Ben26

. Whats good. Whats bad. ??

Things to look out for ?

They seem to be an allrounder from what im reading/looking at

just hard to get one thats done less than 100k miles. At whats miles do they start falling apart ?



Ive had enough of the scooby. Found out the missus is preggers so need to get a normal car

Do they go well. Was even looking at the estates as well. They look lovely with a set of x5 wheels.

Anyway. Thoughts ??

gingeRS

Not sure about the e46, but I have the e39 530auto. Engines bullet proof although google swirl flaps

Don't worry about mileage, to some extent, buy on condition and service history. Check for rusty arches, make sure all the electrics work. Trim varies massively and some colour combos have aged better than others. Sport alcantara trim is nice (doesn't photograph well so see in flesh) but can wear

There pretty bullet proof, manuals mpg is better than auto but round town it's not an economical car, about 30mpg ( mainly cos engine is 50% bigger than most diesels)

The performance is great though, remap if you want more grunt, on the motorway my 530 flys and does about 42mpg if you take it easy.

RS 5tu

iTrader: (2)

i have been looking at these, would go well too with a few upgrades from MSD

Ben26

Thinkin abkut getting it faster already even before u have even bought the thing...................My nigga !

RS 5tu

iTrader: (2)

The only thing thats putting me off is they look alittle dated now.
looking at Audi A4 S line
or E60 525d m Sport
But they wont go as well as a 300bhp 330d its a hard choice

Matt_16v

Thought I'd chip in as I was on here about 8 months or so ago asking exactly the same questions and then went and bought one. I paid £3,100 for mine, 2003 330D M Sport 5 door manual, on about 110k when I got it.

What's good - everything really! They go well, look great, comfortable on long drives but handle well enough to make b road blasts entertaining and of course you have the economy too. I do a bit of mileage for work but its not every day so I don't need something massively economical, and I wanted something that can be a laugh, so for me it had everything I needed. It took a while to get used to the TD driving experience after owning petrol cars all my life though, but that's just me probably.

What's bad - well, on mine it was a (fairly common) hot starting issue which turned into a mare to diagnose (faulty injector). While we're here, top tip, always use BWM specialists! Lesson learnt there that's for sure.

Go for one made after mid 2003 and you'll get 204 brake rather than 180 odd and 6 speed rather than 5. £3.5k - £4.5k seems to be the right sort of money for a pretty decent one. I'm looking at whether to get mine re-mapped at the moment, general opinion seems to be that I should! I'm taking it for a service next week (BMW specialist remember!) and I'm going to speak to them about it.

I hired a brand new (ish) 320D last week and I must say as an all round car I prefer mine. Built in sat nav was nice though!

Matt_16v

From the outside mine looks exactly the same as this one;

http://www.davefoxcars.co.uk/used-BM...rdshire-474732

I think they still look great!