Discussion
Hello BMW nuts. I'm usually to be found in the Porsche forum but am posting here to get some advice from those in the know re: the E46 3-series.
I would like to retire the porsche to garage duties and find a good Bee-em to do the work run/daily drive (have always fancied one in fact). I typically do ~10k miles a year or less.
can you tell me if the following sounds good value:
1999 323i SE
105k
steptronic
£3850
service history is almost all BMW.
What are these cars like to live with, what sort of mpg do they return and are they any major reliability issues to be aware of?
Cheers in advance!
I would like to retire the porsche to garage duties and find a good Bee-em to do the work run/daily drive (have always fancied one in fact). I typically do ~10k miles a year or less.
can you tell me if the following sounds good value:
1999 323i SE
105k
steptronic
£3850
service history is almost all BMW.
What are these cars like to live with, what sort of mpg do they return and are they any major reliability issues to be aware of?
Cheers in advance!
Thanks for replies so far.
Looking again the car in question is a bit steep by a few hundred perhaps.
It was on the board at work so caught my eye. Seems to me there is such a bewildering array of models and specs to choose from it's difficult to know VFM when you see it, hence my question to the experts on 'ere.
So more to the point, what are they like to live with?
Looking again the car in question is a bit steep by a few hundred perhaps.
It was on the board at work so caught my eye. Seems to me there is such a bewildering array of models and specs to choose from it's difficult to know VFM when you see it, hence my question to the experts on 'ere.
So more to the point, what are they like to live with?
Li Moo Bai said:
What are these cars like to live with, what sort of mpg do they return and are they any major reliability issues to be aware of?
Early E46 are not as sharp to drive as E36. They're ok, but a Porsche driver might be disappointed. The '01 facelift brought chassis tweaks and a quicker rack that improved things considerably.The 'Nikasil' engine problem was resolved in early '98, so it's not an issue with E46.
ETA: I've been looking at 323 & 328 autos for a while & I don't recall seeing an E46 for under £4k.
Edited by forsure on Wednesday 6th February 21:40
Edited by forsure on Wednesday 6th February 21:41
forsure said:
Li Moo Bai said:
What are these cars like to live with, what sort of mpg do they return and are they any major reliability issues to be aware of?
Early E46 are not as sharp to drive as E36. They're ok, but a Porsche driver might be disappointed. The '01 facelift brought chassis tweaks and a quicker rack that improved things considerably.The 'Nikasil' engine problem was resolved in early '98, so it's not an issue with E46.
ETA: I've been looking at 323 & 328 autos for a while & I don't recall seeing an E46 for under £4k.
Edited by forsure on Wednesday 6th February 21:40
Edited by forsure on Wednesday 6th February 21:41
As I have an older porsche anything modern will probably feel less direct or should i say give less steering feedbackbut that's fine; I'm after a comfy driver that will munch the miles really.
Have you test-driven the E46 auto then ?
Li Moo Bai said:
Have you test-driven the E46 auto then ?
I've driven hundreds of them (used to work for a BMW dealer).I prefer autos and wouldn't hesitate to recommend the E46.
They have 'steptronic': flick the lever to the left for 'sport' mode - and, from there, push or pull to select manually.
There is some debate about maintenance of the transmission. Officially they are 'sealed-for-life', but some people recommend a fluid change once you reach six-figure mileage.
forsure said:
Li Moo Bai said:
Have you test-driven the E46 auto then ?
I've driven hundreds of them (used to work for a BMW dealer).I prefer autos and wouldn't hesitate to recommend the E46.
They have 'steptronic': flick the lever to the left for 'sport' mode - and, from there, push or pull to select manually.
There is some debate about maintenance of the transmission. Officially they are 'sealed-for-life', but some people recommend a fluid change once you reach six-figure mileage.
I bought my 2000(X) E46 320i (2.2) in September last year with 66k on the clock for £6500
Possibly not helpful but you never know.
Another piece of potentially useless information is that I sold my 2000(X) Alfa Sportwagon with a steptronic gearbox because, whilst the steptronic gearbox was fantastic when it worked, I never really knew if it was going to work and it spent weeks back and forth to the dealer until Alfa eventually replaced the box, I sold it anyway because I'd lost faith in it, losing a stupid amount of money into the bargain.
The trouble with the Alfa unit was it would sometimes just not select a gear. So I could go out on a morning, start the car and go nowhere because I couldn't get a gear.
Had me doing this
far too often for my liking so I hope the BMW version is considerably more reliable.
Possibly not helpful but you never know.
Another piece of potentially useless information is that I sold my 2000(X) Alfa Sportwagon with a steptronic gearbox because, whilst the steptronic gearbox was fantastic when it worked, I never really knew if it was going to work and it spent weeks back and forth to the dealer until Alfa eventually replaced the box, I sold it anyway because I'd lost faith in it, losing a stupid amount of money into the bargain.
The trouble with the Alfa unit was it would sometimes just not select a gear. So I could go out on a morning, start the car and go nowhere because I couldn't get a gear.
Had me doing this
far too often for my liking so I hope the BMW version is considerably more reliable.Gassing Station | BMW General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff