E92 335i or E46 M3?

[Abed20]

Long story short i was In the market for a well looked after e92 335i - with a n54 that has had the turbos done or a n55 if within budget

But I’ve slowly realised many e46 m3s manual/smg are going for around the 10k mark... As a kid growing up the e46 m3 was THE car and I’ve always dreamt of having one.

I would prefer a manual to the SMG as I’ve heard many bad reviews about the gearbox

So the dilemma I’m in is that do I go for a newer and more tuneable 335i with lower miles which I think is less likely to burn a hole in my pocket

or do I go for a 15 year old M car... the whole driving experience and the fact that it’s one of the best drivers cars for ~10k

I would obviously expect there to be a lot more in terms of maintenance for the M3, and the fact that there are many examples suffering with rust...

Cheers

[Joe5y]

Had a similar dilemma a few months ago, went for this instead.

[ZX10R NIN]

In most cases I'd say the M3 but you'd be looking at the worst M3 so I'd go looking for the 335i.

[shotta287]

A nice dilemma to have.
Both are great cars, handle well and have some of the finest engines ever made. Obviously the M3 will feel more special and is a more raw driving experience.
But for day to day driving, I’d pick the 335i. The power and torque is more accessible due to the turbos. You can also find them with DCT which is much better than the old SMG.
The M3 is a timeless classic however and prices are on the up. A well maintained example should hold its value.

[cerb4.5lee]

shotta287 said:

Obviously the M3 will feel more special and is a more raw driving experience.
But for day to day driving, I’d pick the 335i. The power and torque is more accessible due to the turbos.

I know the E46 M3 is an icon but I'd also plump for the 335i as a daily because I prefer the power delivery of a Turbo engine.

[SaggyOstrich]

I have driven both and I think the M3 is so much better. They were my parents cars but I was insured on them so got to drive them fairly regularly and the M3 made me smile much more!

The 335i is too lazy for me and became boring pretty quickly, whereas the M3 was really engaging to drive and has a fantastic sounding engine. We had the SMG box in the M3 which if it were my car I'd have gone for the manual, but it wasn't too bad at all.

Then there were the issues with the 335i...it went back to the dealers a ridiculous amount of times and had countless new parts thrown at it until finally it was sorted, but this was over a long period and if we hadn't of had warranty I would shudder to think how much it would have cost. That alone would put me off buying one, but it could just be the case we unfortunately bought a bad one.

I know looks are subjective but I just think the E46 looks a million times nicer as well, the E92 looks very bland unless in M3 form.

[Abed20]

If I would have the 15k budget to find a mint e46 example I definitely would but unfortunately I’ve only got the 10k to work with for the new car...

I have heard some horror stories with 335s esp with the turbos and they do have quite a few issues but I would expect them to be less compared to a 2003/2004 bmw...

For either car I would obviously be going through service history and checking that most faults have either been fixed or the car has been proofed against future failure