E46 330i estates
Discussion
I've had 5 e46 estates, 325 manual, 330i manual and three 330d (2 manuals and an auto).
They have all been great cars apart from the auto which had transmission issues. I've also had a couple of e46 saloons, coupes and 5 compacts, I really rate them. I've not found the Tourings to rust any worse than the rest of the e46 range, in fact the worst one I had was a coupe in that respect.
Seek out the 6-speed manual as it's the pick of the crop, weak spots are front suspension bushes etc. Chasing an illuminated EML can be challenging.
Of all the 3 series the e46 is the last real driver's car,.
They have all been great cars apart from the auto which had transmission issues. I've also had a couple of e46 saloons, coupes and 5 compacts, I really rate them. I've not found the Tourings to rust any worse than the rest of the e46 range, in fact the worst one I had was a coupe in that respect.
Seek out the 6-speed manual as it's the pick of the crop, weak spots are front suspension bushes etc. Chasing an illuminated EML can be challenging.
Of all the 3 series the e46 is the last real driver's car,.
I had one!
It was manual, SE, but with heated sports seats and a sunroof.
Was still going on original engine , gearbox and diff at 300K miles. Unfortunately, the electrics were showing signs of being past their best, but I sold it in January (replaced with E91) and the new owner drove it away...Still showing as MoT'd and insured, so guess it is in use.
It was manual, SE, but with heated sports seats and a sunroof.
Was still going on original engine , gearbox and diff at 300K miles. Unfortunately, the electrics were showing signs of being past their best, but I sold it in January (replaced with E91) and the new owner drove it away...Still showing as MoT'd and insured, so guess it is in use.
king hate E46's. Non stop niggling problems, chasing rust, 24 mpg and having your arse handed to you by a 19 year old in a leased Fiesta ST. Really, really, really rare
Back in the day the 330d got all the headlines especially after JB got done for speeding in one by Les Flics
Both the petrol and diesel 6 pot were manual as standard but it was impossible to find any second hand as it seemed they all left the factory as autos
Having decided an E46 wagon was my ultimate car at the time (it was) I eventually compromised and bought a 330d with the auto box. It was my first diesel and my first auto and was utterly brilliant
Good luck with your search for a manual 330i, its probably a bit of a unicorn car
PS make sure it has the HK stereo and xenons
Cheers
I bought an E46 330i sport touring brand new from Sytner Sheffield. Manual. Metallic black and grey leather sports sets. The 18" wheel option of the time seemed enormous. Brilliant car and i had 3 faultless years of fast cross country driving and motorway cruising with an average of 24 mpg all round.
I traded it for a jaguar XJ V8R X350 and regretted the swap in the first few miles , the BMW was the better car.
It was the last brand new BMW i owned and a couple of special E30's aside. The best.
I traded it for a jaguar XJ V8R X350 and regretted the swap in the first few miles , the BMW was the better car.
It was the last brand new BMW i owned and a couple of special E30's aside. The best.
They were pretty rare and starting to rust when I was trying to buy one 10 years ago. I eventually managed to buy a facelift Sport in Oxford Green with natural brown leather interior.
A 2002 (5 speed) 80k mile example in silver was listed on eBay this week, looks like it sold pretty quickly, condition was OK, but not exceptional, it was up for just under £5k.
Good luck with your search.
A 2002 (5 speed) 80k mile example in silver was listed on eBay this week, looks like it sold pretty quickly, condition was OK, but not exceptional, it was up for just under £5k.
Good luck with your search.
They are definitely hard to find, and most are pretty crusty now anyway!
I bought an E46 325ti Compact in 2014 and after driving it in 2015 a relative decided he needed one in his life so I tracked one down - but a year later he became a parent so the search was on for a manaul petrol 6 Touring. Found a 54 plate 325i Sport in Imola Red in 2017 but even then at less than 100K miles it had rusty wingsall round.
An incident in 2018 resulted in a Cat S marker but 2 new front wings and a front end respray, but it was throwing up bills for oil and coolant leaks and he gave up on it last year. Could hardly give it away.
When I went looking for a Touring in 2018 I bought an E91 325i because I couldn't find a manual 330i model either! It didn't handle like the E46, but was far more refined and no rust issues. But it felt a bit lack-lustre so in 2019 I compromised on the Touring bit and got a manual E90 330i.
If you can find a clean E46 330i it could be a fantastic car but good ones are a bit like unicorns!
I bought an E46 325ti Compact in 2014 and after driving it in 2015 a relative decided he needed one in his life so I tracked one down - but a year later he became a parent so the search was on for a manaul petrol 6 Touring. Found a 54 plate 325i Sport in Imola Red in 2017 but even then at less than 100K miles it had rusty wingsall round.
An incident in 2018 resulted in a Cat S marker but 2 new front wings and a front end respray, but it was throwing up bills for oil and coolant leaks and he gave up on it last year. Could hardly give it away.
When I went looking for a Touring in 2018 I bought an E91 325i because I couldn't find a manual 330i model either! It didn't handle like the E46, but was far more refined and no rust issues. But it felt a bit lack-lustre so in 2019 I compromised on the Touring bit and got a manual E90 330i.
If you can find a clean E46 330i it could be a fantastic car but good ones are a bit like unicorns!
I keep thinking i'd like another, but head says not a chance. Too rusty. I've a box of brand new suspension and brake parts still on a shelf from when i had one 10 years ago. It was rusty then, and had had the boot floor repaired. There was also a fatigue crack in the front where the NSF inner wing is welded to the front bulkhead by the windscreen. Lovely looking cars and when setup properly they drive well, but are properly old now.
bmwmike said:
I keep thinking i'd like another, but head says not a chance. Too rusty. I've a box of brand new suspension and brake parts still on a shelf from when i had one 10 years ago. It was rusty then, and had had the boot floor repaired. There was also a fatigue crack in the front where the NSF inner wing is welded to the front bulkhead by the windscreen. Lovely looking cars and when setup properly they drive well, but are properly old now.
Kind of agree; there are some very good examples out there but very hard to find...I'd go for a Japanese import and start the preservation of it ASAP; but it'll cost you the best part of £15k up front IIRC and for that; I'd rather have an F31 haha
See; examples like this are where they're simply trying it on
https://www.carandclassic.com/l/C1584740
Laughable price; low miles but full of dents and rust coming through etc...
Its a c£5k car and a great base for a project, but no more...
Edited by d_a_n1979 on Wednesday 17th May 12:54
d_a_n1979 said:
Kind of agree; there are some very good examples out there but very hard to find...
I'd go for a Japanese import and start the preservation of it ASAP; but it'll cost you the best part of £15k up front IIRC and for that; I'd rather have an F31 haha
See; examples like this are where they're simply trying it on
https://www.carandclassic.com/l/C1584740
Laughable price; low miles but full of dents and rust coming through etc...
Its a c£5k car and a great base for a project, but no more...
Probably far easier getting hold of a low mileage manual coupe and saloon than it is an estate. If I was looking for one right now I’d probably factor in bodywork and speak to the seller. I would rather buy a low mileage car, spend some money and get it nice as it’ll always price far higher than one with say 120k miles. The days of buying a 3.0 sport with manual gears for £5k seem to have passed. I'd go for a Japanese import and start the preservation of it ASAP; but it'll cost you the best part of £15k up front IIRC and for that; I'd rather have an F31 haha
See; examples like this are where they're simply trying it on
https://www.carandclassic.com/l/C1584740
Laughable price; low miles but full of dents and rust coming through etc...
Its a c£5k car and a great base for a project, but no more...
Edited by d_a_n1979 on Wednesday 17th May 12:54
Jap cars are cleaner and usually better spec but seem to be cheaper than a car if it’s not an import.
A nice red estate with black leather would be perfect..
hi
I've had a 330d touring for 13 years been the family daily , from taking the kids to Cornwall holidays when they were toddlers to transporting 1st motorbike pw50 motorbike the local mx track , mountains biking to wales bike holidays and everything in between , and doing doughnuts in tesco car park, i finally retired it to the driveway in November and purchased a f30 330d to replace it , which the wife was very happy about, and relied on its service to take my son to uni as all he's gear wouldn't fit in the f30 saloon
been the best car we have ever owned , in 13 years its been service once a year , and its only had 1 set of brake discs and 2 sets of pads !
the worse thing about it was the gm auto box it died at 100k and again at 130k , its now been converted to man and on 156k
heated seats and xenon headlights are a must
also previously mentioned this 1 eats ford st for breakfast! bigger turbo with supporting mods 267bhp and obscene amount of torque
they aer great cars if looked after , mine still looks very respectful and its 20 years old , even my son and hes mates like it , i put it up for sale last month and my son talked me out of getting rid of it , so now its a keeper
good luck with finding a 330i manual , the man swap isnt that hard to do if you find a nice auto 1
I've had a 330d touring for 13 years been the family daily , from taking the kids to Cornwall holidays when they were toddlers to transporting 1st motorbike pw50 motorbike the local mx track , mountains biking to wales bike holidays and everything in between , and doing doughnuts in tesco car park, i finally retired it to the driveway in November and purchased a f30 330d to replace it , which the wife was very happy about, and relied on its service to take my son to uni as all he's gear wouldn't fit in the f30 saloon
been the best car we have ever owned , in 13 years its been service once a year , and its only had 1 set of brake discs and 2 sets of pads !
the worse thing about it was the gm auto box it died at 100k and again at 130k , its now been converted to man and on 156k
heated seats and xenon headlights are a must
also previously mentioned this 1 eats ford st for breakfast! bigger turbo with supporting mods 267bhp and obscene amount of torque
they aer great cars if looked after , mine still looks very respectful and its 20 years old , even my son and hes mates like it , i put it up for sale last month and my son talked me out of getting rid of it , so now its a keeper
good luck with finding a 330i manual , the man swap isnt that hard to do if you find a nice auto 1
Unless you can find that superbly maintained pearl, forget it. 10 years ago most of them were rubbish. I like some older BMW's but I certainly not the E46 when on the tools. Rust, window regulators, heater blower resistors, rust, oil leaks, whoops, a tailgate hinge just snapped, more rust, EML light, phantom bulb warning lights, the other window regulator, rust, front wishbone rear bushes......for many owners it just never ended. I think they were absolute crap but meat/poison etc.
I-am-the-reverend said:
Unless you can find that superbly maintained pearl, forget it. 10 years ago most of them were rubbish. I like some older BMW's but I certainly not the E46 when on the tools. Rust, window regulators, heater blower resistors, rust, oil leaks, whoops, a tailgate hinge just snapped, more rust, EML light, phantom bulb warning lights, the other window regulator, rust, front wishbone rear bushes......for many owners it just never ended. I think they were absolute crap but meat/poison etc.
It’s a shame you’ve had this kind of experience. My experience with them has overall been very good. I think they are one of the best the company made in terms of looks, performance (for the time), and general reliability. You got to be realistic- most are 20 years old now so need money spent on them. Compare them to any 20 year old car and they are pretty good.I-am-the-reverend said:
Unless you can find that superbly maintained pearl, forget it. 10 years ago most of them were rubbish. I like some older BMW's but I certainly not the E46 when on the tools. Rust, window regulators, heater blower resistors, rust, oil leaks, whoops, a tailgate hinge just snapped, more rust, EML light, phantom bulb warning lights, the other window regulator, rust, front wishbone rear bushes......for many owners it just never ended. I think they were absolute crap but meat/poison etc.
Meh; that's 2nd hand older cars for you...You buy them because they're up & coming classics, just like the E39 and go to town on them ASAP to get them fixed up & running perfectly...
Parts are easy to come by; most not stupidly expensive and working on them is so much easier than more modern cars!
Rust is the killer; find one with little to none and you're laughing...
My one and only E46 was a 320i saloon and it was easy to work on and fix; same with my E38 and all my E39s... Great cars to learn how to self-spanner IMO
Sounds like you had a crap car and unfortunate circumstances; they're absolutely not all like that
I-am-the-reverend said:
I worked on several as a mechanic over 20 years. The same old problems on all of them. I neglected to mention leaking header tanks, swirl flaps, CV joints, rear light bulb holders......
The W203 Mercedes is a far better car. The C320CDi is a cracking thing.
Most mercs of that era look like cars for people coming upto retirement when you put them next to bmws.The W203 Mercedes is a far better car. The C320CDi is a cracking thing.
Gassing Station | BMW General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff