£50K E46 M3!

Another day, another crazy used car valuation

It's well known that certain classic cars are attracting huge premiums right now. What you may not be as aware of - certainly it was a surprise to us - is just how much fairly normal performance cars are now commanding.

Fifty thousand pounds. Fifty thousand pounds

Take Exhibit A, an Alpine White BMW E46 M3 for sale at Hexagon. CSLs went berserk a while back, but now it seems the standard M3s are following suit. Sure, with just 2,300 miles since 2005 this is an extreme case, but who would have guessed £49,995 a couple of years back? It's even SMG...

For a more modest budget, Hexagon also has a pair of 330is for sale. There's an Estoril Blue Clubsport (a bit of carbon, some soundproofing taken out and a rear spoiler over a normal 330) available at £23,995 because it's only covered 2,300 miles. Then, for £20,995, is a standard 330Ci M Sport. It has just 1,300 miles recorded, a ludicrous figure and perhaps the lowest in the country. It's an automatic too, so forgetany ideas of a drift project now.

Over to you then: can 3 Series of this calibre justify such huge money? Will these prices be made to look good value in a decade's time? Who knows, but for our money this £14K E46 M3 manual looks much more fun than leaving any of those three in a collection...