M3 as a family car

[Breadman]

Hello everyone
Am looking to get my first car with rear seats for 10 years on the basis that I’ll be starting a family soon and am keen on keeping something with noise. A 2018 or so M3 saloon looks to do the trick but I’m worried boot space will be an issue.
Anyone on here had experience of trying to be a new parent while still hanging onto their youth?
Obvious issues seem to be getting a pram in the boot. Am I missing anything else?
Any advice much appreciated.

[MitchT]

The M3/M4 makes a "big" noise, but always sounds too low pitched, even close to the red line, which I find frustrating. In my opinion the 40i models make a much better noise and a 340i Touring might be more practical for a young family.

[Smuler]

As above get a 340i touring , put the MPPSK on it for more noise.
You’ll save money.
Swap it in a couple of years the new M3 touring with the S58 engine.
I don’t have kids , but I just don’t find saloons practical at all.

[anonymous-user]

I ran a 2015 320d with two very young kids, then a 2017 F80 M3 with them slightly older (still in full car seats).

The M3 is no less practical than the cooking 3 Series. Used ours as a family all the time, only really reverting to the boring Volvo estate when going camping with everything including the kitchen sink.

I took our two to the Lakes glamping in the M3 no problem.

[outnumbered]

An M3 these days is pretty much as big as a 5 series from a few years ago, so I don't see why it wouldn't work. I had my kids in the back of the CSL a few times....

[DoubleD]

Why not split the budget and get a fun 2 seater and then something sensible for family stuff.

Prams take up a lot of space and the access into a saloon isnt always great.

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

What DoubleD said seems like a good idea. Keep whatever you have now and buy something cheapish and sensible for the family stuff.

[PKZ4M]

4 door M3 is a perfect family car. Properly quick and practical too. Worked brilliantly for our young twins when I had one. Could even get the mountain buggy duo buggy in the boot!

[Court_S]

I found saloons pretty useless from a practical point of view. Admittedly most of that was with the smaller E90 which had no folding seats. The travel system pretty much filled the boot leaving naff all room for anything else. I had an F30 for a week and whilst a decent chunk bigger, it seemed to suffer from the same issues. Personally I’d be looking at a 340 Touring but even they’re not huge inside, but better than the saloon.

[anonymous-user]

Court_S said:

I found saloons pretty useless from a practical point of view. Admittedly most of that was with the smaller E90 which had no folding seats. The travel system pretty much filled the boot leaving naff all room for anything else. I had an F30 for a week and whilst a decent chunk bigger, it seemed to suffer from the same issues. Personally I’d be looking at a 340 Touring but even they’re not huge inside, but better than the saloon.

There are some journeys where you need a lot of stuff (for example camping I mentioned above). Aside from that, I've never really understood how people need quite so much stuff that a normal saloon like a 3 Series won't do?

[DoubleD]

RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:

Court_S said:

I found saloons pretty useless from a practical point of view. Admittedly most of that was with the smaller E90 which had no folding seats. The travel system pretty much filled the boot leaving naff all room for anything else. I had an F30 for a week and whilst a decent chunk bigger, it seemed to suffer from the same issues. Personally I’d be looking at a 340 Touring but even they’re not huge inside, but better than the saloon.

There are some journeys where you need a lot of stuff (for example camping I mentioned above). Aside from that, I've never really understood how people need quite so much stuff that a normal saloon like a 3 Series won't do?

The prams ( travel systems sounds daft to me) are pretty big and take up a lot of space, that doesnt leave much room for other things in there.

[anonymous-user]

DoubleD said:

The prams ( travel systems sounds daft to me) are pretty big and take up a lot of space, that doesnt leave much room for other things in there.

I know, we had them in the 3.

There were very few occasions when we'd want to take 2 kids and two adults for a full family shop to Asda, though. If we were going for a day out or overnighters with friends or family, squishy bags squish around stuff. There's plenty of space in a 3 series or equivalent for a 2 child family and normal duties.

As nice as they are, a 340 touring is a pretty poor substitute for an M3. In addition to family duties, I used mine for euro jaunts with the wife, Scotland trips and trackdays, none of which I'd bother doing in a cooking 3 Series.

[DoubleD]

RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:

DoubleD said:

The prams ( travel systems sounds daft to me) are pretty big and take up a lot of space, that doesnt leave much room for other things in there.

I know, we had them in the 3.

There were very few occasions when we'd want to take 2 kids and two adults for a full family shop to Asda, though. If we were going for a day out or overnighters with friends or family, squishy bags squish around stuff. There's plenty of space in a 3 series or equivalent for a 2 child family and normal duties.

As nice as they are, a 340 touring is a pretty poor substitute for an M3. In addition to family duties, I used mine for euro jaunts with the wife, Scotland trips and trackdays, none of which I'd bother doing in a cooking 3 Series.

With a pram in the boot you arent left with much usable space, yes you can get soft bags, but its a pain.
A road trip and track days can be fun in almost any car.

[CustardOnChips]

We managed perfectly well with 2 very young kids in an E46 M3 and a 2 door Megan. By the time our 2nd was born the eldest was 2 and walking so didn't need a pram or pushchair.

Just make sure you buy a pram that fits, and don't take loads of st you don't need out with you.

I only got an estate when I started running the youngest's football team when he was 7. Until then we had managed perfectly well with coupes and 2 door hatchbacks.

[Court_S]

RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:

Court_S said:

I found saloons pretty useless from a practical point of view. Admittedly most of that was with the smaller E90 which had no folding seats. The travel system pretty much filled the boot leaving naff all room for anything else. I had an F30 for a week and whilst a decent chunk bigger, it seemed to suffer from the same issues. Personally I’d be looking at a 340 Touring but even they’re not huge inside, but better than the saloon.

There are some journeys where you need a lot of stuff (for example camping I mentioned above). Aside from that, I've never really understood how people need quite so much stuff that a normal saloon like a 3 Series won't do?

The base for the travel system filled the boot of the 3 series pretty much. For a weekend away for example there wasn’t much room for much else. It was hopeless compared to my vRS hatchback and not having folding seats was a pain for collecting stuff....I picked up a new bike frame which came in a box and that had to be wedged across the back seats. My personal experience is that a 3 series saloon isn’t much cop at lugging stuff about.

[anonymous-user]

I think my M3 had folding rear seats.

[russy01]

Of course it’s fine, it’s just a 3 series with a big engine.

Of course an estate or big hatchback might be slightly more practical - but then an SUV is more practical than them.

A little one in a car seat, with a pram (even two of each) will fit comfortably in an M3.

[R33FAL]

we have a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old (with applicable car seats) in our M3 most of the time and have no issues at all with practicality. It does help if you have a smaller buggy (Babyzen Yoyo is pretty good) for when you go on holiday as that takes up half the space of a normal buggy.

As for noise, I have the M Performance exhaust on mine and it sounds pretty good I think.

[SELON]

I run an M4 convertible and boot works fine for 3-4 people. Just been on a camping expedition 2 pop up tents, all the gear for 3 of us and it worked well. As a one car solution, the M3 is great.

But, if you can run 2 cars, personally I’d go for a “family” car that can take the knocks, grunge and damage that kids are going to give it - without having to worry about resale value. I bought a Ford Galaxy 15 years ago - it’s still with us -now taking the load for kids off to University. Brilliant family car. Many road trips across UK & Europe as well as the supermarket run and all those football pitches on Sunday mornings. Doubt we will ever part with it as it’s part of the family now- at least until it falls apart.

My advice is to use the M3 money to run a cheaper “family” car - space / convenience / practicality / safety and a lack of stress worrying about a beautiful interior - trumps performance to my mind with kids - and get a cheap(er) 2 seater for those rare moments you will get to yourself.

Edited by SELON on Sunday 30th August 18:08

[survivalist]

SELON said:

I run an M4 convertible and boot works fine for 3-4 people. Just been on a camping expedition 2 pop up tents, all the gear for 3 of us and it worked well. As a one car solution, the M3 is great.

But, if you can run 2 cars, personally I’d go for a “family” car that can take the knocks, grunge and damage that kids are going to give it - without having to worry about resale value. I bought a Ford Galaxy 15 years ago - it’s still with us -now taking the load for kids off to University. Brilliant family car. Many road trips across UK & Europe as well as the supermarket run and all those football pitches on Sunday mornings. Doubt we will ever part with it as it’s part of the family now- at least until it falls apart.

My advice is to use the M3 money to run a cheaper “family” car - space / convenience / practicality / safety and a lack of stress worrying about a beautiful interior - trumps performance to my mind with kids - and get a cheap(er) 2 seater for those rare moments you will get to yourself.

Edited by SELON on Sunday 30th August 18:08

I’m in a similar boat, using a 335i as a family car and have an M3 as a second car. The downside is that when we go away and I get a chance to pop out for a drive I’m not in the M3. Last year we did a family holiday and a roof box on the M3, once we had arrived at the cottage the box came off :-)

If we weren’t currently looking to move house I’d replace the 335 with an M3 or C63 AMG. Yes, I’d wince when the kids dropped crumbs all over the interior, but I recon it’d be worth it.

The current M3 should be easy to live with. Plenty of torque, creature comforts etc. The trick is just not to get conned into buying an enormous pram.