330i Touring, costs and extra power?

[alfa daley]

I keep being tempted by the prospect of a 330i touring as I like the idea of rear wheel drive and over 200 horses, plenty of room for climbing stuff and the ability to stuff hot hatches (ok well not some of the new ones)

Question is can the 330 engine be modded at all if I felt the need for more go? And how would the running costs compare with an Impreza WRX (I'm not sure I could handle the Scooby image and lust for petrol tho).I like a certain anonymity on the road and terrible as it sounds there are plenty of 3s about.

One last Q, havent seen many 330 tourings in manual either are they rare??

[JonRB]

Various tuners offer supercharger conversions for the E46 330i but they're quite expensive.

[rlk500]

I have a 328 Touring in manual. I think the 330 manual's are pretty rare. Running costs wise, mine has been very good, normal things have worn out, but generally it's excellent. I have been across europe in it and has been very enjoyable. Go wise, it's not bad, I guess the 330 would be better but mine is no slouch and the handling is nice bordering on "enthusiastic". I would expect running costs to be far less than the scooby. As for the 3 series thing, there aren't loads of tourers around so you quite feel like just another 3.