£2k to spend on a BMW Comapct or C Class, which one??

[deanogtv]

The missus whats a 3 door run around for £2k and like either the BMW 3 Series Compact or the C Class coupe. I've tried to show her alternatives however she pretty much set in her ways.
So for the money most will be high milers but I have no knowledge of either so a heads up would be good.

Is one better than the other, is the merc a rust budget of this era???
I know the BMW is fuggly but not bothered if there are pretty bullet proof

[grantone]

deanogtv said:

The missus whats a 3 door run around for £2k and like either the BMW 3 Series Compact or the C Class coupe. I've tried to show her alternatives however she pretty much set in her ways.
So for the money most will be high milers but I have no knowledge of either so a heads up would be good.

Is one better than the other, is the merc a rust budget of this era???
I know the BMW is fuggly but not bothered if there are pretty bullet proof

My wife had a 316ti for a year, she loved it, but it had a few faults and the N42 4 cylinder engines are known for being a bit poor.
Faults:
Air bag warning light, common with all E46 I think, could sometimes be cleared with a clean of the electrical contacts under the seat and a reset of the air bag light with a laptop and the correct software off eBay, but never went away forever and would be a bigger problem with the new MOT tests I think.
Stiff driver door handle, could be temporarily eased by tightening a bolt in the catch mechanism, but again, never properly fixed.
Lots of oil leaks, I could never work out where they were from, lots of forum posts about sensor gaskets, filler caps, gaskets at the back of the engine, I changed a few, but I don't think it was ever fully resolved.
Cam shaft position sensor, seems to be a common fault. Resulted in engine cutting out on the road and needing recovery to the garage for replacement, others are a bit luckier and the engine will limp home.
Burning oil, this was my biggest problem and it's common to a lot of the cars with the N42 engine. Forum posts seem to point to a blocked oil separator hidden behind the manifold, but nothing ever seems conclusive and I had other opinions that it was worn cylinders or valve stem seals. The fault on ours was sometimes embarrassingly bad, like a smoke screen off wacky races, but other times no problem at all. The car was not worth enough to us to get it diagnosed, so it went on eBay with the faults accurately described and sold for more than I expected to a mechanic who thought he could fix it himself.

It was replaced with a w203 C-class saloon that I think is the same underpinnings as the coupe. It has been much better behaved, but my wife didn't like the car as much and there appear to be known faults with oil leaking down wiring looms and damaging an ECU (easy to prevent with a second intermediate harness if done in time) and auto gearbox radiators corroding and mixing with the coolant.

On balance I'd go for a 325ti if I had to pick one.

[deanogtv]

googz, either she has no preference

[The Don of Croy]

I had a 325ti for 3 years - loads of fun.

Only niggles were persistent naff radio reception - really terrible - but not a biggy if you don't listen to live radio, and a hesitation on the throttle which could lead to either stalling or over-revving at low speeds.

Mine was on a BMW warranty so less to worry over - I did get them out to sort an engine warning light several times which was a lazy valve on cold mornings (thick oil + slightly sticky valve = ems shuts off one cylinder). Cured when they replaced all 24 valve operators under warranty.