BMW 330 E46?

Mr Gimp

Mr Gimp

Mr Gimp

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After umming and ahhing and fannying about for far too long trying to find an Audi A4 that has everything I want, I finally gave in, took off the Audi blindfold and started looking at 330s and cannot believe quite how much car you can get for the money! :eek:

I'm liking the look of the facelift M Sport models but anything is considered at this stage, but what are the main things to look out for on these beasties? Obviously most of the ones I have seen have 100k plus but I'm under the assumption that that sort of mileage is just about worn in on a straight 6?

Any advice is appreciated :)
 
Are you looking at a petrol or diesel?

Do a search here, there are lots of x30i / d users who have posted many posts.
Fox did a great guide for his 530i, however most of it is relevent to the 330i.
Few of us here have 330d's, so plenty of posts about things going wrong ;]
 
The one thing you don't get with a BMW is 'lots of car for the money'. For the money you pay, you get very little car at all when you consider how old it will be and the mileage it will have compared to everything else on the market.

A BMW 330i is lots of things, but good value is probably not one of those.
 
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17990602

I assume you've seen that?

Mine is a facelift but pre-6 speed car, they changed to a 6 speed manual about 6 months after mine was made, apparantly makes very little difference in reality though.

If you drive one, you'll know if it's good or not. If it feels tight and almost like new, it's a good car, and there is no reason it shouldnt feel tight even with 100k+ on, mine still does at 125k miles
 
[TW]Fox;13750511 said:
The one thing you don't get with a BMW is 'lots of car for the money'. For the money you pay, you get very little car at all when you consider how old it will be and the mileage it will have compared to everything else on the market.

A BMW 330i is lots of things, but good value is probably not one of those.
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Kidding yeah? e46 330's go for peanuts now (I know, still trying to sell mine) and whilst they may be old they come fully loaded with every gadget/gizmo you could wish for.
 
[TW]Fox;13750511 said:
The one thing you don't get with a BMW is 'lots of car for the money'. For the money you pay, you get very little car at all when you consider how old it will be and the mileage it will have compared to everything else on the market.

A BMW 330i is lots of things, but good value is probably not one of those.
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Really? I am in the process of looking for a 330ci for the missus.

I've seen lots of examples of 7/8 year old cars in good nick, well serviced by dealerships for between £4,300 and £5,000 with c. 70/80k on the clock and reasonable specs.

I've recently looked at two, one Sapphire Black and one Tpoaz Blue with black leather in both. Both were very tidy cars.

I owned one for 2 years before I got my M3 and for that kind of money you'll struggle to anything that much better in the class. If they've been well looked after (which is fairly easy to tell) and regularly serviced, then you do get a lot of car for your money IMO.
 
If you think £6k for a 7-8 year old car is 'great value' then I guess we have different opinions of value. Don't get me wrong, I think they are great and I'd not buy any other sort of car, I just dont think they are good value and they are not cars you buy if value is on your mind. You can get a Ford thats a third of its age for the same money.
 
have to agree with fox tbh, there are a lot of cars that are newer with just as good a spec, that will cost less to purchase and run. just wont have a BMW badge ;]
 
Also, I think it is worth pointing out that the 'gadgets' on a 7 year old car usually aren't worth having. Have you tried the satnav on the 2003 E46, or Merc's satnav on their > 2006 models?
 
I'm not too fussed about mileage (my running a 155k petrol 306 with no prblems is testament to that!) as long as the car has been looked after. I had heard that it's not uncommon for BMW straight sixes to do ridiculously large mileage without problem though?

GSXRmovistar: I'm looking at petrol models, running costs between the 2.5 and 3 litre models seem pretty much identical having had a mooch about so I'll probably go for the full fat mansize 330i. I hadn't read Foxes guide, I'll have a look now though, thanks :) (what colour is the one you're trying to get rid of btw?)

rG-Tom:

I spotted that a few days ago and your car looks to be pretty much exactly what I'm after and your running costs for your mileage covered actually quite surprised me :) I've got my eye on a few cars at the minute but they're all quite some distance away, so I though I'd see if I could get some pointers before hand.

Fox: I'm after something that confortable and with an interior that doesn't look as if it has been cobbled together by someone without any idea of aesthetics (Ford Focus interiors make baby jesus cry) and more importantly I want something properly solid. Having had a 306 for 3 years you can imagine how sick I am of rattles, squeaks and vibrations. I'm not a badge snob by any means but I do want something that fits the bill on all fronts, especially if I'm putting a fair bit of money down for it. :)
 
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Hatter The Mad said:
Also, I think it is worth pointing out that the 'gadgets' on a 7 year old car usually aren't worth having. Have you tried the satnav on the 2003 E46, or Merc's satnav on their > 2006 models?
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I don't think there's anything wrong with the satnav in Pete's M5 - it's a tiny bit slow at re-routing and doesn't have full postcode search but it does the job just as well as a Tomtom and has the added advantage of no stupid extra unit floating around in the car (plus the screen looks nice in the dash and you can have nice iPod integration).
 
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Value aside, I thoroughly enjoy running my 530i. It is an absolutely brilliant car which excels at everything I ever want to do with it. It looks good, it's nice inside, its comfortable, it handles brilliantly, it's quick, it's economical on a run, it's got all the toys I want. The downside is that a set of tyres is £550, it does 20mpg around town, when it breaks its expensive to fix, etc.

Financially speaking they make no sense at all, you pay £5-8k for a GOOD one (Yes you can find them for less but the cheaper end of the market is full of 6 owner from new dross being sold in shady areas of Birmingham with fake alloys and Linglong tyres), it'll be 6-8 years old, it'll cost you anything up to a grand a year to fix and service, etc.

But if you can afford it, boy is it worth it.
 
Goodwin said:
GSXRmovistar: I'm looking at petrol models, running costs between the 2.5 and 3 litre models seem pretty much identical having had a mooch about so I'll probably go for the full fat mansize 330i. I hadn't read Foxes guide, I'll have a look now though, thanks :) (what colour is the one you're trying to get rid of btw?)
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It's an Imola Red 330ci, fingers crossed it may go tomorrow, got a couple of people coming to see it.
 
OllyM said:
I don't think there's anything wrong with the satnav in Pete's M5 - it's a tiny bit slow at re-routing and doesn't have full postcode search but it does the job just as well as a Tomtom and has the added advantage of no stupid extra unit floating around in the car.
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The Satnav in the E39 and the E46 is terrible. It doesn't have a touch screen, it has a crude annoying button controlled interface, the graphics are dated, the map graphics are dated, the functionality is limited and it's ridiculously expensive to retrofit. The huge advantage, however, is that it makes the dash look far better. But as a satnav system it's only advantage over a portable system is the fact its nice to have it integrated. In every other respect its like using a Celeron 933 to play games on.

Which is what you'd expect from a system first introduced in 2000. 9 years is a LONG time in computers irrespective of minor hardware/software upgrades its had since.
 
OllyM said:
I don't think there's anything wrong with the satnav in Pete's M5 - it's a tiny bit slow at re-routing and doesn't have full postcode search but it does the job just as well as a Tomtom and has the added advantage of no stupid extra unit floating around in the car.
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Even post 07 E60s dont have full post code search. Its a disc upgrade at circa £sillymoney :(

Pretty damn good though and is usually accurate.

My friend just shelled out £7k for an X plate 330ci Sport (questionable). It has almost everything bar sat nav. This is not good value for money but it does only have 50k on the clock.
 
Lucero said:
My friend just shelled out £7k for an X plate 330ci Sport (questionable). It has almost everything bar sat nav. This is not good value for money but it does only have 50k on the clock.
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Somebody has conned him because there are no X plate 330Ci Sport's. They didn't appear until Y plate.

I would advise against the Coupe at this budget really simply because they are more sought after so they cost more meaning your budget will buy you a better Saloon.
 
GSXRMovistar said:
It's an Imola Red 330ci, fingers crossed it may go tomorrow, got a couple of people coming to see it.
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You got any pics? I haven't really seen any in red while looking about.

Fox: Are the Coupes simply saloons without rear doors on the E46 or are they a different chassis like the E92? I'd probably go for a saloon if they're essentially the same model.
 
[TW]Fox;13750699 said:
Somebody has conned him because there are no X plate 330Ci Sport's. They didn't appear until Y plate.

I would advise against the Coupe at this budget really simply because they are more sought after so they cost more meaning your budget will buy you a better Saloon.
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You might remember we had this discussion back at the beginning of the year. You were present. We ascertained that it had been a car completely retrofitted by the dealer with a sport kit, including, but not limited to, the anthracite headlining. :)
 
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