I wouldn't do it to any of my M3's personally as I do like the SMG gear box. Plus many places can convert them to manual if it goes and let's say it will cost £1500 to get everything fixed, you might as well spend another £500 and convert it to manual if you like. SMG gearbox can give problems but they don't cost as much as they used to 10 years ago to fix them. It costs from around £700+ to £2500 to get it fixed. It can crack at 20k miles or 120k miles, its just a matter of time.

again, this happens on every E46 M3 and other E46 BMW's but it depends how hard they've been driven. Sometimes they fail without any signs so if it has over 50k - 60k miles just get it done. Vanos unit fails on all of them at some point but they start to get noisy and as soon as you hear it, get it fixed. Of course they do, and many expensive ones! Just make sure you go for a long drive and have the gear settings on 5Ĭoupes are worth more than convertibles and they are going up in value ( the good ones ) It's old technology now and compare to today's DCT gearboxes is not as good but i think you should drive one and see if ''you'' like it. If you flash the CSL software, it makes the gear changes much sharper, quicker and it rev matches. The handling is fantastic, especially if you fit good quality coilovers but even standard they handle very well.Īll my M3's have been lowered on coilovers. The engine is special but you have to rev them to get the most out of it. A remapped Golf R would destroy it in a straight line but a Golf will always be a Golf. Yes, in today's standards, it's not a very fast car but I wouldn't say it's slow either. The way they sound, the way they put the power down. They have aged so well and every time I take the M3 out, I remember why I love this cars so much. The coupe drives better than the convertible and the performance difference is noticeable. The e46 M3CS and CSL are even more money.Īs you can imagine having an M3's for so long, I absolutely love them. If you pick up a cheap one £8k - £9k it can easily cost you £15k in no time just to get them to drive good and look well, depends how far you want to go as well. You could pick up an e46 M3 for £7k and you can find one for £30k with very low miles. Mileage makes a 'big' difference on price's.

I guess you could say i'm a bit obsessed with the E46 M3's I've gone down to two e46 M3s now, one is a coupe and one is a convertible.

Bmw m3 e46 forum