E46 M3 ragtop

[Matt T 15]

Thoughts on this M3 price etc? Anything to look for on these things?

 

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m3/listing/2679602013?bof=zoegqhv3

[Sammo 2538]

Great topic here:

Plenty of E46 M3 experts here to chip in.

Might be overpriced being an SMG Vert with 200+ km though. 

 

[M3AN 4016]

Other than the owner apparently having no idea at all (or feigning ignorance) that's a sharp deal if you want a SMG 'vert.

On the other hand, if the owner is feigning ignorance then it's a bucket of bolts and you should run a mile.

 You really need to test drive it, get it plugged in and diagnosed and then inspected by a BMW specialist with a lift.

[Matt T 15]

8 hours ago, M3AN said:

Other than the owner apparently having no idea at all (or feigning ignorance) that's a sharp deal if you want a SMG 'vert.

On the other hand, if the owner is feigning ignorance then it's a bucket of bolts and you should run a mile.

 You really need to test drive it, get it plugged in and diagnosed and then inspected by a BMW specialist with a lift.

Yeah I thought it seemed quite cheap for an M3 but I just wasn't sure.

What are your thoughts on the E46 in terms of being a good investment. I know the E36 are getting up there now considering what a guy I know bought one for 12-15 years ago. 

[qube 3570]

its not (that) cheap, and i dont think its a great investment. verts are no where near as desireable nor valuable. high kms dont help either.

[Driftit 2068]

People are buying verts in this condition for 10K or less in the US and stripping them for parts for their projects.  Nobody wants the verts over there.  Though they have way too many of them.

[Karter16 395]

Yeah I agree with what Dave says - all comes down to whether anything's being hidden or not, a good inspection would be worthwhile.

Key things IMO to think about are:

 - RACP (as in actually drop the Subframe, clean the RACP and look for damage, it's the only way to know for sure).

 - VANOS (pretty easy fix with the 3rd party options available now, but would be surprised if it wasn't a bit noisy)

 - Rod bearings, no mention of them having been done (although depending on when in 03 it was made it might have had the recall done, although that was probably a lot of k's ago) best to assume they need doing.

 - interesting that it says the clutch and SMG pump are pretty new, seems odd that clutch would need replacing being an SMG as the SMGs are usually lighter on the clutch than a person (having said that it's more than 200k so who knows).

There's no mention of other running gear, bushings, suspension, etc. if it's all original it's probably pretty tired after 200k, would be good to get the list of invoices as to what's actually been done.

 

Re vert/coupe. Honestly my opinion is to buy whichever you like. As others have said the verts are usually valued heaps lower in the States, I'm not sure to what degree that carries over to here though, there's not been a lot of throughput of E46 M3s on trademe in the last year so a bit hard to gauge prices.