BMW E46....money pit?

the flipside. My 75k, full SH from BMW then well known and respected indies.

in the last 12 months, 10000 miles

Rad
Stat
Water Pump
Seatbelt pretensioner wiring
coil spring.

in the year before i had it had two new calipers, and all the bushes done. It also had a visit to BMW to have the cruise control jiggled in that time.

oh and both front wings are starting to show E46 rusty front wing syndrome.

Keep an eye out for this, it is apparently particularly bad on titanium silver cars.
 
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Bradmax57 said:
Is that an auto or manual? My 320i is only a little better than my 330ci was and im thinking thats because its a manual whereas my 330 was an auto
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Your 320i is only a little better because pretty much all M54 engines deliver the same economy regardless of power or displacement. Basic homework should have told you this before you bought a 320i, a car which offers ALL the costs associated with the 330i but without the performance :(

The manuals are circs 10% more economical than the autos.
 
[TW]Fox;19652923 said:
Your 320i is only a little better because pretty much all M54 engines deliver the same economy regardless of power or displacement. Basic homework should have told you this before you bought a 320i, a car which offers ALL the costs associated with the 330i but without the performance :(

The manuals are circs 10% more economical than the autos.
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I bought the 320i because it was cheap not because of performance, ive owned both as ive said before and tbh theres little difference bwtween them despite what the figures say
 
There is a whole world of performance difference between them unless you had a 330Ci that was broken (Many now have failed VANOS seals the owners have not noticed, presumably as they never drove a healthy one).
 
[TW]Fox;19653098 said:
There is a whole world of performance difference between them unless you had a 330Ci that was broken (Many now have failed VANOS seals the owners have not noticed, presumably as they never drove a healthy one).
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No theres not, have you driven and owned E46 of both?
 
[TW]Fox;19653178 said:
Yes there is, as you'd expect given the 330i is almost 65bhp up power wise (231 v 167)



Of course I've driven them both.

The difference between the 320i and the 330i is so significant there was even room for a 325i to bridge the gap between them!
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BALLS, but its not that much
 
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You gotta be ****ting me. You really think that the 320 is as good the 330?!

You must have had a bad 330!
 
In 2001 I replaced my 318is (140hp) with a 320i (170hp) saloon, SE spec I think. The BMW salesman told me this was a fantastic car, with the performance of the 325 but with the economy of my 318i s.

The car sounded great, but after owning it for a few months I felt it just didn't seem to get going. Fuel and insurance wasn't cheep either. If I remember correctly the gearing didn't seem to suit the engine, so much so we took it back and bought a 51 plate 325ci (192hp). Can't remember what the difference in 0-62 times were and the hp figures above are from memory, the power delivery difference between the two cars was massive. Told the salesman I thought he'd sold me a pup.

Whilst a lovely car, the 320i didn't seem to know exactly what it was, it didn't excel at performance or economy nor was it overly cheap at the time.

Jack
 
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I had a 330d for 5 years, from 80k miles to 160k. It cost me around £200-£250 a month to run and maintain (excl fuel), and I was lucky that I didnt replace anything really expensive (e.g. injectors or turbo).
 
Thats almost £15,000 in running costs (excluding fuel) over 5 years :eek:

And thats the thing. How many £3k car buyers want or can even afford to spend a further £15,000 running the 'cheap bmw' they just bought over the next 5 years?
 
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