and would happily take an M car there but unsure if they have done M cars.

The only modifications I would do are a new exhaust (stock sounds like it's wheezing) and perhaps an intake. Apart from that, I highly doubt I'll touch it.
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Autotech network of independent BMW service garages are normally very good. They cost peanuts compared to a dealer and generally know more than dealers to, they will also put a proper BMW stamp in your service booklet. BMW's are not as expensive as people make out to run, mechanical parts are normally comparable to other cars, so servicing is not to bad. BMW tend to hammer you on bits of trim/bodywork and odd nuts and bolts for fittings and this is where they make the money. I have found German Swedish and French to be fairly good for parts for DIY jobs.
 
M3 is a much more complete car than an Evo, which though quicker cross country isn't really cut from the same cloth. Rate the Evo highly but the M3 is, put simply, nicer and the Evo's engine though powerful is not fit to lick the heels of the S54 when is comes to charisma, in CSL guise few engines in the world come close to my mind.
 
E46 M3 if I was in your position. It's becoming a lot harder to find genuinely good ones these days though.
 
Housey said:
M3 is a much more complete car than an Evo, which though quicker cross country isn't really cut from the same cloth. Rate the Evo highly but the M3 is, put simply, nicer and the Evo's engine though powerful is not fit to lick the heels of the S54 when is comes to charisma, in CSL guise few engines in the world come close to my mind.
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I'd agree with the majority of this, the S54 is a flexible engine and can be used in a multiple of roles well.

The 4G63 was designed for a specific role - lightspeed point to point. It's not comparatively smooth or refined, but the power delivery suits that car, and the engine is very strong and receptive to tuning for different roles.

Not sure i'd quite agree with the Charisma comment though ;)
 
I'd be very tempted by the M3 but think I'd probably go with Foxs' suggestion of a 335i.

Haven't personally driven any of the cars but have been in an E39 M5 but for me the Evo and FD2 aren't in the same league as the M3/M5, are they?
 
ive got a huge soft spot for the M5 despite it being far larger than id need any time soon.

the 335 idea is very logical and i think id take that over an M3 (image etc i like the bland-er car)

what about a "cheaper" M5 and pocket the rest for the running costs when they arise?
 
IAmATeaf said:
I'd be very tempted by the M3 but think I'd probably go with Foxs' suggestion of a 335i.

Haven't personally driven any of the cars but have been in an E39 M5 but for me the Evo and FD2 aren't in the same league as the M3/M5, are they?
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As Fox mentioned, it would have to be an SE at this budget and based on the other cars being considered, I think it can be counted out.
 
Burned_Alive said:
As Fox mentioned, it would have to be an SE at this budget and based on the other cars being considered, I think it can be counted out.
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The SE Coupe is still a nice car to be in, a friend of mine in Manchester has a 330i SE Coupe and inside it looks lovely, granted the outside is a bit on the bland side.
 
[TW]Fox;16362397 said:
In any way at all really, given an FD2 is a £20,000 car and an M3 and M5 were a £40,000 and £50,000 car :confused:
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And an IX MR FQ360 is £36k and a X £40k.

Aside from price? There certainly isn't a lot in it in terms of pace.
 
Ok, an Evo is exactly the same sort of car in the same league as a BMW M5.

As is a Land Rover Discovery, they are the same price as well.

Come on, you are not daft, one is a plastic turbonutter Jap car, the other is a BMW M5.
 
Gaijin said:
And an IX MR FQ360 is £36k and a X £40k.

Aside from price? There certainly isn't a lot in it in terms of pace.
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But that's just the point isn't it, when considering an M3 or an M5 then I'd have to guess that you'd be interested in more then just outright pace.
 
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