E46 Touring Buying Info

[System-G]

Hi guys,

New to this forum - usually lurk/post in trackdays and jap. And I apologise if the questions have been asked a million times before. I did a search, but not much specific was returned.

I'm currently looking at buying an E46 Touring max budget £2.5k (wanted ad up in the clasifieds section) and obviously want the highest spec/performance for my budget - don't we all?

Having not had much chance to look into the ins & outs of the cars yet - just been browsing prices etc are there any buyers guides out there or anything specific to look out for to avoid etc...?

Thanks in advance

[LeightonBuzzard]

Eager engines, amazing build quality,

Are expensive, many over priced, diesels aren't great, problems with inner rear wishbone bushes

[MazDave]

Check for broken rear coil springs too..

[System-G]

Thanks guys. Keep them coming

Are ball joints & wishbone bushes prone to failure too?

[Klankie]

MazDave said:

Check for broken rear coil springs too..

Had that on my old 02-plate touring found the end of one them on the drive

Other than that i didn't have any other problems.

[System-G]

Went to see a 318i SE today with the intention of buying it if it stacked up to what the seller was saying. Unfortunately it didn't

Rad fan didn't work. Aircon didn't work. Needed new discs and pads all round. New front droplinks. New ball joints and probably bushings. Body work was a lot worse than he described and hid stuff from photos. The interior was different from photos. P!ssed off is an understatement.

If all within a £3k budget are going to be so tired, then I reckon, I'll need to wait a bit until there's a few more pennies

The second car (328i SE) I arranged a viewing on yesterday sold this morning before we left.

[forsure]

System-G said:

If all within a £3k budget are going to be so tired, then I reckon, I'll need to wait a bit until there's a few more pennies

When I read your original post I thought you were being a bit optimistic.
Anything reasonably tidy is going to be over £3k.

[System-G]

Well...

I've landed up with an E39 528i SE Touring

2 owners from new (1 of which is a dealer)
Full history
140k on the clock, but still feels solid and new with no rattles or clunks.

A few very minor things that need sorting, but all in all - a cracking car for the money.