BMW E46....money pit?

Morba said:
You gotta be ****ting me. You really think that the 320 is as good the 330?!

You must have had a bad 330!
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or a great 320 :) maybe one too many shandys last night :) but ff course not, yes of course the 330 is faster than a 320 everyone knows that but from my personal experience the difference isnt as great as it can be led to believe, probably that my 330 was blunted a bit by the autobox aswell
 
[TW]Fox;19653178 said:
Yes there is, as you'd expect given the 330i is almost 65bhp up power wise (231 v 167)
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231 vs 170, so 61 HP (125 kW and 170 kW respectively).

The 330i is significantly quicker than the 320i in road situations. I have a friend who used to have a 323i (same peak but more low RPM power than the 320i) when I had my 330i, and I was able to drive away from him quite easily. We are talking he's a dot in the distance over 30 seconds and I start pulling car lengths from rest.

The biggest thing that will be impacting your assessment will be the automatic transmission. My 330i felt really quite quick with the manual and my 530i (same engine, 8.5% more body weight) felt noticeably less urgent with the automatic, especially from rest if you didn't brake launch it.
 
Joe T said:
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).
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Between £4.5K and £5K a year to run? Thats ridiculous.

If thats supposed to be an acceptable cost of running an E46 then frankly, I'm out :) A mate of mine has a Ferrari 348 and doesn't spend that sort of money on service/repairs each year.

If we ignore fuel, my Jeep has cost me a battery and a service in the last 18 months - £500 tops. And Jeep in the UK have an excellent reliability record?!
 
That figure could well have included inflated insurance costs, so it probably isnt that bad when you break it down. Lots of younger people pay upwards of £150pm insurance for example....
 
EddScott said:
Between £4.5K and £5K a year to run? Thats ridiculous.

If thats supposed to be an acceptable cost of running an E46 then frankly, I'm out :) A mate of mine has a Ferrari 348 and doesn't spend that sort of money on service/repairs each year.

If we ignore fuel, my Jeep has cost me a battery and a service in the last 18 months - £500 tops. And Jeep in the UK have an excellent reliability record?!
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I doubt his 348 or your Jeep are driven 16,000 miles a year though...
 
EddScott said:
Between £4.5K and £5K a year to run? Thats ridiculous.
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You fail at sums!

£200 per month = £2,400 a year. Fox exaggerated slightly with £15k - and that was over 5 years not 3....:p

When a set of tyres can be £600-£800, and insurance is £600-£700, plus servicing and repairs it doesnt take long to get to those kind of numbers when doing 16-17k a year.
 
You said 200-250 a month so I picked 250 and multiplied by 60 months :p

Just checked my records for the 530i - over just under 5 years, £154 a month average on tyres, insurance, breakdowns, repairs and servicing.
 
[TW]Fox;19666895 said:
You said 200-250 a month so I picked 250 and multiplied by 60 months :p

Just checked my records for the 530i - over just under 5 years, £154 a month average on tyres, insurance, breakdowns, repairs and servicing.
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What mileage per annum on average?

This thread is just full of numbers, can we at least try to make things comparable?
 
Average about 7k I think, I did loads in the first year unexpectly after my Uni placement moved to a 100 mile round trip away and then settled down after that.
 
Are the engine's used in the e46 318i really that dire?

I understand the prefacelift 318i engine wasn't that good but what about the facelift engine? 148hp can't be that bad surely?
 
G J said:
Are the engine's used in the e46 318i really that dire?

I understand the prefacelift 318i engine wasn't that good but what about the facelift engine? 148hp can't be that bad surely?
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They aren't great. They feel a touch underpowered, and to be fair, why bother owning an old E46 that costs the same to run as a new one, only to be lumbered with a crap-engined one?
 
I had an Y reg E46 325 Sport in yesterday for MOT, had done 116k and needed 2 rear coil springs as they both had 1 coil broken, and a bulb. Not bad for its age. The springs were just under £40 each and took about an hour to fit. The rest of the car was generally in good condition, bushes and ball joints were still nice and tight, original exhaust + brake pipes etc. The guys had it for 7 years he said and almost every year it sails through with little or no work. I'd not call that a money pit. If the guy had it serviced and MOT'd at BMW dealer every year he'd have spent way more than he has and still had a car that was no better in the end.
 
[TW]Fox;19666895 said:
You said 200-250 a month so I picked 250 and multiplied by 60 months :p

Just checked my records for the 530i - over just under 5 years, £154 a month average on tyres, insurance, breakdowns, repairs and servicing.
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That's a lot for only 7k miles a year
 
Joe T said:
You fail at sums!

£200 per month = £2,400 a year. Fox exaggerated slightly with £15k - and that was over 5 years not 3....:p
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LOL :) So in future only trust Fox when needing BMW advice and not maths sums :)

Seriously think I've changed my mind. I'm just not prepared to risk spending 6 or 7k on a car that I can't trust not to slap me with a big bill - although any car has the potential to do this.

My mother is looking to change her car (02 Audi A4) so think I'll be buying that.
 
[TW]Fox;19669706 said:
There was nothing wrong with my maths. He said 200-250 over 5 years.

Would you mind telling me the answer to 250 x 12 x 5?
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Actually, theres nothing wrong with your maths my friend. I didn't read the posts properly. More fool me. :)
 
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