Ever since I was a little boy I wanted to have a BMW e46...

Ever since I was a little boy I wanted to have a BMW e46. None of the BMW's that came after it even come close to looking as good in my opinion. It's just that right blend between sporty agressive angles and subtle curves.

Now I'm in a position where I have alot of excess cash to spend each month and I'm thinking about getting a 330i.

I don't know shit about BMW's outside of the fact that they look good. And I'm wondering if anyone has had experience with these cars. What are the positives, what are the negatives, what kind of operating costs should I expect with cars this old?

e46/e39 were the last good bmws don't debate me (e60 m5 gets a pass for that f1 v10)

>have alot of excess cash to spend each month
>getting a 330i

Yep, that correlates.

>Ever since I was a little boy I wanted to have a BMW e46. None of the BMW's that came after it even come close to looking as good in my opinion. It's just that right blend between sporty agressive angles and subtle curves.
Nobody gives a shit
>Now I'm in a position where I have alot of excess cash to spend each month and I'm thinking about getting a 330i
Buy something more expensive, al least an M3
>I don't know shit about BMW's outside of the fact that they look good. And I'm wondering if anyone has had experience with these cars. What are the positives, what are the negatives, what kind of operating costs should I expect with cars this old?
Rust, electronics fucking up, overheating (from personal experience, never was "kalt"), abuse from previous owner depending from where do you live

Just look at how much shittier a modern 330i looks. It looks like some transformer bullshit

>Buy something more expensive, al least an M3
And why would I do that

I’m more of a /k/ cross-poster, but my friend’s dad used to sell these.

His honest opinion:
Pros: high performance cars, reliable if tuned and maintained regularly, very nice lines and style
Cons:If it breaks, and you’re not a fucking specialist trained in this bullshit Hun overengineered auto, it’s going to the dealership. Even if you fix it yourself, parts are sourced from the dealer 80% of the time

They break a lot, depending on year and model. Not because they’re inherently bad or unreliable, but I think they don’t tolerate neglect well.

Thanks for the info I guess, fuck I guess I might have to reconsider getting one of these.

Do you think there are any actually out on the road?

I used to see lots of v12 and v10 couples and sedans like 10 years ago. Not so much any more.

It's not shit because of how it looks, it's shit because of the stupid 4banger engine. At least the E9X 330i had beautiful, bulletproof inline-6's

I think it's also shit because of how it looks

>n52
>bulletproof

at least it's not as bad as n54 doe

...

What? Mine's 11 years old and never had a problem besides the water pump needing to be replaced.

Yeah no I don't like it either, but the engine is the real dealbreaker for me.

Get ready to feel that throttle lag. It's an issue that not many people talk about; which I'm surprised about. Even a Toyota Corolla of the same year had better stand-still throttle response than these cars.

Also, the windows will stop working after a certain amount of time. Window regulators in e46s are a huge issue. Most of the window regulators in my old e46 became broken.

imo, e36, e30s and sharknose are the best

>don't debate me
fearing you could get proven wrong?

Talking out your arse, the E46 is very well documented with pretty much every part available aftermarket.

try your best you smug fuck

if you can comfortably swing an e46 m3 and can drop $1500 a year on it in maintenance, assuming you do all the wrenching yourself, please do. the m3 is great

barring that, the ZHP was a nice almost-m3 without the huge parts costs

>Cons:If it breaks, and you’re not a fucking specialist trained in this bullshit Hun overengineered auto, it’s going to the dealership. Even if you fix it yourself, parts are sourced from the dealer 80% of the time
there's a video tutorial or disgustingly detailed pictorial online for every possible procedure you can do on these things.
only go to the dealer if you really need coolant, get everything else OEM off ecs tuning or FCP euro

>wanting a car that gets literally butt fractured if you hoon it a couple times too many

Excellent cars, main issues are rust and cooling systems. Both fairly cheap an easy to sort if you catch it early.

I have no idea what all this shit is about them being hard to work on, they are no more difficult than any other car. The E46 is a very simple car to maintain.

Automatic gearboxes can grenade themselves if the ATF hasn't been changed, but you should really be getting a manual one.

One of the best cars I have owned. Very reliable, but parts and repairs can be expensive. Check it out thoroughly before you buy, get a well maintained model and find a good, honest indie mechanic to maintain it. It is hard to beat the inline 6 for performance and reliability.