BMW and M Power Owners

lucarocks92 said:
Everytime I see the E46 M3 I just want one more and more.

Fell in love with the car as an 11 year old when I was glued to my seat in the passenger side blasting through a mountain road at 130 mph.

Never had an experience quite like that ever since :D
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mrk said:
I waited nearly 5 years to get mine, you know those times when you question whether something will live up to expectations at the last moment? It did :cool:
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The warranty on the E46's is the issue, or you guys aim to have a fund just incase?
 
Gangster said:
The warranty on the E46's is the issue, or you guys aim to have a fund just incase?
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The issue with a warranty on a car that is 10-15 years old is that the warranty company will claim that anything that goes is wear and tear. And in fairness - a lot of the time, they'd be right.

Yes there is a lot of things that can go wrong on an E46 M3, but these days more than ever, people are being forced to get them sorted. Buying an M3 and having things like subframe already being done is very common now, VANOS work has also often been carried out and occasionally the headgasket will have been replaced too.

5 years ago, when these issues were starting to come to light, you would have not found a car that had had this work already done and it would have been down to you to pay for it all if you wanted to keep your car on the road. The single biggest piece of advice I can give is buy a manual. Forget the SMG. Over the years the M3 community has found ways of reducing the cost of work of all of the common faults, from thousands often down to hundreds. Apart from the SMG pump replacement. This is still a £2500 job and there is not getting round that. And even if you get the pump done, you're still left with a clunky old system which will probably fail and leave you stranded again soon after.
 
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i love my e46 m3 to death. Every time it costs me a fortune I get so close to selling but just cant do it. I think i might need another diff now but after having the whole smg unit replaced. Clutch done and the Vanos overhaul it would be pointless to sell now.
 
What's your budget and what do you consider low mileage? That is ultimately the big question :p

A very low mileage one may sound ideal, but will most likely not have had the common wear items seen to as the time has not come for it yet, so factor that into the equation. Gaygle e mentioned this sort of thing above.
 
Gaygle said:
The issue with a warranty on a car that is 10-15 years old is that the warranty company will claim that anything that goes is wear and tear. And in fairness - a lot of the time, they'd be right.

Yes there is a lot of things that can go wrong on an E46 M3, but these days more than ever, people are being forced to get them sorted. Buying an M3 and having things like subframe already being done is very common now, VANOS work has also often been carried out and occasionally the headgasket will have been replaced too.

5 years ago, when these issues were starting to come to light, you would have not found a car that had had this work already done and it would have been down to you to pay for it all if you wanted to keep your car on the road. The single biggest piece of advice I can give is buy a manual. Forget the SMG. Over the years the M3 community has found ways of reducing the cost of work of all of the common faults, from thousands often down to hundreds. Apart from the SMG pump replacement. This is still a £2500 job and there is not getting round that. And even if you get the pump done, you're still left with a clunky old system which will probably fail and leave you stranded again soon after.
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True, although one issue is I'd want an SMG - I have heard it isn't too good however as the E92 in terms of 'auto' and can be clunky.

I tend to only buy approved used (to ensure its not stolen, fully checked etc) however with the E46 being so old the only ones that are AUC are ''pristine'' versions which aren't too far of E92 pricing.
 
mrk said:
What's your budget and what do you consider low mileage? That is ultimately the big question :p

A very low mileage one may sound ideal, but will most likely not have had the common wear items seen to as the time has not come for it yet, so factor that into the equation. Gaygle e mentioned this sort of thing above.
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Indeed, buy on condition only and don't dismiss higher mileage ones. There are some 60-70k mile cars which have been poorly maintained and need very expensive things doing to them. My car is on 102k miles but there are not many in as good condition as it. Mine has:

- New shocks and struts all round with proper Hunter alignment
- Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres
- Suspension bushes have been replaced all round including subframe bushes.
- Subframe repaired by BMW
- Front end fully refurbished and resprayed by BMW. All new genuine front wings done at the same time. No rust anywhere on the car.
- New genuine AL headlight lenses.
- Refurbished steering wheel in Nappa leather
- Harmon Kardon sound system with upgraded amps. Navigation. A2DP bluetooth streaming.
- BMW Performance 6 pot brake system with new front 345mm CSL discs/pads and new genuine BMW rear discs
- Full service history
- Leather in excellent condition and regularly treated.

There are 60k mile examples that have subframe cracks outside of warranty, VANOS issues and patchy service history. Not to mention rust is a major issue now on these cars.

Finding a good one that doesn't need a couple of thousand sinking into it to bring it up to scratch is becoming more difficult than ever.
 
You are going to pay a pointless fortune for a 60k mile 10-15 year old 3 Series. It'll then shed value quickly as you pile the miles on and it loses it's 'rarity factor'.

There is no real reason to favour low mileage ones once they hit this age. It's old, it's gonna break, what does the low mileage really get you?
 
Gangster said:
True, although one issue is I'd want an SMG - I have heard it isn't too good however as the E92 in terms of 'auto' and can be clunky.
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Yeah it isn't very good at all unfortunately. With the CSL software it becomes a bit better, but it's still woeful compared to todays automatics. The regular automatic gearbox in my 2006 335i was vastly better than the E46 M3 SMG.

As much as people say the SMG issues these cars have is overhyped, my honestly held belief is that it isn't. SMG is not reliable, especially not at over 100,000 miles and a decade and a half old. The E46 M3 have quite a few different things which can go wrong and cost thousands to fix (VANOS/headgasket/clutches/subframe issues) which cause worry, and for me SMG just wasn't worth the extra headache on top of these other things.

I mean, I can't be dealing with worrying if the car is going to start in the morning, or if i'm going to be driving to Wales and have the car come out of gear and refuse to go back in stranding me at the side of the road with people in the car. This is what it frequently does - just stops and refuses to go into gear and the car won't start or move. It's in effect, dead. You can't even take it down to the nearest garage (even if the planets align and you just happen to breakdown near to a garage who knows anything about SMG II). And this is just the inconvenience aspect. As these SMG boxes get older, you can bet your life on the fact that the SMG pump will give up at some point - and there is no way around this. It's £2500 to fix. £2500.

Or you could just get a manual gearbox and not have to worry about all of this! You can put that £2500 SMG repair fund into fixing all of the other common issues on these cars combined! It's not like SMG was a fantastically awesome gearbox which justified the potential inconvenience, worry or expense either.
 
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[TW]Fox;28977138 said:
It's old, it's gonna break, what does the low mileage really get you?
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Correct. If we think why people prefer low mileage examples, its because they perceive them as being more reliable and in better condition. If you're buying a 3 year old car with 20k miles on the clock, versus 80k miles on the clock, this is probably going to ring true.

When it comes to a car 10-15 years old, it means virtually nothing.
 
mjt said:
Sounds great, enjoy it :D

I think the HUD is awesome. I find the speed limit info particularly useful!
I also find BMW's navigation instructions extremely clear. Audi can't even make good ones on their satnav screens, whereas BMW can make excellent ones on an HUD!

Also - needs pics!
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Dis86 said:
SpeedFreak, I'm with mjt on this one. Need pics!
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I'll get some up in the next few days, busy whizzing about on muddy roads for family Christmas duties so will need a clean first!
 
rodenal said:
In fairness I'm lucky to crack 20 on a drive to Oban, lots of ehhhh - making progress where possible :p
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God knows what my Almera got, pretty sure I was near half a tank at Tyndrum one day coming Inveraray > Dalmally > Tyndrum.

The astra would do about 37ish driving the same way.

I drove it today to pick the Mrs' bike up and I hate not having an arm rest, hate the light steering, hate wheelspin when turning a corner and I hate going to press the brake pedal and move the gear stick without the clutch! Times have changed since I kept putting my foot through the BMW floor haha.
 
My 530i Sport mpg record was 39.2mpg from Devon to Yorkshire.

On a mixed cross country run I'd have expected 30 from mine - which is a manual.

In crap weather at mixed speeds it can be less - heck I've done about 160 miles in the 530d over the last couple of days mainly involving up and down the A38 and it's sat on a disappointing 38mpg despite being capable of almost 50mpg on the same road if the conditions are right and the speed is constant.
 
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