Great feedback Dave - how about the 335i? you've had me thinking about one of them since I seen you replaced the E39 M5 with one. Having said that I'd love to go back to an E39 M5 again
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Great feedback Dave - how about the 335i? you've had me thinking about one of them since I seen you replaced the E39 M5 with one. Having said that I'd love to go back to an E39 M5 again
I bought the 335i as a daily, they're 25% the cost of an M3 and they're definitely not 25% the car.
I picked mine up for what I thought was small money, full main dealer history with clean bill of health, just had a 2k service, including new water pump, rocker cover and gasket, pcv, and oil filter housing.
Now, having put 1500km on it, here's the issues.
Waste Gate rattle - fix - new turbos - 2500
Inexplicable haemorrhaging of engine oil - ??
Occasionally, I have absolutely no brake bite - assuming it's a brake servo - 600
Suspension refresh - 1500
That's outside of a new set of pilot sport 4s tyres 850 + 100 fitting and balancing
I think this is gonna be a 10k car by the time I have it sorted and it may have been much smarter to buy a facelift DCT N55. Then again, I'll have an absolutely sorted car with forged internals and an easy 500hp as I'll be fitting uprated turbos rather than the OE units. Fit an LSD and it'll be a monster.
Parts are also cheap, they're half the insurance cost of the M5 and it'll do 30 mpg (which is important to me as I'm a fan of putting mileage on my cars) but I'm not sure they're the bargain everyone thinks they are, especially if you're particular about the car being right.
Mines in getting fixed at the moment, I'm back to the Lexus which has taken nothing but fuel since I bought it.
JohnH's friends car was probably the one to buy.
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Yep, I adored my 335i and it never gave me any trouble but I would be nervous of picking up another unless I know its history and it has the right work done otherwise it can get very expensive - LSD is a must!
Johns friends 335i is gone - the 530is previous owner bought it ;)
I would fancy a run side by side an e92 m3. My e46 is a weapon at the moment with the mods.
That is a CSL airbox, tuned to suit, 4.1 final drive. Lots of other mods including racing tunnel mounted gear shifter but the airbox and final drive are the main performance upgrade. Its also a nice bit lighter than the e92. Would be interesting.!
Very true, e92 m3's have there own issues that would need sorting though. would say rod bearings should be done asap. After all they are exact same as the v10 and have the same problem. So add another 2 odd grand onto the price of one.
E46s have fallen into 3 categories now.
Low mileage "investment" garage queens
Higher mile well maintained cars
Rough ones floating about the 120k mile range with big bills pending.
I would say if your going to daily drive one i wouldnt be too worrid about mileage and buy one condition and history
Great post, thank you!
I've also considered some of the other cars you've mentioned but ruled them out for various reasons (mainly because I just don't like the look of them, i.e. the 1 series or the RS4 or RS6...). I agree with you that the e92 m3 is the best looking out of all of these, I think it's just about perfect looking.
Naturally I have been looking at 335i's as well. I loved everything about my LCI e92 except for the fact that it was a 4-cylinder diesel, so a similar spec 335i would probably tick a lot of boxes for me, and I guess would be a lot more suitable as a daily driver than an M car.
Having said all that, I haven't driven any of these cars yet!
Interesting point you make about the value of the e92 M3. I sort of assumed these cars had started to bottom out now, but I hadn't really considered the impact of the subsequent generation depreciating.
Had two E46 M3's, one manual and an SMG CS, driving a manual E92 M3 now.
To be honest I think the CS was my favourite.
The E92 engine is brilliant and the sound is amazing but im not in love with the car and could move on without missing it too much.
I think the E46 has more character to it and to be honest I think its ageing better.
On the motorway the E92 is fantastic and I could be tempted o try a later model DCT at some stage.
Both lovely cars.
Thanks for the feedback.
It's interesting the number of people who seem to prefer SMG over manual on the e46, given it's contrary to the prevailing view. If I could get on board with an SMG it would certainly make my job easier finding a car! I must test drive one if I ever get the chance.