Hey people,

Thinking of buying a new car (still keeping the polo)

Thought about golf GT TDI, A3 S line etc.

Don't want a Saloon, and an estate is probably a bit big tbh.

At the moment I'm pretty keen on an E46 320d coupe. Any experience of them?

Ideally would get an M sport, around 2004 era.

Seem to be around 3.5-5k, which is more than I wanted to spend but fuck it, only house deposit money I'll be using

So yeah, any thoughts? I know a few people shit hot on BMWs, (mainly ex dealership) but be nice to hear some real world thoughts.

6 speed manual, 2.0 turbo diesel, 150hp/258ftlbs I think.

Thanks!

Ps, don't suggest a 330d, too much to insure and not as good on fuel, even though have bare torques

Nick i've drove a 320D ..

Wasn't coupe but was mid spec'd and Was a nice drive, Pulls well in any gear and although i only did a 50 mile run in it i didnt see the needle move at all fuel wise ..Perfect for long distance driving and feel a nice car too be in

Dont know if you remember but the lad at unit had the a3 S line quatro TDi.

I had a quick drive of that and felt nice. Bit firmer ride than the 320 and mpg is not as good but still good .

Cant really comment on daily use for obvs reasons lol..

For a daily hack the beemer would feel alot nice place to be but the A3 will be better in winter and around town ..

Hope this helps at all ..

Ps I could comment on a golf gtdi but that was a shed and only drove a lowered one on shitty coilovers

Yeah I mean I know a fair few people with BMWs and rate them, and just chuck winter tyres on and have no issues with snow anyway, last time it snowed one of them came past me on the way to work and I was in the fwd golf lol

id rather the BM than the Audi tbh.

Get an A5 convertible tdiiiiii

A5's still cost bare

dont get one with cruise control, the have a servo at the pedal which can make them rather heavy, front wings, heater controls, rear bushes ect

I've the wrong engine model for you, but id say the E46 is a fantastic car.

Bushes on front suspension wear out a bit fast and regularly.

However, they drive so much better than the competition.

The ride is also far better, having a much more acceptable ability to deal with bumps and sporty driving at the same time.

Very nice place to be and I have to admit my 3-series is a fantastic car. Ill be sad to see it go but mine is getting long in the tooth. Cant see me swapping to anything else after this experience.

Id say its a great choice.

I'm currently in the same boat Nick but I'm not a BM fan really and I have been considering estates keep looking at Audi's as I do rate them (not auto tho) and Merc's I've even been looking at petrol ones as they are cheaper to buy and petrol is well cheaper now a days ...

Yeah is that the liquid filled bush at the front, can't remember how to spell it lol.

If I buy one I'll take my mate with me, or one of them, got a lot of experience on them, and can get me genuine parts cheap. And doing the work is no issue for me, from what iv seen of BMWs they're also a piece of piss to work on chassis wise.

Well I do 50 miles a day, so it's a case of working out the costs, I bought a golf which paid for itself in like 15 weeks or something in fuel saving lol.

I bought I golf gttdi 150 a few weeks ago. Before I got it I test drove several E46 320d's and two Audi A3's and can easily say that the golf does it better and they are genrally cheaper.

Of the 5 BM's that I drove only one of them didn't feel like it had been ragged to fuck all its life, and even that felt loose for 80,000 miles. Maybe all 5 were just bad examples though...

One thing to consider is the cost of repairs/replacement parts. If something goes wrong BMW will fist you harder than VAG

What price range were the BMWs you looked at?

As said iv got someone to come look with me who's picky as fuck and good at diagnosing the issues.

Golfs yeah iv looked, hold their money but I just think I'm 21, and would be nice to have a BMW instead of a common as fuck golf lol.

Parts arnt an issue really either

I do like the E46, I had my heart set on a fully kitted out 320d touring before I got the Golf. But the Golf did actually change my mind about it, and this maybe because it had all the same and more extras as the bimmer, such as heated seats, cruise control, parking sensors etc etc, but was much much cheaper (about £2,000 cheaper ). But I can see you are set on the 3 series so I will just tell my thoughts on them and not try and badger you into changing your mind, because I wont be able to (I've been there myself, when you almost want to offer more than the asking price because you want the car that much haha )

Of the beemers I looked at, they were all about the £4.5k mark, and 1 of them was actually at a BMW dealership in their "approved used" section, and was the only one which didn't feel like it had a hard life.

One of my main worries was the cost of maintaining the car, depending on what wheels it has, you could be looking at a £500 bill just for standard spec tyres that aren't going to be shit and trust me these wear out a lot quicker than you would expect with all that torque under the bonnet.

When you look go look at them, ask about the swirl flaps as the turbo fails, and these like to break up and get sucked into the engine and can do lots of damage. (Although I think BMW revised the parts after 54 plate cars.)

I believe that the sort of car that this is sometimes attracts buyers who have no interest in looking after the car, they just wanna boot it about looking gangster :)

Strangely I actually prefered the estate version as it felt no bigger than the others, it just felt more stable on the road, and you also get fuck loads of boot space compared to the hatch/saloon. Also rear visibility was better too lol.

Just make sure that the car has good service history, and also take into account the sort of person you are buying from (unless at a dealership). And remember these cars are reaching the 10 year mark, and as such things will start going wrong. But hopefully you can find a nice example which should last for many years to come :)

Yeah man I know what you're sayin & thanks for makin the effort to write a proper reply.

Aye set of hancooks or something is like £500 like you say.

Yeah know about the engine destroying flap issue too, but then research golf gttdis and people say all sorts of shit about cams, turbos, heads etc, every car has its problems.

Be ideal to get it from a dealer, or at least a garage so I can sack my golf off in the process too lol.

I got told to look out for the flaps, and front bushes. And apparantaly rear springs are common to break.

To be honest if I get one I'd probably service it and do a geometry too. There's one on eBay at the minute which SEEMS pretty decent but who knows.

On another note - what are the "alcantara" seats like? They look a bit naff in photos?

Alcantara seats are pretty nice actually, one had them in half-leather flavour and they did feel very nice to sit in. Soft enough for when you just want a comfy drive, but they give enought support for an "adveturous" drive

Your making me want to replace the missus focus with a 320d now ahah

I've also heard that the front disks like to warp without much reason, and my mates 530d backs this up nicely

Sorry i didnt write quite as much

I've had two golf TDI's as well in my life for comparison.

To be fair, the golf's bit me hard in the maintenance department - I pretty much lost all faith in anything VW post 98.

My 115bhp PD GT TDI was actually better than the 150 I had later - the 150 is apparently less reliable but it was electrics that wound me up - I had already paid through the nose on the typical engine stuff that goes on golfs.

I think it was earlier 98-02 that had swirl flap issues - including mine. I had them blanked off.

Alignments (not just tracking) on the BM's may need work to get the most out of them, and they will also show up bad tyres - I'm surprised you didnt find the BM soo much better to drive than the others.

I wouldnt by a BM without leather.

My touring is no bigger than a saloon - just more practical.

Its a difficult choice, it seems so many cars are just money pits now days. (except mx-5's of course which are amazing )

To be frank - if you find a good one / lucky one of either , then you are sorted.

Edited 10 May, 201313 yr by Retrotub

Yeah man, I'll do an alignment anyway, massively effects how a lot of cars drive :)

Anyone selling one? :)

I found the 320d to be quite slow and uneventful. I agree retrotub its not worth getting a BMW without leather. They don't feel special with cloth trims.

I agree with Kam, but the E90 320d seems an awful lot better.

I didnt even wanna spend £2k on a golf let alone 10k + on an e90 ! lol

Bought one now.

It's got leather too.

don't suggest a 330d, too much to insure and not as good on fuel, even though have bare torques

REALLY????

I can insure one for really cheap! same sort of prices as a 320d

Ok then - my current insurer wont cover me on more than a 2.0 RWD and I'm mid term.

I dont need a 3.0 to commute to work, if my daily is too nippy i wont ever wanna drive the polo lol.

I could probably afford to buy an older porsche and insure it but i dont have to lol

thanks for advice though chaps,

got an Msport with FSH, 109k, leather etc, pretty tidy. Drives nice, lower arms been done recently with OEM arms. Just gonna remove me flaps.

Post some pictures up

Nice choice. Great its had the suspension stuff done.

On a long trip you really notice the quality.

The downside is when you want to replace a part, you often have to take apart the whole car to get at it. Along the way you find out that there are a hundred different types of bolt to undo.

Not collected it yet just put a deposit down, will chuck some up when iv got it.

Yeah luckily I have some very experienced BMW people around me; for both technical knowledge and cheaper genuine parts