as i always say, the owner of the car is what makes a car reliable or not. and if you are buying used it is more crucial.

if you are truely an "enthusiast" and someone who works on cars, and modifying for better performance, reliability reputation doesnt really matter as much imo.. ask all those DSMs with high hp.. but here we are talking about BMW and Audis, which should be a lot better.. basically if you cant handle these little things perhaps anyone should move a long.

 

The E90 335 with the N54 engine is not a good choice you will have way more problems then with a M3
The M3 is way more reliable then a 335
also don't get the SMG transmission if its a E46 M3
just keep in mind that BMW's are high maintenance and cost a lot more to fix and modify. and if you modify a 335 while its under warranty they could void your engine warranty.
I work on and drive BMW's all day long and still love my subaru
that's just my opinion though i'm sure someone here will bash my opinion all to hell
i just figured i would give you a heads up

 

Agreed, the 335i doesn't look as nice but has way more potential because of the turb0z.


Or you could get the best model of all and get the turbo 1 series which is TINY and REALLY friggin fun to drive. Actually, Jewpac has a stock one, Im sure he knows more about it than I do, but after I drove one for a couple of days I was sold on them. If I bought a BMW, it would be a turbo 1 series... In 20 years it will be like the classic 2002... Small and light, only with a ton of potential power thanks to the forced induction! Some people dont like the fact that it's a 1 series because they care about "status", and the 1 series apparently is a "poor man's BMW", but that's a bunch of BS... If you are buying a car for performance, you can't ignore the 1 series. It's not THAT much smaller inside than the 3 series... My friend has a 2009 M3 and that thing is TINY inside... Basically doesn't even have a back seat, so the 1 series isn't going to be much smaller. You could get one at a good price and with lower miles and newer. Def something to consider.


Jewpac, how do you like yours after having it for a couple of years now? Have you modded it? If not, do you know people who have? Getting something like an access port and tune it, and maybe get a better rear diff to give you better traction and handling... Im sure you could squeeze a lot more power out of that car.

 

AS cool as the high end Audi's are, they are heavy as hell and will never handle as well as a lighter car, even with all the gizmos and such. Think about it this way, you can have the strongest man in the world doing a triathalon vs some skinny guy who isn't NEARLY as strong... The skinny guy will probably win because he doesn't have a bunch of extra mass to throw around the obstacle course which even all the power in the world can't help... It's physics.


The M3, as heavy as it is is one of the VERY few exceptions to this rule... Its such a finely balanced car that even though it weighs a lot more than the smaller/lighter cars, it can outhandle them through supreme engineering, and unfortunately Audi doesn't come close to the level of fine balance that a BMW has. Audi's are fun and nice cars, but they are like blunt knives... Just not precise at all.

 

My friend has 1 too (2009 M3 sedan) but you're exaggerating on the size.
It's actually bigger than your STi.

M3
# Second Head Room (in) 37.5
# Second Leg Room (in) 34.6
Second Shoulder Room (in) 55.1

STi
Rear head room 37 "
Rear leg room 33.0 "
Rear shoulder room 53 "

 

The STi is tiny too, no one can sit behind me, there's literally NO ROOM, I was just saying that the M3 isn't much larger than the 1 series inside, or at least thats how it seems. Both have tiny back seats and no headroom especially in the rear.

 

that's cause you're a tall *** ogre my friend, lol

 

hahha, 100% true, but Josh and I have known each other since like 1999, so I was just assuming he knew that I was referring to space on my scale, not the asian scale.

 

You can make a lot of power in the B5's but honestly I would shy away from it and look into a used 04-05 B6. Non turbo V8 engine that is very tough.

 

You can always ask the king of streets aka Davon. He's recently picked up a E46 M3. I've always liked these as well, but find they can be rather expensive in the aftermarket realm

 

Was looking for a good few months for an e46 m3 before I got my sti, maintenance 1 and 2 will cause you huge headaches, but its a ridiculously fun car to drive.

 

Hehe just saw this post



A little over a year ago I parted out my heavily modded WRX (planning to use it for winter now) and purchased a 2004 e46 m3 6spd. I've always loved the car and as you mentioned, prices have dropped big time on these cars!

The WRX was fun as it was very quick however it was attracting the "wrong" type of attention. I would get pulled over for modified exhaust, tint, no front plate, etc.. even when I was just cruising in traffic at the speed limit. It was eventually time to smog the WRX so I made the decision to part it out and make the switch to the E46 M3. I love the car and do not regret purchasing it one bit

I went with the 2004+ model as all major recalls were fixed previous to the release of this model. The car had ~65K miles when purchased and I am now up to ~90K (I've been driving a lot hehe ). So far the car has been very reliable and I haven't had to replace anything major. I did have the alternator go out ~80K miles which was a quick and easy DIY fix. I also had some worn bushings which I also replaced myself while upgrading other suspension pieces. Other than the alternator the only other maintenance has been regular oil changes.

I wanted to keep the car reliable so I haven't done any power modifications other than an exhaust which the previous owner installed. I have done a lot of suspension work (Double adjustable coilovers, all bushings, etc..), brakes, and various exterior pieces. Aftermarket parts are definitely more expensive for this car however you don't have to do a lot of mods as the car is already fun to drive while stock. If you are looking for a lot of power then you will have to spend a lot (Supercharger, HPF turbo, etc.. as modifying the car N/A won't yield that great of results..).

Drive-ability is great and much more pleasant than my WRX. While the WRX was by no means cheap, the M3 makes the WRX feel "cheap". Overall when driving the car it feels very solid and smooth, even while at high speeds. I went with a high end set of coilovers (TCKline double adjustables) that ride extremely well and still handle like the car is on rails. For my WRX to handle close to the M3 it had a very harsh ride and didn't rotate nearly as well in turns.

While I do miss the overall speed/quickness of my WRX, the style/drive-ability/handling of the M3 outweigh it's lack of acceleration. I'm very tempted to get a HPF turbo kit for the car though

Here are some shots I took of the car the other day

 

BTW there's a.white m3 similar to Davons for sale on CLUB right now

 

Dan, your car looks really nice! Very clean but still very aggressive, well done. I wanted to as you about the rear spoiler (on the trunk)... That's not stock, is it? It's hard to tell from the pics but that is an aftermarket spoiler on your trunk lid, right? (Looks like it conforms better than the average lip spoiler and makes it look like its part of the trunk).

Im going off memory because I dont think my friend's M3 looks like that in the rear.

One thing I gotta also mention is that the black wheels look the best on your car (I saw other pics). The black wheels you had (I'm pretty sure it was you) were f'ing SICK!, especially on Alpine white.

 

It's all in how you drive a B5. I drive it HARD and the only thing that has really failed was a MAF sensor ( does have 140+k miles ), a coil pack throwing random misfires, and a broken PCV valve throwing even more random misfires. They dont all break down hard. Just the ones that arent maintained