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You notice it on the road too. Nearly every E46 I see is petrol (with quite a lot being either a fully loaded 330 or a poverty spec 318) yet diesels are very very rare. Only once have I seen a 330Cd.
BMW 330d e46 - pros and cons
- Thread starter squarehead94
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You notice it on the road too. Nearly every E46 I see is petrol (with quite a lot being either a fully loaded 330 or a poverty spec 318) yet diesels are very very rare. Only once have I seen a 330Cd.
You've just not been paying enough attention matey
I see loads of diesels down here..probably a 50/50 split I'd say.
If your priorities are cheap to run, don't look at a diesel E46.
Really?
Maybe the chap who used to work here was lucky, Slackworth, sure some of you remember him.
He purchased an E46 330D with 33,000 miles, it now has 186,000 on the clock and in that period actual items failing/repairing have cost him less than £500. Only to items failed with the second one being recent costing around £300ish he was telling me. I wash shocked and impressed to hear from him how reliable it has being for him. Of course a lot of long distance driving, motorway and A/B roads.
Servicing wise he has done it as per BMW guidelines.
He was either very lucky or he has had 150,000 miles worth of trouble free motoring.
Exactly. If you take the OPs annual mileage and consider a realistic difference in MPG between a petrol 330 and a 330d (or similar cars), like the figures Scania posts and not the ridiculous diesel costing only a third of a petrol car to fuel that OP has dreamt up, then you're looking at an annual fuel saving of around 700-750 quid. It's highly likely most of that 'saving', maybe all of it, maybe all of it and some, will be eaten up for many years in the higher purchase price and replacing turbos, high pressure fuel pump, injectors, swirl flaps etc etc etc. And your reward for all that - you have to put up with driving a tractor
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Really?
Maybe the chap who used to work here was lucky, Slackworth, sure some of you remember him.
He purchased an E46 330D with 33,000 miles, it now has 186,000 on the clock and in that period actual items failing/repairing have cost him less than £500. Only to items failed with the second one being recent costing around £300ish he was telling me. I wash shocked and impressed to hear from him how reliable it has being for him. Of course a lot of long distance driving, motorway and A/B roads.
Servicing wise he has done it as per BMW guidelines.
He was either very lucky or he has had 150,000 miles worth of trouble free motoring.
Whereas paradigm had one for a few years and it bit him for thousands.
[TW]Fox;25568681 said:
Like everything in life, there is good and bad but to say they are superb or unreliable based on a single experience is unfair.
I posted my colleagues findings to try and bring balance to all the negativity.
Like my S-Type, hear quite a few horror stories, but for a £700 buy its being relatively reliable apart from a radiator exploding and coil pack failing, all of which cost quite little to resolve.
You get good and bad with any car, but fingers crossed for me every BMW I have owned has being very reliable. My first 320i was reliable, well it had bent wheels, so tyres lost air, battery failed and fuel pump would randomly shut off which was fixed by wacking back seats, but it was a shed as to why none of which I fixed, but it kept going. My 525i I had covered like 257,000 miles when I eventually traded it in against the EVO X, still miss it, awesome car comfortable reliable car. My M3 CSL never put a foot wrong and my current M3 has only cost me money because I am preparing it for some serious track abuse, but its being reliable which for a 7k M3 is not bad going.
I hope my BMW ownership continues to be good.
Was only 3 when nick got it, they are good when new but I honestly have no idea what the point in buying a 10 year old one is 
It's not based on a single experience at all, it's common sense, more to go wrong. Your turbo won't fail if it's not fitted for example. Plus for me the bigger point is that if you are only buying really old ones and you want low costs hence thinking of.diesel is any old BMW the right answer?
People think because it's diesel it will be easy to run on a low budget.
It's not based on a single experience at all, it's common sense, more to go wrong. Your turbo won't fail if it's not fitted for example. Plus for me the bigger point is that if you are only buying really old ones and you want low costs hence thinking of.diesel is any old BMW the right answer?
People think because it's diesel it will be easy to run on a low budget.
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[TW]Fox;25568805 said:
Seems the right way to say it. The majority of diesels owned by family/friends are german. Reason they buy them is 'because they're cheap on fuel.' They seem to forget the costs if something goes wrong.
When I bought the Mondeo ST, I knew what I was getting in to. I had read the horror stories and the mileage was high. So far so good, it hasn't given me any major problems just general wear and tear. I think I paid a little too much for it, but the condition was great and it wasn't a bad spec, just missing the satnav/xenons.
A 330d e46 is just too old. I wouldn't go near a old german car unless it was a w124 Merc.
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I presume your excluding petrol examples??
I'd shudder at an aged high mileage e46 diesel - in fact I bought my 325i touring over a slightly newer but much higher mileage 320d touring, bar the ~24mpg, I'm certain I made the right choice, bought it in July and it's first failure is a prop shaft coupling, which could fail on either fuel type, other than that it's not missed a beat.
No. Those 330i's aren't so bad.
It's just a lot are high mileage, a decent once commands a premium. I just don't think it's worth it if you want a nice diesel to save money. Why not just buy a small petrol car if you want economy?You can get a decent saloon or estate 330 for not a lot of cash though, its only the coupes which are hard to find in good nick and It'll probably still be cheaper to buy than a 330cd. Even then the comparable car is the 325i really which again widens the possibilities.
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You've just not been paying enough attention matey
I'll keep my eyes open but pretty sure there are hardly any around here. Plenty of E9x 320ds however!
He was either very lucky or he has had 150,000 miles worth of trouble free motoring.
How old was it when he purchased it though? Not saying all of them will bork, but the chances of finding a good 10+ year old example vs when the car was much younger are much slimmer. Plus in a situation like the OP when you're aiming for cheap to run, all it takes is one possible big bill occurring when you don't have the funds to fix it, and it's goodbye car.