Anyone ever just wanna get rid of their e46 sometimes?
 

I've had my 330 since the end of november. I loved it when I first got it as I was coming from a e30 318 that was beat to crap.

Now, I find myself hating worrying about my car all the time. Worrying about it breaking down etc. Since I got it, i've replaced transmission fluid, the oil, and washed it about weekly, and today I am changing the thermostat. It just seems like an awful lot of maintenance compared to my old e30 that i could keep going and going with. It also seems like new scratches show up every time I wash it, which is pretty depressing. I'm at the point where I'm considering selling it and buying a very good condition e30 325i convertible, but I feel like I'll miss the newer car I have now. My first idea was to get a honda of a similar year of the 330, but i can't stand the way they feel/look.

no.

Not really since my car has been pretty reliable - nothing ever actually broke on this car. I just do the maintenance at the proper intervals

Sometimes

I know someone who is in the market if its 5/6MT. PM me if you're serious.

The guy that I bought my angel eyes from said the same things. He owns 4 BMWs- but none are the "newer" models (E46, E9x, E6x, etc.).
I will agree that the E46 has more problems than say, the E36 but still. Aesthetics-wise, I'd still prefer the E46 and overall, it's a little more work to maintain it but I'm glad to do it.
Personally, I think the E9xs and new F30s look like crap but models earlier than the E46 look too old which is why I got the E46. But, to each his own.

I love the car, but it does piss me off time to time. It picks the absolute worst times to break stuff. I don't mind working on the car, and most jobs are even an easy fix on this thing. But every time it breaks down, I'm up north for work where there is no dealer available for parts. So I'm stuck with no car while waiting on parts I order online.

If I had some spare cash right now I would just order every possible piece that is known as a common problem to these cars, replace all of it up front and hope to avoid a breakdown.

I felt that way a lot. I sold it. And I miss it. Don't do it, because when it comes down to it every car in the world has issues, and a 330 is honestly the most well rounded car ive driven to date. And ive driven several hundred cars. Keep it, I guarantee you'll regret selling it. I know I do

Everyone's gonna want to get rid of their car regardless of what it is, sooner or later. I've put at least 10 grand in my car in aftermarket mods and engine swap over the last year or so, plus the 30 grand for the car when i bought it. But sometimes the maintenance and the upkeep gets too much. like today, i posted an ad putting it for sale, then took it back down after i took her for an evening ride.....


Tough love,but love nonetheless.

If all you've done is change the fluids and you think that a lot of maintenance to be done on a car :hmm:

I've own my 330i for over a year now and it drives like a champ for being 11 years old. Staying up on maintenance is a must for any car if you want it to last.

I thought about selling mine, generally after dropping 500 or so bucks into parts alone... Then I drive it.


I love my car, and it wont be any time soon that she'll be sold. Good gas millage, reliable, easy to work on, a blast to drive, great on long trips...

Every day, yet there are times I don't.

BMW's reputation is pretty much shot with this car, in my eyes. After reading about issues, experiencing a few myself, and the over all acceptability of owners that a car would require such constant upkeep I've decided that BMWs as a whole are very overrated and over hyped.

People respect the car though, I will say that. It's taken very serious over cars that have more reliability and performance (Infiniti's G line comes to mind). Still, you have to drive your car and you have to pay for whatever repairs and maintenance come up. Seriously weight the anticipated financial responsibility against the pleasure of owning and driving it.

The $ to satisfaction ratio just isn't high enough and that's what pushes me away. I love the way it looks and besides the lackluster acceleration and annoyingly placed armrest it feels good to drive, but just not that good.

i loved my e46, but was running into the same things as you and finally it just ended up more sense to me to upgrade.. I have to say the 1 series is a phenomenal step up. I really do like this car.

As a college student I just want to get rid of it sometimes because I don't have the money to do all that I want to the car. I want to throw on some CSL rims with a CSL trunk, maybe an ACS splitter in the front. I've spent so much god dam money on maintenance in the past two years, it's just money I don't have. There is so much I still want / need to fix as well like the sunroof and a dent, but sometimes I just want to give up. I know with like 2500 I could actually finally be happy with my car but it takes me months as a part time worker and full time student to make that. Someone want to donate $2500? :)

That was a large part of my reasoning as well, after completing THOUSANDs and thousands of dollars of maintenance on my 325i, it was still just not where i wanted it to be, the interior is one thing i do miss, i had the natural brown interior and it was IMMACULATE. but at the end of the day i looked at an upcoming list of

brakes - $500 diy
ccv - $200
new tires - $900
refinish panel due to rust - $799
window regulators all around - $500 diy
dent removal all around - $250
wheel refinish - $200
sunroof repair - $100
winter wheels/tires - $600
b/c pillars (already did a) - $300

and that was after THOUSANDS of dollars of previous maintenace , floor mats, cooling system overhaul, oil, spark plugs, air, window regulators, trans fluid change, 02 sensors, brake fluid, speakers, etc. finally i was just like i am throwing so much money into a car with 115k miles, what am i doing. so i pulled the trigger on the 1er. I traded in the e46 for about 7k and put that toward the 27k 135i. so i financed 20k which is about $400 a month , but i usually overpay to about $600 to lower my paid interest. granted it is still expensive, but it is completely under warranty, including maintenance. if something goes wrong, i have a brand new 3 series loaner and just drop it off and pick it up. and if i am unhappy i can just sell it and i have 7k equity in it. already have had my brake fluid and oil changed free, seatbelt tensioner done free, cabin air filter. Fired up the A/c and it wasn't blowing cold, i drop it off thursday with a loaner set up for the weekend and they do the top to bottom for you. It's just a different setup. I would say if your e46 is a well equipped 330 stick with it, but if not there are better options out there.

That was exactly what I was looking into, but again since I'm a college student I'm trying to be completely independent from my parents and I cannot afford car payments right now. I was looking into a bone stock 128i with literally no options brand new but I didn't know If that was worth it either. I only have 95k on the car myself and since I drive 80 miles a day, it wouldn't be worth putting a new 1er through that abuse.

Edit: you just reminded me of a bunch of other crap that I still have to do like the A pillars. Fvck I'm all depressed now :( I'm seriously thinking instead of wasting my money on mods anymore I should just invest whatever extra money I make. Don't know where to start though.

honda civic

Which isn't a bad idea at all, but I'd rather drive my 328i into the ground.

hahahah. oh no :( ya it really depends on your situation, i dont think the bone stock 1er would be worth it, you want the updated technology, comfort access, adaptive xenons, heated seats etc to be the icing on the cake. it sounds like for you the best route is to just keep it clean and running and save $. no sense in putting a lot of miles on a new car.
ah, the downfalls of being OCD lol ;)

If that is all that you have had to do to the car since you purchased it, **** and be happy that you are one of the lucky ones.

Within the first week of purchase of my car, I had already replaced fuel pump, throttle body, kidney grille and a control arm + bushing. Keep in mind that is the FIRST week of owning the car.