Buying advice - BMW M3 e46

[Joe5y]

Hi all,

I'm looking for a bit of advice away from the norm regarding the BMW M3 e46 - that said, any and all advice will be warmly welcome.

I've done a fair amount of reading of buying guides but what I am looking for is advice on what to look for and the best way to go about buying one that isn't going to come back and bite me at a later date.

Thank you in advance.

Joe

[thebigmacmoomin]

Get yourself on M3Cutters forum. There is a buyers guide on there & plenty of help.

I am on there too.

Mine will be for sale soon aswell. 2004 04 SMG coupe in Silver Grey with full BMW history & boot floor issue repaired recently by BMW.

[zeduffman]

Joe5y said:

Hi all,

I'm looking for a bit of advice away from the norm regarding the BMW M3 e46 - that said, any and all advice will be warmly welcome.

I've done a fair amount of reading of buying guides but what I am looking for is advice on what to look for and the best way to go about buying one that isn't going to come back and bite me at a later date.

Thank you in advance.

Joe

I don't believe for one second that none of the buying guides you've read don't already have the information you're after.

[blindswelledrat]

My only advice is to definitely test drive one.
I looked at buying one at one point and a quick drive of one with an SMG1 gearbox put me off them completely.
I often see other posts by people claiming that one thing renders a car virtually useless and just think they are idiots but for me, at least, the smg definitely fit this bill. Not only was it slower than a manual change but the paddles turned with the wheel.
Perhaps you get used to that but I cant see it. If you drive even faintly normally then when you come to change gear then 50% of the time the paddles aren't where they should be. WHen you do find them - you press the paddle an nothing happens.....for about a minute. I was so appalled and shocked at it that I cut the test drive short after about a mile which I have never done before

[vincenz]

blindswelledrat said:

My only advice is to definitely test drive one.
I looked at buying one at one point and a quick drive of one with an SMG1 gearbox put me off them completely.
I often see other posts by people claiming that one thing renders a car virtually useless and just think they are idiots but for me, at least, the smg definitely fit this bill. Not only was it slower than a manual change but the paddles turned with the wheel.
Perhaps you get used to that but I cant see it. If you drive even faintly normally then when you come to change gear then 50% of the time the paddles aren't where they should be. WHen you do find them - you press the paddle an nothing happens.....for about a minute. I was so appalled and shocked at it that I cut the test drive short after about a mile which I have never done before

Unless it was a typo SMG II was the only SMG box on the E46 M3.

I personally love it on mine and the throttle blip on the down change always makes me smile.

[Joe5y]

zeduffman said:

Joe5y said:

Hi all,

I'm looking for a bit of advice away from the norm regarding the BMW M3 e46 - that said, any and all advice will be warmly welcome.

I've done a fair amount of reading of buying guides but what I am looking for is advice on what to look for and the best way to go about buying one that isn't going to come back and bite me at a later date.

Thank you in advance.

Joe

I don't believe for one second that none of the buying guides you've read don't already have the information you're after.

This may be so but what buying guides don't offer is an owners POV from looking, buying, driving and living with.

[blindswelledrat]

vincenz said:

Unless it was a typo SMG II was the only SMG box on the E46 M3.

I personally love it on mine and the throttle blip on the down change always makes me smile.

Not a typo, probably just incorrect naming, or whatever.
All I know is that a CSL I drove had fixed paddles and a reasonable gear change speed and yet the M3 I drove had rotating paddles and the god-awful gear change. I don't know the difference between the names of the two gear boxes and it may only be software differences but it was like driving two completely different cars.

[nervouspassenger]

The SMG box shifts very slowly at low revs, even when in the harshest shift settings. It can nearly a second to complete the shift. Above 4k revs the shifts are much faster.

I much prefer paddles that move with the wheel as I tend to keep my hands at the same position on the wheel unless winding on lots of lock.

[lindrup119]

http://www.pistonheads.com/doc.asp?c=52&i=2593...

PH's own buying guide for E46 M3s.

[anonymous-user]

Make sure you get a manual coupe. Future classic for sure