Here’s Why The BMW E46 330ci Is The Best Bargain Today

do you want BMW performance but don't have a ton of money today we're gonna talk about why the e46 330ci is the best performance bargain on the planet and we're gonna drive someplace cool all this coming up right after this obligatory intro [Music] while the 3-series from this generation featured sedans convertibles and wagons this particular vehicle right here is my 2003 330ci coupe this generation of BMWs 3-series which was sold from 1999 to 2006 is often heralded as one of BMWs best platforms BMW 3-series had already long been regarded as the benchmark for mid-sized sports luxury sedans and coupes and the e46 only improved on this legacy it's common knowledge that the e46 3 Series BMWs slay twisty roads with ease and this car is no exception let's also talk about the design for a second just look at this thing this car was designed way back in the late 90s but decades later this vehicle has barely aged one bit the e46 generation provides timeless classic bodywork that allows it to look perfectly modern today it all adds up to an appearance that looks elegantly aggressive if I had only one complaint it would be that the front end is just a little bit busy but nothing compared to the bulges and creases found on modern BMW if you're a BMW fan you already know what's under the hood here but for the uninitiated what you're looking at is BMWs m54 inline 6-cylinder 3 litre motor and this thing puts out 225 horsepower everything is packed in here very tightly which can make some servicing jobs a bit time-consuming the interior of the 330ci is indeed a lovely place to be the optional sports steering wheel is a nice addition I like it a lot better than the standard steering wheel the optional 10-way power seats are hard but quite comfortable they also have this nice slide-out 5 support in front of the driver you get clean and simple gauges off to the right is the automatic climate control and what's this a CD player anyone still use one of these I got rid of all my CDs like ten years ago and business CD what what kind of name is that what were they thinking business CD doesn't make any sense I've stepped up to the business CD in my 330ci this car also has the optional wood inserts which to my eye isn't the best looking wood but it doesn't offend me and down here you've got the 5-speed automatic steptronic transmission yes this is an auto side yeah I would have preferred the manual but for the price that I paid for this car I just couldn't pass it up even if it has the wrong transmission but for its time it was a pretty decent transmission more on that in a bit alright let's hop in the back so the back seat isn't a terrible place to be fine enough for an adult but I wouldn't want to spend a ton of time back here and as a backseat passenger you don't have a whole lot of control these windows don't roll down but from the front controls they do pop out like an inch to let let a little bit of reason but not much yeah but overall back seat not terrible then getting in and out is really not that bad those seats move up really far forward this particular car was maintained very well and kept in very nice condition even so there are some common issues that have popped up for instance the fabric on the a and C pillars has started to sag and separate I have yet to see any 46 where this hasn't happened I'm gonna see if I can find an appropriate fabric glue to reattach this if you've done it successfully let me know in the comments because I really want to fix this there's a couple other small things that don't work the intermittent wipers have failed and the power door locks don't always work it's surprising to see this kind of stuff failing on a car with under a hundred thousand miles over all the cars in excellent shape just a few small details that I need to address the rear tailgate trim piece recently broke off the BMW emblem needs to be replaced but those small items are pretty easily fixed overall this is one of the cleanest 330 C eyes I've seen in a very long time let's talk price I purchased this car from a friend who just wanted to unload the car quickly and I paid twenty five hundred dollars with just over ninety nine thousand miles on the clock with a three liter motor in the CSP sport package I thought that was a pretty good bargain so I do have one wrench to throw in the works here Here I am proclaiming that this car is an incredible bargain however if you saw my last video with this vehicle you'll know that I've had a few expensive problems the starter went bad and some vacuum lines were shot and the repair bill wasn't cheap over seven hundred dollars and I needed a new battery so tack on another two hundred dollars but for how low the prices are on these cars right now tacking another nine hundred dollars on for repairs and maintenance didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would since I had set aside a little bit of extra money in case anything catastrophic happened so yeah they're cheap right now but you always got to expect the unexpected when it comes to an old BMW [Music] today let's take this car on some back roads and see what it's really made out of we'll also make a quick stop at paramount ranch which has been used as a filming location for countless TV shows and movies and it was even home to a racetrack back in the 1950s let's go [Music] [Applause] it's cars so much fun it's so nimble it's with good reason that this car received so many accolades for its handling over the years the power being sent to the rear wheels the near-perfect 50:50 weight distribution the growl of the inline six there's a reason why so many of these e46 is see regular time on racetracks [Applause] [Music] the power which is good but not great by today's standards is just enough to have a barrel of fun without getting yourself into too much trouble and about that power remember you got to reset your mind to the year 2003 225 horsepower was a pretty big deal back then and the six point four second zero to sixty time was very impressive nowadays Accords and Camrys will easily smoke the 330ci from a stoplight but it was pretty quick for the early 2000s also keep in mind that the 330ci had nearly as much horsepower as the preceding a thirty six m3 it was a pretty big deal you really feel the power come in strongly at the top of the rev range but it's not so bad down at the lower rpm [Applause] it's hard not to have a huge smile on your face when you're piloting this thing on a back road even if it is an automatic back with this car was first introduced the automatic transmission in this car was actually praised by automotive journalists by today's standards it feels kind of slow to shift but when you reset your mind back to 2003 it's a perfectly acceptable transmission slide the lever over to the left and allows you to manually downshift an upshift I've had the car for a few weeks and initially it was counterintuitive to me you push the lever up to downshift and down to up shift for the first few times driving I had to say it out loud to remember now it's second nature and I know there's a lot of cars that shift this way but there are many others that are the exact opposite the throttle feels light even a bit touchy sometimes it's a bit hard to smoothly leave a stoplight without jerking forward it kind of reminds me of the throttle on the 1992 Pontiac Grand Am that I took my driver's test on I know that's an oddly specific reference but it just reminds me of that at higher speeds the steering is very sensitive in light at lower speed that feels pretty heavy but when you're above maybe 40 50 miles an hour it's it's almost borderline twitchy but the frenetic nature really makes it razor-sharp around these turns [Music] so now on to my complaints and they're pretty minor and I know I'm gonna get a lot of hate mail for this I mean well you're not gonna send me hate mail but you're gonna leave me comments that say I suck I just don't like the way this inline 6-cylinder sounds it's just not pleasing to me feel free to leave a comment telling me how wrong I am about this but I just don't like it the optional sport seats that I have in this car are definitely better than the standard seats that you can get but I wouldn't say they really like hug you when driving spiritedly on backroads you do kind of slide around quite a bit but that's really it for complaints overall this car is incredibly good for the money that I paid for it you should definitely buy one all right let's go make a quick stop at paramount ranch [Music] so here we are at Paramount ranch let's go take a look around [Music] Paramount Pictures leased this ranch way back in the 1920s the impressive scenery and surrounding landscape has made it an ideal filming location for decades the ranch is best known for the western town that was built here after Paramount sold the ranch where many Westerns have been filmed such as Cisco Kid and Zane Grey theater the National Park Service purchased the land in 1980 and since then it's been used for many more productions including Westworld but as you can see this past November a fire swept through the area taking nearly all of the Western town with it [Music] the only building left standing was the church used in Westworld [Music] they plan to rebuild the western town but is still just a pile of rubble at this point before we head back to the car let me just head over this direction for a second I got to show you something back in 1956 the land was sold and the Paramount Raceway was opened it was then considered one of the most challenging race circuits in the United States sixty years ago race cars would have been traveling at breakneck speeds right through here and I'm walking on the old track right now the truck came right through there through that dramatic Bank curve all the way right down through here you could see what it was likely some guardrails embedded in the asphalt right along the edge of the track here it's very likely that most of the race cars parked right in this area where they worked on their cars and got ready to race and right over there on top of that hill is where a lot of spectators climbed all the way up to see as much of the track as possible [Music] but it would not last long after two fatal crashes in 1957 the racetrack was quickly closed [Music] this is where those two fatal accidents occurred [Music] and that's pretty much ended racing at paramount Speedway [Music] [Music] luckily automotive safety has improved greatly since the 1950s and while this e46 is not a new vehicle it's modern enough that you get newer safety features like side airbags but it's old enough where the driving experience still feels analog if you're in the market for an older inexpensive BMW the e46 is really hard to beat right now the non m3 models seem to be at the bottom of their depreciation curve a quick look at Los Angeles Craigslist shows the median price of the 330ci at about $4,000 the CHP performance package will likely bump that price up to around 7,000 that's the cheapest one that I could find in LA is it worth paying $3,000 extra for 10 more horsepower and one second quicker to zero to 60 I don't know that's almost three times when I paid for this car and of course you can step up to the e46 generation m3 but the cheapest one I found in Los Angeles was $11,000 and it had over 200,000 miles and it was completely thrashed if you're on a budget I suggest checking out a well-cared-for 330ci instead of dropping a bunch of cash when a totally trashed clapped-out m3 yeah the m3 is gonna sweep the floor with a 330ci especially on a race track but on these tight twisty back roads where we're really doing more than 55 miles an hour the 330ci is gonna do just fine for the price the e46 is hard to beat especially now the prices on these cars are hilariously low now is the most perfect time to step up to one of the most highly regarded BMW platforms ever built with one of the most enjoyable driving experiences around today thanks so much for watching please hit that subscribe button and I'll have more videos where I take unique vehicles to memorable locations and feel free to follow me on Instagram my username is mr. Ethan toughest thanks so much see you soon hard to drive this thing without having a smile from ear to ear it is crazy this machine it is it's all very crazy I love it so much I love it so much that my accent changes while I Drive it I don't know why contact sentences but it's changing to something vicious making sense

Channel: Hello Road / Ethan Tufts

Views: 349,691

Rating: 4.7753377 out of 5

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Id: NIbeO4j1-2Q

Length: 15min 28sec (928 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 01 2019