Shed has been feeling guilty recently. All the cars he’s been bringing you have been tripped up by UK vehicle excise duty, a tax designed for the express purpose of putting peppy and perfectly useable old motors off British roads. To make amends for his failings, in this week’s SOTW research effort Shed has widened his search pattern to take in cars that are less powerful and therefore potentially less interesting, but also certainly less expensive to run.
As a result of this extra effort, he found a ’99 Toyota Starlet Solida Edition with 57,000 miles, sparkling red paint and an equally shiny MOT history. He showed his bright red offering to Mrs Shed. She wasn’t best pleased by that, ordering him to put it away, but then he showed her the Toyota and to be fair that did get her interest. A couple of hours later Shed realised why. Liking the word ‘Solida’, she’d put it onto the internet and found to her delight that Krupp had just perfected a remarkably heavy saucepan bearing the same name. Once it arrives with a Thor’s hammer thump on the doorstep Shed can expect the pleasure of even more resounding dongs on the noggin going forward.
Anyway, despite that distraction the Starlet was still a contender for this week’s SOTW until Shed found this E46 330Ci, at which point all bets were off. There’s a timeless appeal about the E46 coupe. Them as has good ‘uns tend to hang onto them. Sub-£2k big-engined Cis that are put up for sale usually have big miles on them so Shed usually gives them a swerve.
This one is different. The mileage is on the right side of scary at 131,000. The MOT history shows nothing more than usual consumables, with the last test in April being a clean pass. And because it was registered before 1 March 2001 the VED seems to be £360 - but of course Shed is probably wrong on that.
The gearbox is a 5-speed auto, which makes the 1,540kg 330Ci 35kg heavier than the 5-speed manual version, but with 228hp at 5,900rpm and 221lb ft at 3,500rpm to schmooze around with that isn’t that so much of a drawback. There’s no turbo or cambelt to go wrong with the M54 3.0-litre straight-six, and none of the fragile rod bearings that blighted the higher performance S54 variant: you just get good, honest and generally pretty reliable power.
The 330Ci auto’s top speed was 153mph, a couple of mph down on the manual, and its 0-62mph time was about half a second down on the manual’s 6.5 benchmark. Let’s be honest though, are you really going to notice that? There are day-to-day advantages with the auto too. The throw on manual BMW clutches was never short, and the cramped E46 footwell was arguably better suited to having two pedals in it rather than three.
Regular oil changes and the occasional VANOS/MAF sensor refresh should keep things ticking over nicely but the use of plastic parts in the coolant system of cars of this period can be a weak point. Sump gaskets have a habit of failing too. A replacement gasket costs about fourpence but awkward access means that fitting it will cost you a lot more than that, either in time if you fancy doing it yourself, or money if you pay someone else to do it. Suspension bushes go too, but this is a 25-year-old car so with luck a previous owner will have put their hand up for that bill. The MOT history suggests that might well be the case. 25 years old though. Sheesh. Would you guess that from looking at it?
At the time, some complained about the steering being a bit over-assisted and the seat being a bit too high, producing a sit-upon driving position and limited headroom for anyone with '80s hair, especially if the car had a sunroof, Happily this one doesn’t. Shed reckons that younger drivers trying one of these in 2025 won’t notice any problems. Younger drivers might not like the gold and cream colourway but at the risk of generalising that’s a combo you’d expect an older person to go for, so let’s heap another generalisation on top of that and say it might also have been nicely looked after.
Interior trim parts on E46s were stuck on using the sort of glue you might remember from primary school, ie the sort that didn’t keep things stuck together, so don’t expect miracles in that department. Electronically however the E46 was somewhat less complicated than the models that followed it, which most sheddists would see as a good thing. If you need a final nudge to tip you over the edge, the ad kindly provides that by telling you it has electric front windows, which add a touch of convenience and make it a more user-friendly option than similar cars without this feature. Indeed.
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