Next car: 330ci, 330i, 350Z, or other similar?

[Feersty]

The SVT Focus is over 94,000 miles and I am just leisurely looking around to see what is out there. Checked on insurance costs for 330ci or a 350Z. 350Z is about $100 more every 6 months if I replace my Focus with it. My wife's Civic will stay.

I have seen reasonably priced 330ci's but they are pushing high 70,000 to mid 80,000 miles. Is there any good life left for an E46 with that high of mileage? I also like the ZHP package, but those are rare. There is a nice red 330i ZHP in Austin, TX right now, that is beautiful, I just don't like red. I went to a Nissan dealership down here and wanted to drive a used 350Z, but ended up in a brand new 370Z, so I still have yet to test drive a 350Z. Drove both the 330i and 330ci at Charlottesville BMW for the Susan G. Komen Ultimate Drive. It is a shame that went away


Would likes:
manual
RWD
Reasonable on car insurance
90% use is commuting
A car that is reliable and can take my 25 mile round trip commute 5 days a week on some crappy San Antonio roads
Will rarely have to pick up people at the airport, so have to possibly be ready for that.

Just trying to see what everyone thinks on here, and personal impressions on the car listed or comparable vehicles.

[CaptainHenreh]

G35 Coupe.

Sexier than a 350Z, cheaper out the door, probably cheaper on insurance.

[Kaan]

2006 GTO

[G.Irish]

E46's tend to hold up better than E36's so 70-80k miles might not be too much, but on balance an Infiniti or Nissan is going to be more reliable. For an E46 I would go for one with about 60k miles, otherwise I would go for the Z or G35. Only downside of the Z and G35 is that the interior is not going to be as nice, and I find the shifter a bit clunky.

[.RJ]

ZHP E46 is a great choice. You will have to budget for some maintenance past 80-100k so go in with that in mind and its not a big deal.

[JohnC]

ZHP E46 is a great choice. You will have to budget for some maintenance past 80-100k so go in with that in mind and its not a big deal.

Yup. I'd like to get another.

[fiveoh2go]

Wants:
manual
RWD
Reasonable on car insurance
90% use is commuting
A car that is reliable and can take my 25 mile round trip commute 5 days a week on some crappy San Antonio roads

2011 V6 Mustang



















No but seriously though, it's cheaper to insure than the five liter GT, gets 31mpg, is RWD, a manual is available, pulls .96 g on the skip pad, has 300+ hp.

And it's not a BMW. :thumbup:

[G.Irish]

Wants:
manual
RWD
Reasonable on car insurance
90% use is commuting
A car that is reliable and can take my 25 mile round trip commute 5 days a week on some crappy San Antonio roads

2011 V6 Mustang

No but seriously though, it's cheaper to insure than the five liter GT, gets 31mpg, is RWD, a manual is available, pulls .96 g on the skip pad, has 300+ hp.

And it's not a BMW. :thumbup:

Yeah but that's around $5000 more than what he was looking at. If he was looking to stretch the budget that far then yeah it'd be worth a look, but it doesn't seem like $20k+ was the price range he was shooting for.

[HAULN-SS]

Thread Hijack: Malibu got rear-ended the other day, bumper replacement cost was 2 grand..jeebus..i thought plastic cars were cheaper than this. So anyway, its at the body shop getting repaired, but im about ready to say fuckall with that car. 120k miles, and i just had to put wheel bearings in it..probably the first maintenance thing of many and it is pissing me off. So I'm going to trade it in as soon as it is fixed.

This car catches my eye:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.carmax.com/enus/view-car/default.html?AVi=0&id=7260786&N=663+4294967020&Ne=2&D=50&zip=20151&sM=NA-50000&sP=NA-24000&pD=0&pI=0&pT=400&pC=200&pB=0&No=0&Ep=homepage:homepage%20Make&Rp=R&Vp=F&PP=20&sV=List&CD=14+966+240+190+398+9&Q=f6c6f2c8-e58a-4bf9-880f-83a44f600b91">http://www.carmax.com/enus/view-car/default.html?AVi=0&id=7260786&N=663+4294967020&Ne=2&D=50&zip=20151&sM=NA-50000&sP=NA-24000&pD=0&pI=0&pT=400&pC=200&pB=0&No=0&Ep=homepage:homepage%20Make&Rp=R&Vp=F&PP=20&sV=List&CD=14+966+240+190+398+9&Q=f6c6f2c8-e58a-4bf9-880f-83a44f600b91</a><!-- m -->

According to motortrend and others, 2006 was when these came into their own..anyone agree with that? What other suggestions you got? I'm thinking less than 25k. I dont really want to buy new, because im done taking the appreciation hit on stuff. I'd rather avoid paying off my current car, so I'm going to trade it in. As such, my next car does have to come off a dealer lot.

[Evan]

120k and all that it needs is wheel bearings and that pisses you off?

anyway, I drove a bunch of those. I wanted to like them really really bad but they are absolute garbage. The interior still sucks (several peices of the interior fell apart while i test drove with 30k miles) the throttle response was horrible, sluggish and it didnt even handle well. The 07 g35 sedan was better in every way. I also liked the IS250 but it doesnt have as much grunt

[.RJ]

I'd rather find a low mileage E46 330 or M3 if we're BMW shopping. Then again I think a VW W8 wagon is a good idea :lol:

[G.Irish]

120k and all that it needs is wheel bearings and that pisses you off?

anyway, I drove a bunch of those. I wanted to like them really really bad but they are absolute garbage. The interior still sucks (several peices of the interior fell apart while i test drove with 30k miles) the throttle response was horrible, sluggish and it didnt even handle well. The 07 g35 sedan was better in every way. I also liked the IS250 but it doesnt have as much grunt

Did you try any E90's with the sport package? Does it handle worse than the E46 or something?

[HAULN-SS]

120k and all that it needs is wheel bearings and that pisses you off?

anyway, I drove a bunch of those. I wanted to like them really really bad but they are absolute garbage. The interior still sucks (several peices of the interior fell apart while i test drove with 30k miles) the throttle response was horrible, sluggish and it didnt even handle well. The 07 g35 sedan was better in every way. I also liked the IS250 but it doesnt have as much grunt

Wheel bearings AND I had to do a new cat already that was ~500$ for the part. That's like a grand in repairs total, and i did the wheel bearings myself. Then with it getting rear-ended to the tune of like a 2 grand fix, broken into for like another grand..all just making me fall out of love with the car.

Thanks for the heads up on the bimmer though...i'll see what else carmax has

[Seantn1k]

I'd rather find a low mileage E46 330 or M3 if we're BMW shopping. Then again I think a VW W8 wagon is a good idea :lol:

+1 Vote for the M3!

120k and all that it needs is wheel bearings and that pisses you off?

anyway, I drove a bunch of those. I wanted to like them really really bad but they are absolute garbage. The interior still sucks (several peices of the interior fell apart while i test drove with 30k miles) the throttle response was horrible, sluggish and it didnt even handle well. The 07 g35 sedan was better in every way. I also liked the IS250 but it doesnt have as much grunt

I agree on the sluggish part, I noticed that when I was test driving a few E90's. I believe it's partially due to how the fly by wire throttle is setup. It's normally not directly a 1:1 ratio of throttle body being open and the amount of pedal you're applying(as far as I can tell, and there are mods for this). It certainly makes things painful. The E46 M3 helped out that issue by offering the "Sport" button but even that isn't completely 1:1.

[G.Irish]

I'd rather find a low mileage E46 330 or M3 if we're BMW shopping. Then again I think a VW W8 wagon is a good idea :lol:

+1 Vote for the M3!

120k and all that it needs is wheel bearings and that pisses you off?

anyway, I drove a bunch of those. I wanted to like them really really bad but they are absolute garbage. The interior still sucks (several peices of the interior fell apart while i test drove with 30k miles) the throttle response was horrible, sluggish and it didnt even handle well. The 07 g35 sedan was better in every way. I also liked the IS250 but it doesnt have as much grunt

I agree on the sluggish part, I noticed that when I was test driving a few E90's. I believe it's partially due to how the fly by wire throttle is setup. It's normally not directly a 1:1 ratio of throttle body being open and the amount of pedal you're applying(as far as I can tell, and there are mods for this). It certainly makes things painful. The E46 M3 helped out that issue by offering the "Sport" button but even that isn't completely 1:1.

Yeah it seems like a lot of these DBW cars really suck for anyone who cares about driving. Does it vary by model with BMW (like 335is vs 325i)?

[Evan]

120k and all that it needs is wheel bearings and that pisses you off?

anyway, I drove a bunch of those. I wanted to like them really really bad but they are absolute garbage. The interior still sucks (several peices of the interior fell apart while i test drove with 30k miles) the throttle response was horrible, sluggish and it didnt even handle well. The 07 g35 sedan was better in every way. I also liked the IS250 but it doesnt have as much grunt

Did you try any E90's with the sport package? Does it handle worse than the E46 or something?

Im not sure if they had the sport package. Ive never driven an e46 so I cant compare. I wouldnt say the handling was bad, its just didnt impress me for the "ultimate driving machine". the steering felt a little vauge. do the new bmws use electric power steering?

its possible that I drove auction junk, and Im still holding judgement on the car because I still love the way they look and they should be good cars, but even if the cars I drove were flukes, at the very least it says to me that the cars arent consistent and you have to make sure you get a "good one"

[Seantn1k]

Yeah it seems like a lot of these DBW cars really suck for anyone who cares about driving. Does it vary by model with BMW (like 335is vs 325i)?

Yea it certainly isn't helpful, I have yet to see any particular write up explaining what the logic is to the pedal.

Im not sure if they had the sport package. Ive never driven an e46 so I cant compare. I wouldnt say the handling was bad, its just didnt impress me for the "ultimate driving machine". the steering felt a little vauge. do the new bmws use electric power steering?

its possible that I drove auction junk, and Im still holding judgement on the car because I still love the way they look and they should be good cars, but even if the cars I drove were flukes, at the very least it says to me that the cars arent consistent and you have to make sure you get a "good one"

The later E90's have widely switched to electric steering which is a big complaint of a lot of folks out there (complete loss of feedback). They called it Active Steering control which used an interesting method of changing gear ratio depending on how fast you're going. I think this may have been an option but I'm not sure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Steering

Really, it's one thing to want to eek out as much power and economy from the engine, but it shouldn't be at the cost of tactile feel.

[Mike]

also... the clutch delay valve suuucks.

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[CaptainHenreh]

also... the clutch delay valve suuucks.

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Easy easy easy to get rid of. :-p

[ScottyB]

GTO. it meets all your criteria.

they are somewhat rare (cool), inconspicuous, insanely comfy seats, more power than you'll ever need, sound awesome, 6 speed, and run sane tire sizes and have a long wheelbase which is great for commuting in comfort for a long time. the 2004's will pull down 25mpg highway all day, 2005+ a little less. big back seat so you can take your work pals to lunch. GM parts are cheap but there are a few things that will cost more due to coming from aussie-land.