double-n
Active member
So just more than a year ago we moved from Pretoria to Texas. First order of business was to buy a family SUV, but due to not having a credit history in the USA we got our Kia Sorento financed at an eye-watering 17% interest rate. Partly due to this I had to buy something relatively inexpensive (under $15k), but a used Corolla or Camry was obviously out of the question. The requirements was something interesting with a manual gearbox. I'm in the land of the manual E60 M5 which was my first choice, but the well sorted ones are way out of my budget. Even nice E39 M5's are $25k+. American V8s in my budget is either in terrible shape or just too boring, or even worse, an automatic.
So after months of considering different options I settled on this Imola Red/Natural Brown E46 330i ZHP 6MT. It has just under 180,000miles on the clock, but it is in amazing condition. The previous owner bought it CPO from BMW Austin in 2009 and had it serviced at the same dealership until 2019 (I have all the receipts). Cosmetically it was in poor condition until he decided to fix almost everything. Over the past few years he installed a new bonnet (due to hail damage), had the entire car repainted, installed new head and taillights, recovered the front seats in new leather and did a lot of other work to it. There's a couple of small things that still needs to be fixed, but I'm working on getting it all done. When I had the car inspected when purchasing, the mechanic had the car up for 3 minutes on the lift before declaring "the previous owner spent a shit-ton of money on this car". Which I can confirm due to all the receipts
When I got the car it had black kidneys and a black 330i badge. I just changed them to OEM chrome last night and had to stop and take some pics. Remember folks, keep it classy, keep it OEM! With that said, I'm still unsure if I want to keep the angel eyes. They do look really cool.
I just took these photos on a whim so it's a little dirty.
On the todo list is:
So after months of considering different options I settled on this Imola Red/Natural Brown E46 330i ZHP 6MT. It has just under 180,000miles on the clock, but it is in amazing condition. The previous owner bought it CPO from BMW Austin in 2009 and had it serviced at the same dealership until 2019 (I have all the receipts). Cosmetically it was in poor condition until he decided to fix almost everything. Over the past few years he installed a new bonnet (due to hail damage), had the entire car repainted, installed new head and taillights, recovered the front seats in new leather and did a lot of other work to it. There's a couple of small things that still needs to be fixed, but I'm working on getting it all done. When I had the car inspected when purchasing, the mechanic had the car up for 3 minutes on the lift before declaring "the previous owner spent a shit-ton of money on this car". Which I can confirm due to all the receipts
When I got the car it had black kidneys and a black 330i badge. I just changed them to OEM chrome last night and had to stop and take some pics. Remember folks, keep it classy, keep it OEM! With that said, I'm still unsure if I want to keep the angel eyes. They do look really cool.
I just took these photos on a whim so it's a little dirty.
On the todo list is:
- Get the wheels refinished. They're stained badly in some places and clearcoat is failing.
- Paint the rear parcel shelf as it's gone purple.
- Re-dye the rear bench as the leather has faded and has some scratches.
- Fix the sunroof as the gutter at the back (the part that moves in and out with the glass) keeps unclipping.
