So I've had my E46 M3 for 5 years now and I keep thinking of selling (natural after 5 years!)
It's essentially in nice condition, I spent a bit refreshing everything and it pretty much costs me nothing to run (the road tax @ £330 is the most expensive thing!) but
- It get's bugger all use (12K miles in 5 years)
- The Mrs struggles to drive it so never borrows it unless she has no choice (a little bit of a heavy clutch)
- Since we have an X3 35d Auto even I tend to jump in that for any quick journeys as it doesn't need 5 miles to warm up ( I religiously warm up the E46 before booting it)
My brother changes his cars more often than his underwear so I constantly get to drive a nice variety of cars (M4 Convertible, Merc E350 Convertible, Audi TTRS Roadster, those kinds of things) and I think if I had something a bit easier to just jump in, didn't necessarily need 5 miles to 'warm up' and had a nice auto box, it might get more use.. cars I've looked at
- BMW 435i Convertible
- BMW 435d XDrive Convertible
- BMW M235i Convertible
- Audi S5 (B8.5) Convertible
etc, all around £15k-£17k
The issue is the E46 is a classic, prices are starting to rise, and I've never owned anything that gets the overwhelming positive reactions from people:
(I've since had the steering wheel retrimmed at Jack Royals, and changed the gear knob for the newer short throw F10 M5 one (still backlit))
So I think my choice would be..
A. Plough £2k-£3k at a reasonable respray, tart up any outstanding seals and trim and I've already got quotes to sort out MOT advisories (brake pipes need sorting).. If I wanted to keep it for 5-10 years I'd probably get the rod bearings changed as a precaution and maybe get a Vanos rebuild kit, but again, that would be precautionary.. (Another £1-£1.5k)), and of course tell the Mrs the reason she doesn't like driving it is because it's not a girls car..
Or
B. Sell up (I think with Hardtop I'd get an easy £10k for it), and put £5k-£6k towards something newer, a bit more refined and hope that gets it a bit more use.. I weirdly fancy a 435d xDrive with a 390BHP remap
???