Shed Of The Week: BMW 325i (E46)

A six cylinder 3 Series with a manual gearbox and a sensible mileage? You do spoil us Shed!

Sometimes, things just seem too good to be true. Like when Mrs Shed got excited by Shed's offer to take her out to a quiet corner of the local bird sanctuary, only to be horribly disappointed by the twelve finches he ended up showing her.

Well now this does look in fine fettle

This week's Shed falls into the same "that can't be right, surely?" category. If you saw a shot of this car in this apparent condition, sitting in a BMW dealership with no registration plate on it, you'd be forgiven for thinking the pic had been taken in 2001.

And yet the truth is that this is a 16-year-old E46 325i in good everyman SE spec, resplendent in blemish-free steel blue paint, with a black leather interior (including M Sport front seats), a manual gearbox, an unsuspicious MOT history and a good wodge of ticket remaining. All for the princely sum of £995.

We're not letting that E36 318is we featured four weeks ago stand in the way of this one. In fact, when the Shed of the Week committee saw it, there was an undignified scramble to harvest the pics and the ad copy before it disappeared.

But, after at least one day in the open, it's still up there on the PH Classifieds. Remarkable. If it wasn't for the fact that Mrs Shed can only gain access to vehicles via their hatchback openings these days, rather than through the more normal door method, she would have been in for this one like an elephant up a North Sea oil pipe, and anybody accusing her of insider trading could have gone hang.

Oh look, a manual gearbox...

There must be a catch. There always is. However, on examining the ad, it's not clear what that might be. OK, the service history is described as 'extensive', which might not be the same as 'full'. But it could mean 'full' during the time that the current owner has been running it, which as far as Shed is concerned is as near to 'full' as 'full' gets without actually being 'full'.

Although the MOT history has pointed up the usual brake pipe corrosion issues - with one front and one back pipe coming up as advisories on last November's test, so there'll be some more remedial work needed at some point - there's no obvious bodywork rust anywhere. E46s are known for going in the areas of the boot handle/number plate light, lower bootlid edge, leading bonnet edge, and all arches. But apart from some very light kerbing on those classy 8-spoke wheels, that's about it on the externals.

What about beneath the surface? What do you get in a 2001 E46 325i? Well, you get a very silky six-cylinder M24 engine. You also get people telling you that you should have bought the 330 instead, or the 328 at least. Those two do have bigger engines, bigger power (230 on the 330 vs 190 or thereabouts on the 325) bigger torque (220 on the 330 vs 180 on the 325) and bigger brakes. Plus, the naysayers will tell you that any 325 fuel efficiency gains are not real because you have to rev the cods off it to get anywhere. The bit they always miss out is the sheer joy of revving the cods off a 325. For Shed, that's a reason to buy, not a reason to avoid. And you'll hardly be crawling along in a hard-pedalled 325.

Functioning doors as well - it gets better!

Now, BMWs are fine cars by and large, but they are not exempt from common issues. In their defence, many of the E46's problems are not even BMW-specific, let alone model-specific. Most of it is down to simple ageing.

Under the bonnet, check for oil leakage from the valve cover and coolant leakage from the expansion tank, water pump or radiator. Oil level sensors conk out, as do electric window regulators. On the 318is last month we talked about the dodgy 'hedgehog' Final Stage Resistors (FSUs) that are supposed to control the air-con blower, but don't always. Given a chance, power steering fluid will attempt to escape through one of the system's hoses.

Rear springs and lower wishbones snap, and worn control arm bushes will cause the front wheels to jolt back an inch or two in the wheelarches under slow-speed braking, to the accompaniment of an unpleasant clonking noise. Door seals wear out, gloveboxes stay locked, and the entire taillight bulb assembly might need replacing at some stage.

And it costs less than a 5 Series sunroof

That all sounds like a lot of bad stuff, but you should think of it more as a reflection of the vast amount of information gathered by hundreds of thousands of mainly highly satisfied E46 owners who want others to benefit from their experience so that more cars can be kept on the road.

The E46 is an excellent car. The 325i is an excellent E46 variant. And this particular 325i looks, well, excellent.

Here's the ad.

BMW 325iSE,2001,steel blue metallic with full black leather interior with m-sport seats,5 speed manual,109,000 from new with extensive service history and mot history,only 2 previous owners, power steering,electric Windows front and back, remote central locking, air conditioning, alloy wheels, multifunction steering wheel,rear parking sensors, mot end of December,excellent condition throughout , my wife's car , ill health forces sale please ring 01923 220224 (Watford in Hertfordshire)