Leaderboard

Hard to comment on value without knowing condition and maintenance done - compared to others on the past year or so these two are both cheap. I would less concerned with 145km vs 195km on a 20 year old car TBH, condition is more important.

K & N filter arrived so that has gone in, tried to de- grease the engine bay but ran out of de- greaser before it ran out of grease!! Just need to adjust the handbrake and sort the front bumper and it should be ready for a WOF... I should probably do the tailgate struts as well so it doesn't decapitate the WOF inspector.

Cant understand why they keep saying “but you will need to check again” if it has been “fixed” Definitely an avoid for me

It does not look like a cared-for car. "no history but serviced regularly". Tui advert right there. A well-maintained e46 is a joy; a neglected one can definitely be brought up to scratch for $$$; you just got to make sure there's some meat in it for you after the spending's done. It's at the right mileage for the auto to sh*t the bed, it'll be ready for control arms and bushes, endlinks and ARB bushes; a PCV system, shocks, brakes, cooling system. And not far off of an A/C compressor and VANOS seals. It'll be leaking oil around valve cover gasket and oil filter housing, will need a sump gasket soon (if not already), and if the PCV system has been ignored, could be up for a brake booster too. It'll probably need some coils, definitely spark plugs. And a windscreen cowl. Hopefully it's had regular oil changes and isn't slugged-up. Not a car to take a risk on, you'd want a very thorough PPI from a BMW dealer or specialist. Missing some of the e46 telltales with a general mechanic or PPI shop could cost you a grand an item. Proceed with caution. It may be good and all this stuff's already been done, but most folks spending tons on workshop bills will keep receipts. FSH and tons of history makes better sense with these. HTH.

K's don't mean much at this point in time as does regularly serviced (in NZ it usually boils down to oil changes done now and again). Most of these cars have tired suspension, old plastics and rubber etc regardless of mileage. IMO the example that has the tidy condition paint\panel, good interior and drives ok is the one that worth spending a couple of grand to sort mechanically. The only ones that are actually close to needing none or very little work are the ones owned true enthusiasts who are happy to invest lots of time and money (opposite of most car owners)

Being an msport or not is a big deal for me and a lot of people. There are so many little things that make it just that much better. Sports seats, anthracite interior fabric, usually non woodgrain trim (although this is easily changed), nicer steering wheel, nicer looking bodykit, sports suspension (a lot of non m sport cars may still have this), usually nicer design of wheels (also easily changed), generally non amber indicators (although can look nice on a blue or darker coloured car) etc. Having owned plenty of e46s, they are good reliable cars if well maintained and in order to do so will have cost or will cost money in the future. Best thing to do is find a few and go for a test drive, check service history and calculate what else needs to be done and see if the maths adds up in your budget. nz new is always good but not crucial, condition is everything and i wouldnt rule anything else or make any decisions before seeing it in person. my opinion, base spec silver is boring, undesirable, probably hard to sell but doesnt mean its a bad car. Will probably still drive the same or similar if you only care about mechanical aspect. If you do care about looks then no point to go through the trouble of converting body parts, not like there isnt enough m sport examples around to pick from.

Filed up pretty good!

After the tyre incident i learnt my lesson and pulled what good kit i had off my 328 and dumped it into the LS, fixed it up and booked another day, determined to learn track 2 at taupo ( link all the drift sections). Was pretty nervous heading back out again, esp coming in hot to the dip where i had the crash, but persistence pays off and by the end of the day i was linking the full drift section. Its a weird uneasy feeling going 90+ kph sideways. IMG_4091.MOV

Headlights got 2 coats of clear on the weekend, re-attached the seals and put them back in, centre console back in, got some extrusion to make some roof racks....

Sounds like they're just mechanically clueless but smart enough to know they might have f**led the car and don't want to risk misleading anyone. Anything is possible, engine may have had it's life shortened here but really that's the risk with any used car. You'll really need to take a good look yourself, ideally get a BMW specialist to inspect it. If you can rule out any head gasket leakage it should be ok. Of course its possibly got all the other usual issues of a high mileage BMW, all the major bushings are worn and things like the trans, driveshaft ect are flopping around more than they should. Takes a lot of money and work to get these into real nice condition and most people don't bother. If you ever find one that's actually got the suspension well sorted with the receipts to prove it, it's easily worth a couple grand more - anyone who spends that kind of money on their E46 has properly taken care of it.

yea I know, what I meant is that statement from the seller is bloody useless. almost just sounds like they are trying to flog off a known bad car by feigning ignorance and saying "do your own research."

wut? look at all the sales platforms. generally the ones listed on here are better maintained. Forum > TM > turners > FB but some good ones could come up on FB (unlikely) as some sellers want to avoid the listing fees and try their luck on FB.

True I did see that one, I was put off by the higher km but it is definitely nicer spec and I do love the color. What do you reckon that one is worth? Ok you guys are putting me off the silver one now haha. Would you say its undesirable because of the colour and non m package? Yeah I'm planning to put some $ aside for diy maintenance.

Theres a Blue Msport on Trademe for not much more that looks like way better value. And it's in AKL. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/2806020441?bof=DQgWLR7D Aside from the low kms, this silver one is about as undesirable as a 330ci gets IMO. If you want a $4K 330ci, good idea to have another $2k at least put aside as well.

3-4k

Good, so we're all agreed. We should return to the gold standard.

Changing of the guard? The Marc VDS Z4 GT3 being chased by the Rowe Racing SLS AMG GT3 around the Karussell during the 2015 edition of the Nurburgring 24hr race. Several slow zones around the track caught out many competitors and Marc VDS lost the race after being penalised in controversial circumstances which handed the win to Audi Team WRT, the only other car on the lead lap. Marc VDS would pull out of sports car racing entirely due to this incident. Rowe Racing would swap their Merc's for BMW's in 2016, and after being the only BMW in a Mercedes top 6 sandwich in 2016, a second in 2017 splitting a pair of Audi's, and a pair of double DNF's in 2018 and '19, which included the ignominy of both cars being out after 22 laps in 2019, they'd stand on the top step in 2020 and break BMW's 10 year drought at the green hell.

I love bbs lm, but your current wheels suit the car better tbh.

What even is an atm? Something from the dark ages?

The whole channel is brilliant, Starkey's S15, Phil's CSL, Jay's 1000hp Mustang...