Here's another buyers guide for the E46 M3. I wrote this for a blog, not as comprehensive as Adis's post, but covers a few things not mentioned there.
Wheel Index Blog article
The BMW E46 M3(manufactured between 2000 and 2006) is a high performance M car from BMW that will put a big grin on every petrolhead's face. Offering timeless body styling and fantastic performance from a inline 6 normally aspirated engine and handling that can be compared to Porsche's, this is truly a drivers car. If you are willing to sacrifice high maintenance costs and comfort for an adrenaline rush and sports car like performance, then this car is for you.
Driving the BMW M3
The first thing you hear when starting the E46 M3 is the intoxicating exhaust note, it sounds raspy and is very distinctive to the E46 M3, you either love it or you hate it. Inside the car you have all the creature comforts you would expect in a modern luxury car, air conditioning, cruise control and adjustable electric memory seats are all standard. These features are all nice, but this car is all about performance. The normally aspirated 6 cylinder engine code named S54 produces 252kw/365nm, very respectable figures, even by today’s standards. Planting your right foot from first gear will result in breathtaking acceleration and slide the tail out ever so slightly when you snap to second gear. This car is all about the drive, it’s also versatile depending on how you want to use it. The superb handling makes it perfect for Sunday morning breakfast runs or trackdays, yet the car can also be used as a daily driver if you plan to commute with it to work.
The manual E46 M3 is by far the most popular model to own. The automatic version of the car named SMG(sequential manual gearbox) is sadly known for reliability issues with the SMG gearbox. For this reason the manual car is a much safer bet to buy than the automatic. The SMG gearbox repairs can be very costly, sometimes resulting in replacement of the gearbox to fix the car.
What to look out for with maintenance
Being a high performance car, maintenance is not cheap. While shopping for your M3, your goal should be to find the best maintained example your money can buy. When viewing the car you should look at the tyre brand fitted to the car, a red flag would be cheap tyres. Ask what oil was used at the last service, Castrol TWS 10W60 is the recommended oil for these engines, cheap oil will also be a sign of maintenance being skimped on. The standard oe(original equipment) brakes are good for normal driving, but if your intention is to do a few trackdays a year, aftermarket brakes are advisable. You can use the VIN number of the car to get the history from BMW South Africa, this should give you a good idea of what work was carried out on the car while it was still on motorplan. The first service on the car should have been an oil change at 2000km. There a quite a few reputable independent workshops in SA that can also inspect a car you interested in buying, these workshops are also a great alternative to maintain the car if you don't want pay BMW dealership rates.
The BMW E46 M3 is reliable, but there a few things you need watch out for. Annoyingly the expensive repair issues cannot easily be seen from the outside of the car. The biggest known issue on these cars are rod bearing failures in the engine, to prevent this failure from happening it’s advisable to replace the rod bearings every 100 000km’s. There are cars on the road with 100 000km plus mileage with no rod bearings failure, but it’s an expensive repair to risk not doing. The second known failure on the car is the Vanos, preventative maintenance is also recommended for this failure and it’s advisable to have the Vanos system rebuilt as soon as you can afford it. The last known issue on the car is the subframe cracking, this starts when the subframe bushings goes bad. After this, the floorboard can’t take all the motion and load causing the subframe to starts cracking. Unfortunately the only way to inspect this issue to actually remove the entire subframe, you would also require a specialist welder should a repair be necessary. Complete reference of the subframe issue - DriveTribe.
What can you expect to pay?
Prices for the BMW E46 M3 have dropped over the recent years, but good clean models are still demanding top money, especially late models(2005/2006) with low mileage. A good starting point is to get the VIN number and create a car valuation report, this will give you a good base to work from for the year model. Expect to pay in the region of R325 000 for a garage queen and R180 000 for a car that will need some love. The BMW E46 M3 is a fantastic car to own and offers a thrilling motoring experience if you can can live with the high maintenance costs.
Rivals:
Known issues:
What type of person buys this car?
Maintenance costs at a BMW Dealership:
All costs below includes labour and VAT
Costs quoted December 2017
Tyres:
Wheel Index Blog article
The BMW E46 M3(manufactured between 2000 and 2006) is a high performance M car from BMW that will put a big grin on every petrolhead's face. Offering timeless body styling and fantastic performance from a inline 6 normally aspirated engine and handling that can be compared to Porsche's, this is truly a drivers car. If you are willing to sacrifice high maintenance costs and comfort for an adrenaline rush and sports car like performance, then this car is for you.
Driving the BMW M3
The first thing you hear when starting the E46 M3 is the intoxicating exhaust note, it sounds raspy and is very distinctive to the E46 M3, you either love it or you hate it. Inside the car you have all the creature comforts you would expect in a modern luxury car, air conditioning, cruise control and adjustable electric memory seats are all standard. These features are all nice, but this car is all about performance. The normally aspirated 6 cylinder engine code named S54 produces 252kw/365nm, very respectable figures, even by today’s standards. Planting your right foot from first gear will result in breathtaking acceleration and slide the tail out ever so slightly when you snap to second gear. This car is all about the drive, it’s also versatile depending on how you want to use it. The superb handling makes it perfect for Sunday morning breakfast runs or trackdays, yet the car can also be used as a daily driver if you plan to commute with it to work.
The manual E46 M3 is by far the most popular model to own. The automatic version of the car named SMG(sequential manual gearbox) is sadly known for reliability issues with the SMG gearbox. For this reason the manual car is a much safer bet to buy than the automatic. The SMG gearbox repairs can be very costly, sometimes resulting in replacement of the gearbox to fix the car.
What to look out for with maintenance
Being a high performance car, maintenance is not cheap. While shopping for your M3, your goal should be to find the best maintained example your money can buy. When viewing the car you should look at the tyre brand fitted to the car, a red flag would be cheap tyres. Ask what oil was used at the last service, Castrol TWS 10W60 is the recommended oil for these engines, cheap oil will also be a sign of maintenance being skimped on. The standard oe(original equipment) brakes are good for normal driving, but if your intention is to do a few trackdays a year, aftermarket brakes are advisable. You can use the VIN number of the car to get the history from BMW South Africa, this should give you a good idea of what work was carried out on the car while it was still on motorplan. The first service on the car should have been an oil change at 2000km. There a quite a few reputable independent workshops in SA that can also inspect a car you interested in buying, these workshops are also a great alternative to maintain the car if you don't want pay BMW dealership rates.
The BMW E46 M3 is reliable, but there a few things you need watch out for. Annoyingly the expensive repair issues cannot easily be seen from the outside of the car. The biggest known issue on these cars are rod bearing failures in the engine, to prevent this failure from happening it’s advisable to replace the rod bearings every 100 000km’s. There are cars on the road with 100 000km plus mileage with no rod bearings failure, but it’s an expensive repair to risk not doing. The second known failure on the car is the Vanos, preventative maintenance is also recommended for this failure and it’s advisable to have the Vanos system rebuilt as soon as you can afford it. The last known issue on the car is the subframe cracking, this starts when the subframe bushings goes bad. After this, the floorboard can’t take all the motion and load causing the subframe to starts cracking. Unfortunately the only way to inspect this issue to actually remove the entire subframe, you would also require a specialist welder should a repair be necessary. Complete reference of the subframe issue - DriveTribe.
What can you expect to pay?
Prices for the BMW E46 M3 have dropped over the recent years, but good clean models are still demanding top money, especially late models(2005/2006) with low mileage. A good starting point is to get the VIN number and create a car valuation report, this will give you a good base to work from for the year model. Expect to pay in the region of R325 000 for a garage queen and R180 000 for a car that will need some love. The BMW E46 M3 is a fantastic car to own and offers a thrilling motoring experience if you can can live with the high maintenance costs.
Rivals:
- Mercedes-Benz C55 AMG
- Audi B7 RS4
Known issues:
- Rod bearing failure
- Subframe cracking
- Vanos
What type of person buys this car?
- Petrolhead that puts performance first
- Trackday enthusiasts
Maintenance costs at a BMW Dealership:
All costs below includes labour and VAT
Costs quoted December 2017
- Oil Service = R2 552.88
- x2 Front brake pads = R4 029.00
- x2 Front brake disks = R6 784.00
- Clutch replacement (manual) = R33 993.14
- BMW Inspection 1 = R6 851.37
- BMW Inspection 2 = R7 143.71
Tyres:
- x2 Front tyres (Continental Sport Contact 5) = R6 968.00 incl. vat
- x2 Rear tyres (Continental Sport Contact 5) = R7 778.00 incl. vat
