BMW E46 330ci In Review

The E46 has pretty much bottomed out price wise right now in the U.S so people of all ages are picking them up. The M3 version is rising though because a lot of people my age now have decent disposable income and mid life crisis.

I had my mid life crisis when I was twenty five so I picked up an E46 330ci to play with. And to be honest, even if I could afford fifteen to twenty grand plus another five to put into it for the maintenance needed… I wouldn’t. I’m pretty sure the price will keep rising for the foreseeable future and I wanted a car I could drive the hell out of and modify without having that in the back of my mind.

So we are going to have good look around a 2001 rear wheel drive model with the sport package package as well as M sport body parts.

Let’s jump in at the deep end and cover the sport package here. Ride wise it’s a little firmer than the standard shocks, strut and spring combo. But there’s still what feels like too much body roll. The wheels with the early sport package are 17” M sport which I really like the look of and smaller wheels have a nice advantage in tires being pretty cheap so it doesn’t break the wallet when putting on sticky rubber. Later models do come with larger OEM wheels.

The steering wheel is a three spoke model that looks a lot better than the standard and you also get the sports seats, which although better than stock the bolstering isn’t at all aggressive and I get the impression it’s more style over function. Overall, if the car is going to be modified I’m not sure I would bother with seeking out the sport package if it wasn’t for the brakes - which have been beefed up an inch over standard and do a great job of stopping, but more importantly of keeping cool.

Moving on, a 330ci with a strong engine pulls very well. Only 220 horsepower but the inline six cylinder has enough torque to get you around fairly rapidly. The real beauty in the inline 6 is how smooth and progressive it is. It’ll go when you want it to but not bite you in the ass, then around town you can work on your limo driver smoothness in driving. Put your foot in it and the three litre engine starts to snarl and come alive and 0-60 comes on pretty quickly and it wants to keep going. It’s responsive and snappy almost anywhere in the rev range, but keep it at 5000rpm and it’s at it’s happiest pushing you around. Variable valve timing does in indeed kick in yo. However it’s not brutal like V-Tec can be, you feel it change but it’s definitely the smoother BMW version.

I’ve seen people complain about the overboosted steering on early models and I see why hardcore BMW heads wouldn’t like it, but I can’t say it’s that bad. Steering is precise and quick and the whole car is confidence inspiring throughout a corner. The tires are offset on this model but it doesn’t cause undeersteer, it seems to help the handling be very neutral. It’ll certainly take a fairly large error in judgment to fall off the road backwards. Switch to make the fronts the same width as the rears and I suspect the car will grow that little bit more aggressive on turn in, but I’m happy enough with grip that I’m not in any hurry… and may not even do so.

The gearbox is as crisp and clean as you would expect from BMW, the gear spacing is pretty much perfect for the engine. The pedals are ideal for a bit of heel and toe rev matching but I do find the footwell a little cramped and I often find my right foot brushing the carpet. If you have big feet, again make sure you drive one before you set your heart. The clutch is fine, and every single one I’ve driven has grabbed at the higher end of the pedal, which has a very long throw. It’s a little weird but doesn’t take long to get used to and master. I’ve seen a few people put in a bump stop on the carpet so that unused travel is removed, but I haven’t found it that big of a deal.

The interior is where I start having some issues. Seat height in E46’s is higher than you would expect. Even set as low as it’ll go you feel a little more like your riding on it rather than in it. With the inevitable moonroof people over six foot tall may have issues. I’m exactly six foot and if I let the hair on my usually shaved head grow, then within couple of months the BMW headliner reminds me it’s time to go shave it again. I find that seat height a little weird for a sporty coupe, so do drive one before you set your heart on an E46 and see if you like it. The good news is that if you do, then the seats are super comfortable. I’m really fussy about seats and they struck me as hard initially, but after living with them and putting the hours on them on the road they stay comfortable for the long haul.

As far as I can tell the aircon in this particular model hasn’t been touched but it still blows ice cold and it blows hard at the highest setting. Apparently it has automatic climate control but it pretty much sucks so I just set it manually. Going by long term reviews before I bought the car that was an issue from new.

The sport package gives you orange lighting on the dash and controls which is the only thing that truly dates the car. I do find it very easy on the eye though, and like the lack of distraction at night, after driving current cars with huge screens and bright blind spot and reversing cameras it’s very relaxing to go back to the BMW. This was also built before the annoying pillar thickness rules that necessitate cameras now - all round visibility in the E46 is rather good if you ignore the size of the rearview impacting the taller person coming up on four way stop.

The big issue with an E46 interior though is the terrible glue BMW used. The material on the pillars will inevitable come apart and look awful, as well as anything else glued into place. Be prepared to chase that for a while with 3M or do what I’m doing and just replace them a pair at a time for silly money.

Mine came with the grey interior.

Don’t get the grey interior.

It’s horrible and looks dated with it’s weird blue tinge. I plan on changing mine so the grey becomes an accent. It also came with the fake wood trim, if you are a person of taste then try to get it with something different already as replacing with a different set is very expensive. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the only time Plastidip is acceptable on a BMW. The good news is that wrapping it isn’t too hard work if you are practical with your hands and I’ve seen some really good stuff that isn’t cliche carbon fibre.

Sound wise the Harmon Kardon system is still better than anything you’ll find in a stock Japanese econobox now. It’s perfectly acceptable, and thankfully so because the speakers are non standard sizes. If you want to spend some dollars on drop in speakers and amp then I fully recommend Bavsound.com who make systems specifically for BMW. They also make an excellent plug in bluetooth module that sets all the controls on the steering wheel and stereo to work your phone and stream music and phone calls. Sadly it looks like they discontinued it for the E46 but you may find them second hand. I’ve ridden in a car with their full package and I can tell you the sound stuff is amazing. It’s expensive but you are getting what you pay for as this is properly matched audiophiles system, not banging bass and piercing treble. I’m saving my pennies.

Overall it’s a lot of car for the money, and that’s where we get into some of the BMW pitfalls for this time period. This is no Honda Civic, but if the engine has been cared for it will go a long, long way. There are plenty of other mechanical issues though so this is a car I recommend having a fund set aside for sudden maintenance. Ideally you’ll want a couple of thousand dollars banked because simple looking jobs can be real time consumers and most shops work on an hourly rate. An example would be the sump gasket - a common failure of a sub ten dollar part, but it requires pulling the front of the car apart to replace. The previous owner of my car was quoted $900 and looking around that’s about normal. We did it in around six hours. There was a lot of cursing going on so I was lucky it didn’t cost me nine hundred bucks in beer afterwards.

BMW supplies you with three inevitable oil leaks. I’ve already had two. One is easy, the sump gasket is a pain and the other is behind the engine. After that bushings are a cause for concern. BMW uses a lot of rubber to give that ride quality and soft rubber perishes quickly. The most important are the sub frame bushings and the rear diff bushing. If you have to do one, you should do the other while the back end is pulled apart. As you would imagine that involves getting the sub frame out so expect to pay well over a grand if you can’t do it yourself. Trailing arm bushings get sloppy and really effect handling, so expect those after 60,000 miles.

Shocks and struts are generally shot after sixty thousand as well so prepare for that and I recommend changing to the Bilstein Heavy Duty direct replacements. Then you’ll want to write me an email of thanks because they are what BMW probably should have used in the first place.

I actually dropped in a whole new lower and harder suspension, but the answer if you want to keep that BMW ride quality is to keep the sport springs then use those Bilstein shocks and struts to replace the OEM, and then install slightly thicker sway bars to dial out the chassis roll a little.

The biggest issue on older BMWs is the cooling system. Basically the plastics they used are not great, and used in not ideal places. As far as I can tell it’s something to do with Germany’s rules that car makers have to use a certain amount of recyclable plastics in cars. The end result is that some parts of the car that get the hottest were made of a material that is not ideal for heating up and cooling down continually. Plastic will eventually go brittle and crack but heating it up then cooling it down over and over again will accelerate the process.

That piece on the radiator that your rubber hoses clamp onto?

Made of plastic.

The fact of the matter is the entire cooling system needs to be periodically Including the OEM water pump that tends to fail. Generally people do it every sixty to seventy thousand miles, so I’m looking to do mine soon.

Those are the headlines, but there are other issues and if you do a little homework you’ll find plenty of lists with the same things people recommend replacing prophylactically and the periods to do them in. I’m fairly sure it’s going to be around seven hundred bucks in parts including the “while you are in there” parts when I do mine soon. If you can find a car with it all replaced (with documentation) then that’s the ideal right there.

So should you get one? Well, if you are prepared to put the money in on top of the initial purchase and spend the money when you need to these are excellent cars when well maintained. You simply can’t defer maintenance, but in return it’s a rewarding car own and to drive. The gear box is excellent (after changing the bushings…), the engine is excellent and the chassis a delight. It looks great and with the M Sport bumper and trunk lip it looks fantastic. The interior is a step up on the E36 along with the handling, and after this the electronics got very involved. There’s a good case for this being the last of the great generations of the small BMW. Well, it would of been if it wasn’t for the current two series which really does hark back to this generation three series… but that’s a discussion for another review.

If I hadn’t done the research and prepared myself, I would probably be sick of it already and that probably explains the hate you can find towards the E46 and BMW’s in general from previous owners. The myth of the affordable luxury car on the internet exists because people think that the cost of a car is only in the initial payment, but if you buy a $50,000 car for $8000 you’ll still be paying luxury car maintenance.

If you understand and accept that and have the means, it’s well worth doing. If not, there are some wonderful cars for that money that are their for the taking. As for the means, if you don’t want a car payment and instead budget what you would be paying interest on every month and instead to put into this car for a while then the reality does become one hell of a lot of car for the money.

#blogpost

This content was originally posted by a Car Throttle user on our Community platform and was not commissioned or created by the CT editorial team.