Small displacement E36/E46 opinions?

[ecKARd]

A friend of mine is looking for his first (owning) car after it's time to give the loaner back to his parents.

With a budget of around R40-60k the 2.5/2.8/3.0L cars are not in the best condition.
Now I've heard mostly negative comments regarding the 4 cylinder petrol motors or is this not all true? And secondly is the 320i something to consider or stay away from?

Get to the point!: What would be the best 3 series to get for around R40-60k?

Lastly any leads to good condition, manual cars in the Cape Town area would be highly appreciated. :ty:

 

[AdiS]

The 4 cylinder models are indeed typically more problematic than the 6 cylinders, especially when it comes to leaks. That said, the 6 cyls have oil leaks too (valve cover gasket and oil filter housing gasket being the main culprits).

The E46 320i facelift should have a 2.2 125kw M54 which is a decent motor. The only issue is that it has similar fuel consumption to the larger M54 but obviously less power. You should be able to find a clean one at R60k.

 

[KPM3_30]

My money would be on a good, late model e36 facelift 316i or as AdiS said, the e46 facelift 320i. Both should be manual, unless auto is preferred.. Thinking along the lines of frugality, both fuel and maintenance costs.

The running costs on the e46 will definitely be higher, but that's a given.

 

[Budleigh]

Mate of mine had a nice E46 320i (one of the facelift ones). Lovely, smooth motor that didn't seem very short of poke, relatively speaking.

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[Jeremy.d]

I'd be looking for an E36 318is. Try to find something with an m42.
Or an E46 with an m44.
I hope I'm remembering the engine codes right, but a quick Google will confirm.

M42 is strong, and if he wants power he can boost later on if budget allows. . . Not to mention that E36 is so prettyraise:

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Oh also, if he just wants reliability and E36 316/8i with an m40b18 will never die.

 

[KPM3_30]

I'd be looking for an E36 318is.

Completely forgot about the 318is, great cars and really reliable!

 

[AdiS]

I'd be looking for an E36 318is.

Completely forgot about the 318is, great cars and really reliable!

Agree with this, too.


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[Nikhil]

Definitely 318iS, but is he prepared to spend on maintaining it?Most E36s need a complete suspension refresh and a little mechanical TLC no matter how clean it is cosmetically.

 

[MHN]

A friend of mine is looking for his first (owning) car after it's time to give the loaner back to his parents.

With a budget of around R40-60k the 2.5/2.8/3.0L cars are not in the best condition.
Now I've heard mostly negative comments regarding the 4 cylinder petrol motors or is this not all true? And secondly is the 320i something to consider or stay away from?

Get to the point!: What would be the best 3 series to get for around R40-60k?

Lastly any leads to good condition, manual cars in the Cape Town area would be highly appreciated. :ty:

I spent months shopping around for an E46. From my research, the 330i is the best and fuel consumption is very similar across the models, so just look for a 330i. My neighbor had a 320i and he said the fuel consumption was not worth the power it gave.

For R60k , you can find a fairly decent E46 330i or 325i but it won't have low mileage (200 000 km +)

I have a 318i and I love it, you can find a decent one for R50k or less. It's on 145 000 km and the valve stem seals, timing chain tensioner and a water leak was recently sorted out. The previous owner had the oil cooler replaced. I've currently got an oil leak. I've also heard many times that the 4 cylinder engines are not as reliable as the 6 cylinder ones.

 

[Tinuva]

I think I may be biased. Acquiring an E36 at this stage of their life is fairly cheap, but that is it. They have many more issues popping up over the E46s, which on both are equally costly to repair. That alone would have me prefer the E46 over the E36 even in the 4 cyl engine range. You have to really LOVE the E36 shape and era to own one.

Me, I would go for a well maintained E46 318i, except even these can be priced a bit high. Around R40-60k exactly. I sold mine at R40 to my brother, but if it wasn't to him I would let it go for R55k.

The E46 318i had 3 different engines.
1. The pre-facelift M43 engine was solid, it had all it's issues worked out on the E36 range, but even then it was already solid, much better than the M42 which had it's issues.

2. The facelift then came out with the N42 engine, and this one had many issues initially, and is where it got it's bad reputation from. It was the first ever BMW engine to have Valvetronic (variable valve lift), and most backyard mechanics have no clue how to fix issues on these. It literally was ground breaking improvement in BMW engines, and this engine won international engine of the year award in 2001. This engine became a lot more reliable with software upgrades, so if the car went to BMW for the full motorplan, it would be quite reliable now.

3. In 2004, just before the E90 came out, the N46 engine was released. This engine had more issues, which were only fixed in the N46N in the E90s, which even then had it' issues.

If you do go for this car, I would look for one with the N42 engine. They great on fuel consumption for such a big car, and they can be very reliable, as long as you keep your oil changes to every 10 000km instead of 25 000km.

The good news, there are 1000s of facelifted E46 318i cars on the road, they were super popular, so not nearly as hard to find as a 325/330i.

Of coarse, this is only my opinion.

 

[ecKARd]

Thanks for all the comments and info everyone! :ty:

Unfortunately life happened and his budget got reduced (for now), so a BMW will not happen right now. However it is something he is now working towards!