E46 BMW M3 Feedback?

slow&rusty · 12-09-2007, 09:31 AM

Gang - I will be looking at a newer car as a daily driver in early Spring. I have narrowed the list down to a few, of which the E46 M3 is one.

I joined bimmerforums to do some research on reliability and feedback all I could see were:
1) Oil Changes every 5-7K diligently
2) Rear tires do not last long (10K-20K)
3) Alternators run $1300

Nothing else....?

What have you guys heard and \ or experienced. As a caveat, I *might* even consider a '99 E36 M3 if the right color and condition came along, but these E36 cars are getting close to 10years old and starting to look ragged and or abused by auto-x owners or general lack of maintenace.

Also with the new M3 coming out, you can pick up an E46 for Camry money.

Many Thanks & Regards - Yasin

krichard · krichard's Garage

make sure you know the history of the engine on the car you buy. There was a bearing issue that caused the engines to detonate. I ditched mine back when BMW was blaming the owners for the engines exploding.

Other than that it's a great daily driver. It's over weight but fun to drive.

Mule · 12-09-2007, 10:20 AM

10K miles on rear tires & $1300 alternators, where do I sign up?

gprsh924 · 12-09-2007, 10:50 AM

My dad has been looking at the E46 as well. We test drove a bunch of them and found a few little cosmetic things that seemed to be common. Since the front end is so low to the ground, some were destroyed with rock chips and curb rash from people being stupid. The other thing that we noticed on cars that were not as well maintained was that the side bolsters on the front seats (especially driver's side) showed a lot of wear. Some of the 30K mile cars looked brand new on the inside, some looked like hell. Just look for wear there and on the back of the seats where a passenger would have to brush against when getting into the rear seats.

I also found from looking at a lot of them that the ones that seem like they are a good deal by $1K-$3k were the ones that were pretty rough cosmetically.

rattlsnak · rattlsnak's Garage

Awesome cars.... E36s are dropping in price, but you are right, its hard to find one that hasnt been abused... Thought about a 330?

MysticLlama · 12-09-2007, 06:03 PM

I picked up mine a little over a month ago now, and love it.

The early Boxster I had was a great daily driver, and had 103k on it when I let it go. I like the M3 even better though.

The gas mileage isn't too bad, and there is a lot of power there when you want to go around someone.

I also got one with the SMG and I love it. It's pretty crappy as an auto, but it's a great clutchless manual as long as you drive it as such.

I'm really happy with it so far, picked it up with about 65k on it in excellent shape for just over $30k including the 30mo/30k warranty.