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MD13

Maybe first car for boy...

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My son is shopping for his first car and is looking at this pretty hard z3

Went out to Waiheke the other weekend (good weather) for a look and a drive. Beautiful sound and drives nice and tight. Anyone know this car?

Edited by MD13

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No msport suspension but LSD optioned. 

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First car?

Get an E46 with the M43 engine.

Seriously.

It'll handle well enough as stock, and the handling can be improved. That's a big plus.

The engine, gearbox and drivetrain are reliable, and easy to work on. Parts are readily available. Parts are cheap.

No - it is not the glamour that a Z3 might be, but it's a better, more practical and more suitable car for a first car.

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In a Z3, there’s only one other person to say “Watch this!” to.

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  • Haha 3

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48 minutes ago, gjm said:

Get an E46 with the M43 engine.

Kinda the opposite issue, way to slow\heavy imo. Parents manual one struggled to keep up with traffic and my auto was even worse with failed DISA diaphragms. E36 318is would be ideal you got 10k to drop and didnt want a 1.9 Z3 or 318ti.

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I hear you all - not practical at all. But then I'm not buying the car he is with his own money. He's been working part time for 2 years and saving. As we all know it's pretty hard to find a car in manual these days and I can't say I agree with his "taste" in some regards - straight no to golf, polo, 1 series etc. Just thought I'd check here in case someone knew the car from yester-year 🙂

I was thinking he might want to keep (buy off me) the e39 he's been learning in but it's too big he says. Will have to list that shortly for the garage space if he pulls the trigger on the z3.

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That's an epic first car! Should be easy enough to work on and maintain, and heaps of fun to drive. If anything, your first car should be memorable, not some run-of-the-mill
banged up Corolla. All power to him.

Had a Saab 93 convertible as the first car I ever bought and paid for myself. Absolute money pit but damn was it awesome cruising down the motorway at night with the top down and the Milky Way stretching out across the sky above you. Still remember it fondly despite the financial disaster it turned out to be.

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12 hours ago, Eagle said:

E36 318is would be ideal

Agree. Jealous of the green coupe my dad's been tinkering on. Not fast but plenty of fun to drive, cheap on gas, would be a great first car.

I must say though, getting into an E36 feels like a pretty old car these days even compared to an E46 which feels a lot more modern and safe inside. 

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A twin cam E30 vert with a slightly shorter wheel base...  What could go wrong!

Seriously though, my first car was an E36 318iS which quickly got chopped for an E30 and they were great to fang around without getting into too much trouble in the early 2000's.

I think rather than the handling or power aspects of any first car, more thought should be put into skill set building. I remember that at 16 we were lucky enough to have driver training offered around the old Manukau Super Stage with properly setup cars, on adjustable dollies to mimic differing driving scenarios. Having that knowledge of how cars react in certain situations and how to recover from them saved my bacon many a time as a teen - because teens do dumb sh*t, and it's a bit late to work things out when there's unexpected rotation at the point of diminishing talent.

The bonus of buying a manual 6 cylinder Z3 is that he'll definitely not lose money on it!

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8 hours ago, Harper said:

Agree. Jealous of the green coupe my dad's been tinkering on. Not fast but plenty of fun to drive, cheap on gas, would be a great first car.

I must say though, getting into an E36 feels like a pretty old car these days even compared to an E46 which feels a lot more modern and safe inside. 

Yeah safety im sure E46 is way ahead. E36 is more old BMW ethos for sure, but has plenty of advantages over the E46 while still having comparable handling and power.   

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I have an 2004 E46 325i msport sedan up for sale in the next week or so. Just over 100k on the clock. Really nice car 🚗 

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On 5/29/2024 at 8:59 AM, MD13 said:

My son is shopping for his first car and is looking at this pretty hard z3

Went out to Waiheke the other weekend (good weather) for a look and a drive. Beautiful sound and drives nice and tight. Anyone know this car?

Owned this car for a short period in 2022. I wanted a small manual run around and this felt like it needed rescuing at the time off its owner. Definitely not a fan of the black wheels it’s currently wearing!

From memory it had lived most of its life in Wellington and was dealer serviced. I sold it because I didn’t really have the garage space and didn’t enjoy leaving a soft top outside - the car had been garaged its whole life up until I owned it.

IMG_0910.jpeg

Edited by str8_6
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Nice! Thanks Aaron 🙂

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It's now in my garage. Happy son.

Does mean I will need to sell the e39 though...

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2 hours ago, MD13 said:

Does mean I will need to sell the e39 though...

I'll buy it it's cheap enough :D

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Was thinking around $8k. Took some photos yesterday will post a for sale thread this week.

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On 6/4/2024 at 10:10 AM, MD13 said:

It's now in my garage. Happy Son.

I should think so! Pretty good place to start in terms of car ownership.

Whilst I’m not a huge Z3 fan, I certainly see them as a lot of car, and fun, for the money.

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That generation is well known for having a dog of an engine, classic BMW N series things. High oil consumption, timing chain issues, the usual.

R53 Cooper S is a better bet, with the supercharged engine.

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10 hours ago, Contrails said:

$7500 with a new clutch, fuel pump and cam chain can’t be too bad.

I’ve heard a clutch is $4k alone.

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I've seen one that had a full engine rebuild selling for less than 10k.

I was seriously considering buying N18 R56 but it sounded like all the costly failures are a matter of when, not if.

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Had 3 come into work within 1 month with a failed injector.

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