anyone out there with experience of e46 ownership?

[SamiS]

After breaking my e30 when i crashed into my mum earlier this week. I would have been very happy going out and finding another e30 to drive. But unfortunatley, I have a lot of family members begging me to get a car which is ncap saftey rated around 4 stars and with airbags etc.

So i test drove golf turbo gtis's, audi quattros, etc, and nothing like that takes my fancy. After owning two very nice mini coopers, and then the e30, I would still like a nice decent motor. I have £5000 to spend, and have seen quite a few e46 323ci coupes - high milage, but decent price and well looked after.

Anyway, I am going to see a lovely one tomorrow evening and am wondering if anyone out there can let me know if there is important things to look out for.

If i like the car i will be driving back with it as its around 100 miles away, and I am without a car and really need one for the weekend and to get to work.

So please please let me know if theres anything serious that seem to go wrong. The few im looking at have over 100000 miles, but have full bmwsh and full mot with good extras being the 323ci se.

Many thanks for any help...

[darkchild]

The E46 323ci and 328ci are quite well known for occassionally having problems with the rear subframe mounts that can be big $ to fix. if you run a search on the BMW Car Magazine forum its been quite well documented on there.

[SamiS]

so on a test drive would these faults be shown?

Can i look out for knocking or strange handling?

I have read that problem can be caused from knocking into curbs hard , or am i thinking of something else?

[darkchild]

Have a look through some of these mate.

http://forum.bmwcarmagazine.com/viewtop ... bframe+e46

http://forum.bmwcarmagazine.com/viewtop ... bframe+e46

http://forum.bmwcarmagazine.com/viewtop ... bframe+e46

[SamiS]

ahh, that seems interesting. At the spec i want, the years i can afford in my price range are literaly just 1999 squeezing to 2000 if im lucky.

Surely things like these would have been sorted eventually especially after 130000 miles or so?

I take it i can check through receipt of recent work to see if anything had been fixed on this prevously...

or am i just better off going with a golf or audi ???

[darkchild]

I don't think it's a huge amount thats been affected, but its just something to bear in mind (I was recently looking at a 328i before the insurance put me off!). May be worth giving BMW a call with the chassis number but I don't think they're overly keen to admit that there is a fault!

[SamiS]

Been reading through all those posts, and some say that bmw can sometimes pay fully or partly towards this fix as its a known structural fault and not caused by wear and tear or corrosion. So that can be kind of good, but i dont want to be hit with haglling with a dealer after just getting. Especially after already loosing the cash on my last car.
Hopefully the guy has had it all done.

[SamiS]

Strange thing with insurance. I have just lost my 2 years no claims and now declaring a crash also, and to get insured on the 323ci which is group 15, is only and extra of £200 for this year ...

I am only 21 years old... but i think, that thankfully as I am female, they look on me faveourably as a 'safe' driver

[Bavarian_Autotech]

prevention is better than cure

http://www.turnermotorsport.com/html/de ... TDR4675412

[SamiS]

hmmm, that is interesting. Im just curious as to whether the guy whos selling the car knows much about these apparant problems.
Is it pretty much a very common fault that i can expect to happen, or after 8 years, would it have happened by now and got fixed if it was to happen???

(please be the second )

[Andy325i]

We have done a couple of sets of bushes at the back of the wishbones on cars with less than 80k on them, and one car needed both arms replacing due to the balljoints being shot. One was a 318i and the other a 325i.

Not the end of the world but worth checking, when you consider the price of the arm/bushes

Andy

[blingsta]

buy my e30 325 turbo cabby for 5k

[Kos]

^

erel she'd like a reliable safe car, can you not read, this is a serious thred or are you posting just to get your count up to 1000 !!

any way an RAC inspection with HPI check is a safe bet, if there are any mechanical faults they will tell you and if it has any major mechanical faults or it turns out to have previously been a total loss or stolen they are liable

used them recently to check out a range rover for me and cost about £150-£200

as for common faults, the one i know of is that the rear subfram detaches it self from the floor of the car

[M5pilot]

The early cars can give alot of problems. I know quite a few owners who have had the rear subframe issue, heater boxes going (this can be expensive to fix), electrical issues etc etc.

If these issues have been sorted then they are a good buy and a very nice relaxing car to drive.

Try to go for a 328i - simply effortless power delivery and no worse on fuel than a 323i.

Evo-S

[SamiS]

Thanks for all the info guys....

would have loved to get a 328, but insurance is pushed to the 323 as it is.

I bought one this weekend. Its a nice silver 323ci. Good condition. Feels quite poky really.

But i have just got into work early, and decided to look on pistonheads for e30s for sale. I feel like crying. It just reminded me how deep my love for them is!

I really miss my e30. I would be quite happy doing a straight swap just to get my car back. After driving the 323 for almost a week, its a great comfortable car. But I feel so grown up. I would do anything to get another e30. But my boyfriend and my parents wanted me to get a car with a ncap rating etc...
Can anyone out there tell me if e30's are at all safe? If there is any way to persuade them that its safe, I would go straight out and find a lovely 325 sport....

Please help

[Gwynleym10]

Tell them that NCAP rating is b*llocks. It purely done for marketing purposes. There is growing research that shows, that while the car passengers maybe safer - divers are far more likely to have a crash and injur / kill pedestrains / cyclist.

Cars with higher NCAP safety ratings have thicker pillars, they they are actually more difficult to see out of, bonnets drop away steeply so you are unable to see all 4 corners as you can in a e30. Renault have a very bad crash record at the moment, their cars are involved in a LOT of crashes, their 5 star NCAP ratings which they like to advertise about a lot makes poeple think their cars are safe. They are safe in the respect that driving around in a fortified metal box is safe. You maybe safe, but you may cause far more damage to other road users (if you hit a child that you didn't see) - and this mental injury could be far more damaging to your long term life than a broken leg or something.

I can do quite a good argument that e30's are more environmentally friendly than new cars as well as most of a cars emmissions are during its manufacture.

Get an e30 and concentrate a bit more on your driving - crashing into you mum is obviously lack of concentration which could happen in any car.

[Chris]

There are a couple of well documented recent threads on here of fairly severe crashes in E30's were the drivers have walked away unharmed. A true testament to the strength of these old barges.

[SamiS]

Yea, i definatly believe the e30's are strong. My seatbelt worked well too...

I really believe that the thicker pillars on newer cars are dangerous, and in certain cars ive had some difficulty when coming up to roundabouts and seeing whats coming round.

Concentration was definatly my weak point. Especially that day. You wouldnt believe how much different it is now when im driving.
I hope I dont go back to how I was before.

When it comes to my birthday, I think i will ask for a working e30 for my pressie

[dazleeds]

my sport hit a stone wall and took it out totaly

all front panels bent and a very slight chassis kink thats easily jiggable

as for me not a scratch

they are a lot better than people give them credit for thesedays and no airbag burns to cope with either

[SamiS]

thanks daz....

I think, with all your helpful info, i have been able to persuade people that an e30 is fine for me...

so I am now looking out for my perfy e30, I have seen two that i want to go and see, but without having my current car sold, I cannot find a way of doing a deal

so now i have up for sale an e46 - http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/198971.htm

[darkchild]

That E46 looks lovely. With that spec though, I feel a few interior shots may help your cause.

[SamiS]

good idea - do you recon i have priced it right - i found it hard seeing an equivilent due to it having such high miles :S

[darkchild]

good idea - do you recon i have priced it right - i found it hard seeing an equivilent due to it having such high miles :S

I was recently looking at a 1998 328i saloon with practically identical spec. That was priced at £5,495 but did have better mileage (86k). A coupe though will always have a premium over a saloon and rightly so. The mileage will put the uneducated off who think anything with 100k+ is on its last legs but for a BMW thats not even half way through its life. With that fantastic spec and a recent service, I'd hope you'd get £5-5.5k. Personally, I think it looks a superb car and a manual 323i is a lovely smooth thing. You must have the E30 bug bad to be chopping it in!

[SamiS]

Yea, I need around 5.1k to break even, so priced it at 5.7k so people could haggle a bit still.
I know the milage will pur quite a few people off, but they are renowned for being so reliable, and it drives like its a 3 year old.

I really do have the e30 bug bad... i really miss my one so much. People recon I am absolutly mental when I tell them Id prefer a 20 year old bmw than the one I have right now. Its just not me.

The funny thing is, everyone at work thought i must have robbed someone to afford the 323ci, but when i told them how much it cost, I think they were all quite surprised, as they spent more money on not much newer fiats and vauxhalls !! They just dont have a clue ...

[darkchild]

I know what you mean. People at my work think I'm minted when I turn up in a 10 year old 316i, god bless 'em!

The E30 does have a unique character and when I traded mine in for an E36 5 years ago, not a day went past when I didn't miss it. When I was looking for a second car last year I knew it had to be another E30 and I ended up with an immaculate 320i (only 62K, fsh, loads of original items like the glovebox torch, dealer key ring etc) and its been faultless in the 7k I've added to it since. Feels bloody old though after driving a more modern car, but thats all part of its "charm"

Happy to swap it for your E46 though!

[SamiS]

hehe, every so often I honestly believe that if someone turned around to me with a working e30 and said they'd do a straight swap for my e46, I would take them up on it!

Is there something wrong with me?

[darkchild]

Is there something wrong with me?

I wouldn't want to offend you!

I take it you used to have a 318is from your avatar? If thats the case, this probably won't interest you (wrong engine and gearbox?), but it looks a tidy old thing (2nd car down).

http://www.oldcolonelcars.co.uk/

[SamiS]

mmmm, that looks tastey better than my e46 any day!

I had the 318is, and was hoping for another in tip top condition which is harder to find.. (me not helping the matter)

But would also not mind a nice late mint 320i se... and that just about fits the bill!

apart from....

**apparantly i do not want an auto ... never driven one. But i think manual will be on my list

[darkchild]

Mine's an auto and it definitely lacks the involvement of my old manual. It's not a bad autobox by any means and goes well enough when you kickdown, but an E30 is a car that just seems right with a manual box.

It's a double edged sword though. All the unabused ones that are left seem to be 320i autos due to their previous "blue rinse" owners!

[SamiS]

Yea, definatley!

There was a car that I fell in love with when I saw it up for sale. Its on ebay right now... absolutly perfect as to what I am after, another 318is, but it will sell for a lot more than what any others are worth. Its already more than they usually go for and its only been listed for 2 days... I have even cried about it

Even planned how I would do the 800 mile or so round trip to get it !

Its the interior i fell in love with -