4dr e46 as new daily?

[dnova89]

I'll look into the face lift. More info on this subframe recall stuff?

"The suit originated in 2006 and claimed that defects in E46 3-series models cause fractures in the rear-axle supports in the subframe."

What's the fix, and how can I check if the PO already had BMW take care of it?

[e30e]

The 325i has 8 hp less than the older 328i but after 03 got face lifted, who care's about 8 hp when the face lifted newer versions of the e46 are better quality.

[dnova89]

I've been talking with a lot of people in real life and online lately and I think I'm pretty set on a 4door e46. Yeah you guys sure do have a lot of bad things to say about it which kinda scares me, but I think I should be fine if I just keep up with my preventative maintenance. I treated my e30 pretty well in terms of maintenance and it never left me stranded due to a maintenance problem. (I know what you're thinking but flipping the car is not a maintenance problem! So it doesn't count to say it left me stranded that time haha)

The ZHP sounds really attractive, but they're so damn expensive! I've crossed the 323i off my list. Even the 325i doesn't sound so good. I think I'm gonna try my best to grab either a 328 or 330. If I get really, really lucky then a ZHP. I have a few friends with dealer licenses, maybe they can help me out.

My 2 cents, drive the civic until you finish your 4 door e30. Or you end up having 2 project cars and never finishing either in a reasonable time. Also since we're swapping your 5 speed over to your new 4 door autotragic.. get your flywheel lightened to 2.3 specs. if you want, I have a couple spare flywheels laying around..

Oh I'm definitely keeping the civic until we're done with the new e30 lol. I won't put my civic for sale until I can daily drive the e30, which I will do until it sells. Lightening the flywheel sounds good, I'll talk more about it with you when I see you.

[bikerbill2021]

love mine, had the subframe repaired under recall in march, other then lil annoyances like replacing the dust shields to have functioning ebrakes again (e30 did the SAME thing) and having to replace and paint the whole trunk handle to have working plate bulbs, its been an awesome car

i do miss my e30, but the e46 is a reliable daily that i can trust, so when i build my next e30 i wont be taking the bus to work/school haha

[10Toes]

Possibly but window regulators are only $60 and take less then 20 minutes to change. Mine came with a stack of maintenace records from the previous owner who took extremely good care of it.

[HarryPotter]

I had my E46 for 4 years from 80k to 160k and never had a problem with it. I just kept up on the preventive maintenance like the cooling system and added the subframe reinfocing which only took a day to do. I'd still have it if it was not rear ended and toatled. It got 28MPG and up to 34MPG on road trips.

Obviously your window regulators were replaced without your knowledge.

[10Toes]

I had my E46 for 4 years from 80k to 160k and never had a problem with it. I just kept up on the preventive maintenance like the cooling system and added the subframe reinfocing which only took a day to do. I'd still have it if it was not rear ended and toatled. It got 28MPG and up to 34MPG on road trips.

[z31maniac]

Friend of mine has an '00 or '01 325i that he bought at the beginning of last year.

I think at this point, if you include the purchase price of the car + all the horrendous amounts of maintenance he's had to do (including jsut dropping thousands to convert the car to manual after the auto took a dump at 115k miles), he could have easily built a super clean S52 E30, and had another E36 318 (like what he had before he wrecked it) or another E30 as a nice DD.

[XvillainousX]

My 2 cents, drive the civic until you finish your 4 door e30. Or you end up having 2 project cars and never finishing either in a reasonable time. Also since we're swapping your 5 speed over to your new 4 door autotragic.. get your flywheel lightened to 2.3 specs. if you want, I have a couple spare flywheels laying around..

[N2MYE30]

5spd EXL accord...done!

[dnova89]

Damn the current ZHP's on craig in my area are almost as much as an m3 rofl.

My neighbor might actually give me his mom's grandma condition e34 for cheap, so if he does then I'll go that route, but I have no idea if he intends to do so since it's been a couple months since he's mentioned it, I'll go ask him about it in a few days.

Damn it seems like an e46 is pretty fucking unreliable. I mean I can deal with a problem here and there but I don't want to be fixing shit every month. I really like the look of an e46 though. Before I decided on e46 I was trying to go for an s2k, but they're pretty much out of my price range.

I'm just looking for a good manual daily that's around 10 years old or newer that can be had for around 7-8k or less. I'm really tired of my automatic civic. Hmm I guess I'll just have to do some more thinking and searching around. It seems like everyone who's chipped in so far has had more problems than I'd like to have with my daily. My civic has been pretty much maintenance-free. My e30 is the one I want to be wrenching on every month, not my daily lol.

If you have any good suggestions for a sporty/luxury daily please go ahead! It only has to be 4dr if it's offered in 4dr, so my only real requirements are that it be manual, reliable, decent on gas, around 10 years old or newer.

[beenjamin]

buy an e34 that is well sorted for 5k, spend extra 2k on hookers and blow

+100

[Wh33lhop]

I want a ZHP too, but watch out, they have ZHP-specific issues.

[freeride53]

^ - That could be smart as well. A fellow on R3V sold his m5 for $4000 iirc.

[imsotyerred]

buy an e34 that is well sorted for 5k, spend extra 2k on hookers and blow