Prologue:
About 5 years ago I decided that the financially sound method of buying a 2 year old car and keeping it for 8-10 years was going to be boring and lead me to experience too few cars. So I decided to start driving a different interesting, cheap car every couple of years. It's been fun and I'm on car 3 in that experiment, a 2002 BMW 325Ci (plus a 1995 Ranger bought as my backup vehicle).
#1 - 1996 BMW 318ti (2015-2017), bought for $500, invested $1200, sold for $1450
#2 - 2002 Acura RSX Type S (2017-2018), bought for $1200, invested $1700, sold for the drivetrain for $1000
#3 - 2002 BMW 325C (2019-??), bought for $3600, invested $2400, sold for $??
#4 - 1995 Ford Ranger (2019-??), bought for $1400, invested $400, sold for $??
Anyway, this is about my 2002 BMW 325Ci:
1. How did you come to the decision of buying this car?
I spun my RSX Type S on a dry, sunny but cold winter day after hitting black ice on a bridge so I needed a new daily. My criteria were interesting, manual transmission and under $4K. After considering an SVT Focus, a MazdaSpeed6 and a Mercedes SL320 (none of which I actually drove) I found this E46. A local Columbus independent dealer buys a lot of the older trade ins from the local BMW dealers and had this 325Ci. Carfax showed it to be a one owner car that was serviced almost exclusively by the BMW dealership. It was a base model with the sport package and about 150K miles. It had gotten a new clutch and coolant reservoir at 135K, brakes at 128K, exhaust at 100K, etc. It presented very cleanly with almost zero rust and nothing significant. It had all the indications of a well loved and well maintained car. I negotiated down from $3900 to $3600 and took it home.
2. What has your ownership experience been like?
It's been a mixture of fun and frustration. In other words, par for the course for an older BMW. I like driving old interesting cars and I'm not afraid to tackle projects. I knew this would need something, but other than a non-operating sunroof, there was mechanically nothing obvious that this car needed immediately. That would change rather quickly.
When I bought it (January of 2019), I noticed that 3 of the 4 tires had decent tread while one was down to near the wear bars. In the trunk, however, was a nearly new tire loose around a cracked rim. I suspect that the previous owner cracked a rim, put the spare on and never did anything else. After nearly putting it in a ditch in an unexpected light snowfall (I now have a truck for snowy days), I had the spare mounted on the good rim. It held air just fine and I was set for little money. For now.
Later that first month we were hit with the polar vortex of single digit and subzero temps. I was also driving 2 times a week to my company's manufacturing facility 80 miles away and on the way home I noticed what I thought was salt dust being kicked up behind the car. Stopping for gas, I realize from the cloud coming up from under the hood that it was actually oil burning off the engine. The crankcase vent system (CCV) had frozen up and the pressure blew the valve cover gasket (VCG), dropping a significant amount of oil on the exhaust manifold. I babied it home and replaced the entire CCV system and, later, the valve cover gasket. At the same time as the CCV I did the motor mounts and cabin filter. When I did the VCG I also replaced the Vanos seals which are known to harden with age. That really seemed to wake up the engine, but it may be me wanting it to make a difference rather than an actual difference.
After all that, I fairly quickly became aware that it had a rather significant oil appetite. I'm not sure if it has to do with the CCV failure or if it existed before, but it was using a quart in well under 1,000 miles. These E46 M54 engines are known to use oil due to a change in the oil control rings. I lived with it for a while before implementing what's called the "02 pilot mod" on the E46 forums which cut consumption dramatically. It's still higher than I'd like, but at closer to 2K per quart, it's livable now.
This summer I replaced the wheels and tires with take offs from a 2005 525xi because the factory wheels had a serious case of clearcoat failure and road rash. The 5 series wheels had decent tires and, although not perfect, looked much better and were cheap. I've since put new Pilot Sport A/S 3 rubber on them as well.
The other project was replacing lower control arms with Myle HD pieces. That was a serious pain in the butt. The inner ball joint nuts were nearly impossible to get to. I've had an E36 BMW 318ti which was a joy to wrench on, including the control arms. This E46 has not been as nice. I won't be owning any BMW newer than this simply because they are no longer DIY friendly, which is sad.
The car has been a bit needy, but it's also beautiful and a joy to drive. It's content to loaf lazily down the highway or to attack a curvy back road. In contrast to the RSX Type S it replaced, it's simply more mature. The RSX was like a puppy, always eager to play saying "Throw the ball! Throw the ball! Come on, throw the ball!". The BMW is a grown dog, ready to play but also content to sit on the couch. It says "If you want to throw the ball, I'm on it, but if you want to just sit and relax, that's cool too." I haven't driven a lot of BMWs, but I think a strong argument can be made that the E46 is peak 3 series. Clean, beautiful lines, good performance and still DIY capable.
As I type this, it needs several things. That sunroof still doesn't work and the passenger window regulator is on the verge of failure (there's a new one in the box in the garage). And a couple of weeks ago it blew the LR shock, so there is a set of Koni Red shocks and struts ready to go on too. After that, who knows. I'm either going to move on to the next thing in 6-12 months or I may actually keep this one as a project.
3. What is your fondest memory with this car?
This is my third, and most expensive, cheap but fun daily and by far the nicest. For what I paid for it plus the money I've had to put into it (about $6K total), it's a lot of car for the money. This was a $30K+ car 18 years ago and I'm enjoying for 1/5 of that. It still makes me smile just by looking at it and I love the way it drives. I'm unlikely to get my money out of it, but even if I get zero back (and even wrecked it's worth something), it's only cost me less than $200 a month to own so far. Cheap fun and (mostly) enjoyable wrenching. What's not to like?
4. Why do you love cars?
I'm not sure, honestly, I just always have. My first word was car. (My second word was Doug and so my priorities were set early on.) My dad, grandfather and uncle have always been into cars, so in part it's either genetic or being surrounded by them. Grandpa had a number of interesting cars, several that are still in the family. He bought a 1957 Eldorado Biarritz in 1959 that my dad currently has, a 1956 Thunderbird in the 80s that Dad has too and a 1960 Thunderbird that I inherited in 2000. He also had a 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton that was on display at the Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg museum until he sold it at auction in the 90s and a couple of Jeepsters that he used while in the Zenobia Shrine. My uncle still has a 1964 Corvette that he bought new and a 90s F150 and a 90s 7 series as his daily drivers. I come by this car thing naturally.
That's my E46. The other dailys in my family are my wife's 2015 Accord Hybrid, a pair of Mazda Proteges that my younger daughters drive and a 2005 Mazda3 5 speed hatch that I bought new that my oldest was driving. She's driving the Ranger now and the Mazda is likely going to spare car duty due to oil consumption.
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If you would like to participate, just answer the above four questions and submit one to three photos of your daily driver to milhousevanh at geemail. Thanks and have fun!
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