330d advice & tips thread

Sam

Sam

Sam

Soldato
Joined
12 Jan 2003
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Surrey
Hi Guys

Ive been speaking to nick tonight about his old 330D and i was wondering if anyone else could add any buying tips, common troubles or veiws ?

My budget is around 11k and it has to be manual / silvergrey / Xenons / with the HK system. Im looking at the CD and it needs to be the 204 bhp facelift model.

Why you might ask ? The Subaru is great and probably the best car i have ever owned but the fuel costs are really getting to me at the moment with the increased mileage i am currently doing. Luckily i got the car for a great price due to the times at when i purchased it so im looking at making some money on the car. BUT £65 worth of fuel is only getting me 200 miles and its just becoming a bit of a chore filling it up. Im also up for something a little more luxurious that i can swallow some miles up in.

Edit - Also i plan on remapping it as soon as its purchased which should give 240 / 250 bhp , does this effect fuel economy muchly ?

Pictures are ofcourse as allways welcome ...

Cheers

Sam
 
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I doubt a remap is going to affect economy significantly but you might find it affecting reliability. The newest of the E46's are approaching 5 years old now. Your budget should be enough for a really, really nice example. I won't bother to bore you with running costs as you'll be easily prepared following the cars you've owned.

Make sure you get one with Xenons though as you cant retrofit them easily.
 
[TW]Fox;15102835 said:
I doubt a remap is going to affect economy significantly but you might find it affecting reliability. The newest of the E46's are approaching 5 years old now. Your budget should be enough for a really, really nice example. I won't bother to bore you with running costs as you'll be easily prepared following the cars you've owned.

Make sure you get one with Xenons though as you cant retrofit them easily.
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Thanks mate, im happy paying $$$ for tyres and services i have done for the last coupe of years. I forgot about the xenons

Do things like xenons come in packs ? or with BMW's is everything an option on there own (ie lux pack etc)
 
That isn't nice? It has fake M3 alloys and a weird satnav system with what looks like a GPS antenna just sat on the top of the dash.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about the e46 HK system, it's not really that good. A friend of mine swapped a from the 'hifi' option to a HK car and was disappointed in that it was actually worse although both were tourings so it may be different in a saloon.

EDIT: I agree about the 330d in that pistonheads link, bodgetastic. To have fitted that Kenwood head unit there will have had to have been butchery of the top air vent system as well. And those wheels. :o
 
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Wicksta said:
I wouldn't worry too much about the e46 HK system, it's not really that good. A friend of mine swapped a from the 'hifi' option to a HK car and was disappointed in that it was actually worse although both were tourings so it may be different in a saloon.
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Was very disappointed with the HK system in the ones that i drove before buying. I think its probably the only bad feature in an otherwise fantastic car.
 
So as a rule of thumb, if it has HK then thats good but if the car i want has the HIFI option then thats just as good :) ?

Really i just want the fancy speaker grills :P
 
[TW]Fox;15102991 said:
What you want it is to throw the BMW audio in the bin and do it properly.
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I dont think im that bothered to throw lots of money at it though especially since i dont normally keep cars for longer than a year ...
 
Sam said:
I dont think im that bothered to throw lots of money at it though especially since i dont normally keep cars for longer than a year ...
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Have you ever thought of buying one really good car you love and keeping it rather than just rushing into random cars and then getting shot of them?
 
[TW]Fox;15102991 said:
What you want it is to throw the BMW audio in the bin and do it properly.
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Good advice, my Focus and Ibiza's sound systems were like high end audio compared to the present one in my 320D SE and my old 525D SE.
 
It never ceases to amaze me how BMW can, on the one hand, make some of the best cars on the road yet on the other fit them with the worst audio systems known to man.
 
[TW]Fox;15103051 said:
Have you ever thought of buying one really good car you love and keeping it rather than just rushing into random cars and then getting shot of them?
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I get bored quickly, i like to try and experiance new things ! Im sorry but the hifi cant be ANY worse than my subaru, that is shocking :eek:
 
The subaru will be better, BMW hifi is absolutely appauling. My E46's had HK systems which were acceptable but the standard business stuff in the E39 was amazing. It was by no means a cheap car when new, there is no excuse for how bad some of their systems are.
 
The headunit and speakers lasted 2 days in my e46 330d, the Coupe is better than the saloon but in all honesty it'd have to try really really hard to be any worse, it is truly awful.

My e90 335d did slightly better before it got the alpine upgrade that last 9 days.
 
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