Hi,

Been of this forum in awhile and recently purchased a a Bmw E46 3 Series 330d and thought i would give my thoughts incase anyone is thinking of purchasing one.

I picked mine up for 3k with 94k On the clock, full M-tech Kit and full black leather interior.

Driving it is a completely different experience to the 306 GTI. It seems to handle the road well, tho not as well as my 6' tho that may be down to my 6's full sports suspension and being lowered. Also the traction control likes to cut in mid corner cutting acceleration at the wrong time which is fairly annoying.

It certaintly dosent feel as fast as the 6' even tho it has a quoted 184Bhp and 390NM of torque. It's as if you put the foot down... barely any noise, barely any 'feel' of acceleration as you would expect from a torquey oil burner, but then you look at the speedo and realise your going much faster than expected.

It dosen'nt even feel as fast as my previous Seat Ibiza Cupra TDI that produced 160 BHP. I am wondering if this is just the sensation of it being my first RWD drive. I certainly miss the sound of the 6' and the high revving ( Compared to my 5k limit ).

On the plus side it seems to sit confortably at 50Mpg at around 70Mph and the interior of it is much superior to my 6' and the seat ibiza that was a 56 plate ( 5 years newer than the bmw ).

In summary its a comfortable drive, is reasonably quick but lacks the exitement of the feel. I would much rather take a blast in my 6'for fun but the bmw is a lot more refined. I do wonder if a new sports exhaust and aftermarker airfilter will give me a bit more " noise grunt " that i am after and will keep this updated.

Handling wise, round the famous 'twisties' the 6' is famous for i honestly think the Bmw would struggle but it does seem to sit confortably at high speeds.

I have heard re-maps of this cars can see it up to 220BHP and 470NM of torque however i am extremely reluctant to do this due to wanting a reliable car ( one of the reasons for purchase ).

Maintainence wise these cars tend to need to get their front wishbones changed as they tend to go, also the automatic suffers from a problem of "flaps" where they are sucked into the engine causing catastrophic damage, luckily they are not fitted to the manual. They also tend to break the plastic air manifold at around 80k which apparently is around 400-500 to replace.

Tyre's have just set me back around 100 quid a pop ( not even for that good ones ) so that seems much more than the 6' and to be honest i am hoping nothing else goes wrong as the whole reason for the german car for me at the moment is reliability after my old diesel ( MG ZR TDI banger runabout ) decided to run away on me blowing the turbo and head gasket.

I think thats about it, just hope i wont suffer the fate of many RWD cars and ditch it!!

The front wishbone issues are just to do with the bushes- i've gone through a set a year and have heard that this is normal! (E46 330coupe m-sport)

As far as the ride, it will be very different from the lowered 306 (I went into mine from an exige and it was like a bus for months!) you get used to it though as you need to give it time/ experience with the car to allow you to exploit what is an excellent chassis and a good handling package (providing your car is functioning as it should- i'm think this this suspension set up should be the same as the coupe?) After a year with mine it would crucify my 306 down most roads, and to be fair, probably the exige as you can put the power down so easily. But no, it's never going to be that immediate excitment/ feel that the 306 offered.

Get a full check up at a garage- esp the bushes (they're 'only' £150 to replace) and enjoy

Give the car a good check over for rust too (if you haven't already) as they like to rust in most areas- esp the arches, bonnet, boot lid....

Just beware parts/ garage bills- fixing these tanks is not cheap!

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"Rules are for the interpretation of wisemen and the obedience of fools" (Colin Chapman, Lotus founder)

Did you get the manual or auto?
A remap is a must on these if you have a manual, I'd be a bit careful if it was a auto though!! 'lollypop' bushes will need changing at that mileage and totally transform the car!

I see you have had the bushes done, my bad!!

Funny, I get what you are saying, I dont think the 540i feels as quick off the mark as our Mondeo TDCi and the 6 felt quicker than that... Something about big quiet cars that you just cant properly feel how fast they are...

I can relate to this! I've got a 2.8 z3 and it doesn't feel as quick as the rallye did! 1st gear Is much shorter, and there us no drama with it being such a lazy engine revving engine making it feel slower than the rallye when in reality it it as quick if not quicker!

Not that i'd encourage you to be getting it out of shape but they are VERY hard to get out of shape when pushing on. I used to love the constant 'adjustment' the rallye needed when driving (especially in the wet) if you over-cook corners in the e46 (non-M3) you tend to get understeer or the traction control comes in. Mine may be a little bit diferent as I have the stability control too? ESP.

What I did was get used to the way you need to use the weight to your advantage- flow through the corners rather than rapidly changing direction (true of all cars I guess but particularly relevant for heavy cars).

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"Rules are for the interpretation of wisemen and the obedience of fools" (Colin Chapman, Lotus founder)

diesel

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306 rallye reproduction decals (full sets/individual decals) | 306 b-pillar textured vinyl weatherstrips
306 slam panel esso stickers | 306 yellow / orange / pension fund red side door badges
gti6 inlet manifold badges | 306 rear boot badges (p2/p3)
winner of Extraction of toys from prams with outstanding vigour award 2009 [source: gti6 owners club]

usual response untill you drive one!!

Ahem, this is a pug forum. f*ck off with your German crap!!!

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My old man wrote me a letter from prison once. It said if you don't want to end up in here, stay away from crime, women and drugs. Trouble is, that don't leave you much else to do, does it?

trust me i own and drive better beemers than a diesel one

i can possibly make one exception of a 335d coupe whic toby mentions but i actuall grit my teeth saying that

i will never ever own one though not in my lifetime! i live for dirty gas guzzlers

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306 rallye reproduction decals (full sets/individual decals) | 306 b-pillar textured vinyl weatherstrips
306 slam panel esso stickers | 306 yellow / orange / pension fund red side door badges
gti6 inlet manifold badges | 306 rear boot badges (p2/p3)
winner of Extraction of toys from prams with outstanding vigour award 2009 [source: gti6 owners club]

I run a 335D as my daily driver with an emaps remap. Circa 340hp and 500+lbs/ft which makes it extremely rapid. Probably the best all round car I've ever had now that I've discovered winter tyres I had a 330D M Sport back in '02 and that was a great car (except in the snow)

I think if you go on some of the BMW forums there are guys that ar running decats, filtration and remaps with bigger/better cooling. To be honest, I think you're asking for trouble as the limits are probably close in terms of reliability etc. I just enjoy the pace, poise and economy of the remapped car. Overall driving is 38MPG and I can get high 40's if I drive it like a pussy on a long run

Seems most have their cars remapped, would you reccomend it and does it provide a noticeable performance increase.

I am toying with the idea, but as you say will it affect reliablity to a severe degree. I am quite paranoid about that as my last car ( Tho it was a MG ZR TD ) had the turbo blow, car " ran away" burning its own oil and blew the head gasket.

Car cost circa 2k and got nothing from insurance as it was mechanical failure. Dont want that happening to the BM!

For info mines the 184BHP manual box, engine sound healthy and its at around 94k mileage... do hear these cars will go a fair bit longer than that tho.

Very jelous of the 335d though, wish i could afford one, hear they are on par with an M3 once remapped in terms of in gear acceleration