E46 Touring? Any boot space?

[Morat]

After the E39 got written off, her ladyship requires another car... so I'm doing the donkey work

The trouble is that the 540 touring was a bit of a bargain due to the stupidly large engine and this time round she wants a diesel to save on the bills. Of course, she's not alone and I'm having a tough time finding anything in an E39 530d which has the trim and spec that she had on the 540 (sports seats are a must or we end up giving all our cash over to the chiropractor anyway).

So, since we are now down to 2 dogs instead of 3 (sadly, my avatar is no longer up to date) I was wondering about an E46 330d. With the same £8k budget it looks like we can get all the toys we want (has to be manual btw) but does anyone have any experience of the E46 for general reliability, comfort and dare I say it... boot space? It looks pretty tight in the back ;)

Cheers
Morat

[zimmerbimmer1]

with regards to reliability pre 06/05 cars did suffer with turbo problems
you just need to make sure the breather valve on the rocker box is changed regularly,
this kept getting blocked starving the turbo of oil.

[daimlerman]

Smaller dogs? (only pulling your leg...)

[320Touring]

the e39 got written off? Hope everyone is ok...

Maybe you lot should get a saloon this time-neither of you like estates, it would appear

If you want I can have a search for you tomorrow when I'm back in Glasgow- see what comes up.

What Mileage/colour/age etc?

[Morat]

breather valve.. check Thanks zimmer!

Saloons are great, if you like dog hair

320Touring, not too worried about colour, age.. preferable post 02 facelift and <100k miles. the tricky bit is it has to be manual and have sports seats or her ladyship will get back ache and that means no exercise for me.....

[bilun777]

Avoid sports susp.It is rock hard. You might find a high spec manual hard to find as most seem to be autos which gobble fuel....If you want to avoid the chiropractor I would keep looking for the right e39

[gIzzE]

I wouldn't write off a facelift 530i touring either, I got a constant 28mpg on mine, that was an auto, and compared with 32mpg from our 320d auto touring (facelift 2002).

I never got more than 18mpg from a 540i as a comparison, and the 530d I had for a week (long story involving car being clocked) only returned 30.9, so about 3 mpg better than the petrol.

A manual 320d will return 45 all day long and 50+ on a run though.

The boot space is a lot smaller in the 3 series, however we have a Weimaraner which is a fairly big dog and he has loads of room in the 3 series. We have an E91 M-Sport now too.
Personally I prefer the 3 series over the 5 series in estate form, more chuckable and more fun, and just as comfy imho.

I totally disagree on the sports suspension, sorry. The m-sport cars come with a really nice suspension set up madeby Bilstein, it is firmer but it also absorbs poor road surfaces far better than the se suspension.
And definitely get sport seats, I bought one without and it was hell, swapped for a sport and it was spot on.

Also, you will get 40+ from a 330d manual and you will see 28mpg from a 330i manual which can be picked up at cracking prices.

[darkchild]

Avoid sports susp.It is rock hard.

Sports suspension is fine. Yes, its on the firm side but certainly doesn't spoil the ride. Infinitely preferable to most of the early run flat tyre range.

[bilun777]

You might be right about Msport susp.I imported my own 330d SE manual and mistakenly specified sports susp and it felt every motorway ripple, however my 2 previous cars were e39's and lightyears superior in ride.

[gIzzE]

You have to be careful, an SE with sports suspension is a standard sachs shock and shorter spring, where as the m-sport suspension is a bilstein shock and eibach spring which although firm, work really well on UK roads.

Same sort of thing with the E90 too, the M-Sport soaks up poor roads far better than even the SE set up.

[Morat]

Well, I went to look at one today. Highly unimpressed. They were valeting it as I got there, got out on the road and it went OK despite the seriously rusty disks. However, it started bucketing it down and the wipers didn't work. Nor did the electric windows, the rear boot locks or the central locking. I gave them a few minutes to see if it was a fuse and then left.
You should be able to claim fuel back from idiots like this.

The good news is that the boot looks big enough (as long as you can open it!)

[Morat]

Going to look at a 530d or two tommorow, there's a 330d I like the look of but its an 02 (pre-facelift on the touring and 20 less ponies). Oh, and its 240 miles away :O

[Morat]

Her ladyship has aquired a new car!
At bloody last. I was starting to speak in Autotrader-ese and dream of endless popup windows.

Anyway, after driving a 330 touring and a 530 touring with tiptronic back to back she went for the 330i. Its a nice little car with M sport wheels, suspension and (drumroll please) MTech gearknob. Steel Blue Metallic, 86k on an X plate so it dodges the road tax rises next year. Hurrah!

Lets hope this is a goodun.

I will say, I was impressed with the steering on the 530, much more precise than the 540's recirculating ball. In the end it was too slow for her, and I wasn't arguing

[gIzzE]

The E39 530i could well be the best all round BMW have ever made, style, comfort and driveability, but I would take the 330i everytime. ;)