2001 E46 M3

[Twincam Shark]

Hey guys

I hope everyone is well.
So its always been a dream of mine to own a M3 and the chances came along but i could not find clean ones and ended up going the N55 route twice.

I have found one finally that's pretty decent how ever its the old spec.
2001 E46 M3 Black
169 000km
Manuel
Electric seats / Sunroof / Xenons / Nav etc
Price : R270 000

It will not be a daily but just something to get now and also long run keep for my son.
The vehicle is very clean and i can get finance for it as well which works out great as i get staff rates.

I know that the bearings and vanos needs to be sorted and dont mind taking out a warranty that can cover those.

What's your guys thoughts.

The others i see at dealers are 400k +

 

[Spanky]

 

[TBP88]

As always with an M car try to get it to a mechanic you trust who can give it a once over, ideally on a lift.

In all likelihood an aftermarket warranty won't save you much, your biggest expense will be up front sorting all the minor fixed you'll need to do that have been deferred by the previous owner(s). Go in with eyes open that the small things on these cars are, for what the cars are, very expensive and labour intensive.

Send some pics of it though, we all love an M here!

 

[Twincam Shark]

Spanky , My bad
Tbp , Its still at the dealer in Benoni and i did not want to waste my time.

Small fixes i can do and i honestly dont mind spending a little on it.

 

[zabbo]

Hey guys

I hope everyone is well.
So its always been a dream of mine to own a M3 and the chances came along but i could not find clean ones and ended up going the N55 route twice.

I have found one finally that's pretty decent how ever its the old spec.
2001 E46 M3 Black
169 000km
Manuel
Electric seats / Sunroof / Xenons / Nav etc
Price : R270 000

It will not be a daily but just something to get now and also long run keep for my son.
The vehicle is very clean and i can get finance for it as well which works out great as i get staff rates.

I know that the bearings and vanos needs to be sorted and dont mind taking out a warranty that can cover those.

What's your guys thoughts.

The others i see at dealers are 400k +

Ahh, sounds like the one advertised at Zido Cars. Did look good from the pics.

 

[Twincam Shark]

Hi Zabbo
Yes same one.

 

[Peter@AEW]

Front end collision
Inner fender liners broken
Boot lid re sprayed.
Could be hiding a few more sins

 

[shauwn]

Hey guys

I hope everyone is well.
So its always been a dream of mine to own a M3 and the chances came along but i could not find clean ones and ended up going the N55 route twice.

I have found one finally that's pretty decent how ever its the old spec.
2001 E46 M3 Black
169 000km
Manuel
Electric seats / Sunroof / Xenons / Nav etc
Price : R270 000

It will not be a daily but just something to get now and also long run keep for my son.
The vehicle is very clean and i can get finance for it as well which works out great as i get staff rates.

I know that the bearings and vanos needs to be sorted and dont mind taking out a warranty that can cover those.

What's your guys thoughts.

The others i see at dealers are 400k +

"Manual" = nuff said

 

[///Avi]

This will be an unpopular opinion.

Do not buy these (old) cars from a dealership unless they have a complete record on the car (which I’m willing to bet most of the time they never do). Gaps in years, gaps in mileage. It’s always there. You could get lucky at a dealership but I think it’s rare. If a dealer knows he has a good car it’s R400-R500k.

For me a car doesn’t need to be perfect, it must just provide a clear picture of its history as best possible (good or bad).

Buy these cars from a good owner.

Contact people on the forum if they have mentioned they may consider selling their M3. Put yourself on their waiting list if you have to.

Most forum members price their cars fairly as well because they are selling to buyers with knowledge on the subject.

But good luck with the search. I know how painful it can be.

 

[Eust]

This will be an unpopular opinion.

Do not buy these (old) cars from a dealership unless they have a complete record on the car (which I’m willing to bet most of the time they never do). Gaps in years, gaps in mileage. It’s always there. You could get lucky at a dealership but I think it’s rare. If a dealer knows he has a good car it’s R400-R500k.

For me a car doesn’t need to be perfect, it must just provide a clear picture of its history as best possible (good or bad).

Buy these cars from a good owner.

Contact people on the forum if they have mentioned they may consider selling their M3. Put yourself on their waiting list if you have to.

Most forum members price their cars fairly as well because they are selling to buyers with knowledge on the subject.

But good luck with the search. I know how painful it can be.

Honestly the only way I would buy an ///M car 10y or older.

 

[Technician]

This will be an unpopular opinion.

Do not buy these (old) cars from a dealership unless they have a complete record on the car (which I’m willing to bet most of the time they never do). Gaps in years, gaps in mileage. It’s always there. You could get lucky at a dealership but I think it’s rare. If a dealer knows he has a good car it’s R400-R500k.

For me a car doesn’t need to be perfect, it must just provide a clear picture of its history as best possible (good or bad).

Buy these cars from a good owner.

Contact people on the forum if they have mentioned they may consider selling their M3. Put yourself on their waiting list if you have to.

Most forum members price their cars fairly as well because they are selling to buyers with knowledge on the subject.

But good luck with the search. I know how painful it can be.

This should be a sticky.
110% the best advice ever.

 

[Twincam Shark]

Front end collision
Inner fender liners broken
Boot lid re sprayed.
Could be hiding a few more sins

Damn

Thanks for this

 

[Twincam Shark]

This will be an unpopular opinion.

Do not buy these (old) cars from a dealership unless they have a complete record on the car (which I’m willing to bet most of the time they never do). Gaps in years, gaps in mileage. It’s always there. You could get lucky at a dealership but I think it’s rare. If a dealer knows he has a good car it’s R400-R500k.

For me a car doesn’t need to be perfect, it must just provide a clear picture of its history as best possible (good or bad).

Buy these cars from a good owner.

Contact people on the forum if they have mentioned they may consider selling their M3. Put yourself on their waiting list if you have to.

Most forum members price their cars fairly as well because they are selling to buyers with knowledge on the subject.

But good luck with the search. I know how painful it can be.

Thanks Avi
For me its a bit difficult as i am looking at financing one and banks are very sketchy on older vehicles from private sales.

Tried looking at the e90 Ms but they still over 350k + for something decent and in manual.

 

[GravityLee]

Dude… financing a 22yr old car… I think some reflection is in order.

 

[shauwn]

This should be a sticky.
110% the best advice ever.

agree, the thing is with e46 m3 is u MUST DO the big 3 even if there is no record, trust no one without record and invoices, so if you buy have the cash one side for these 3 and just do it , and if u ANAL (Like most of the M CAR OWNERS ARE ) u should do valvestem seals, mounts, etc . Its costly but worth it in the end..my 2 cents

 

[TurboLlew]

There is no warranty that will cover preventative maintenance. You can’t just go to them and say “well here’s this bill for bearings and vanos that I would like done on my 22 year old car that I bought yesterday”. Not even new cars with motorplan will fix something if it isn’t broken.

In the case of broken, with an E46 that means a full 150k motor rebuild… which they will gladly pay 15k of… or less since it’s a 22 year old car and the limits are probably tiny.

One way or another all the preventative stuff has to be done asap and all the deferred maintenance addresses soon after.

You also realistically aren’t going to finance this car. It’s going to be a 270k personal loan (maybe dressed up as VAF) and your interest rate will reflect that. On these old cars the bank doesn’t care so much about the value as much as whether the car is likely to fall apart and your likelihood to stop paying for it if that’s the case. I found this was the case when the buyer financed my old STI. It was on a red list of sorts and they even wanted evidence it had a new motor, FSH etc. as buyers had (according to the guy requesting it) a tendency to buy the car, break it and then stop paying.

I am assuming you want to finance in order to have enough cash available to get everything right. Weigh up the rates you are getting with the costs and risks of buying cash and doing just the bare minimum initially. Your cash reserves will recover and those thousands in interest saved will slowly allow you to do the deferred stuff without exorbitant interest rates.

Also note the cooling global car market. You’re going to be saddled with a 270k car that you may pay for twice over in finance, drop 100k into maintenance wise and it’s worth 400-450k at the end of it

 

[AdiS]

Dude… financing a 22yr old car… I think some reflection is in order.

I agree. I know what it’s like to have this dream, but you need to be really honest with yourself about the reality kind of owning the car; and whether you can truly afford it.

There’s no more effective dream killer than being in over your head.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Nick]

There is no warranty that will cover preventative maintenance. You can’t just go to them and say “well here’s this bill for bearings and vanos that I would like done on my 22 year old car that I bought yesterday”. Not even new cars with motorplan will fix something if it isn’t broken.

In the case of broken, with an E46 that means a full 150k motor rebuild… which they will gladly pay 15k of… or less since it’s a 22 year old car and the limits are probably tiny.

One way or another all the preventative stuff has to be done asap and all the deferred maintenance addresses soon after.

You also realistically aren’t going to finance this car. It’s going to be a 270k personal loan (maybe dressed up as VAF) and your interest rate will reflect that. On these old cars the bank doesn’t care so much about the value as much as whether the car is likely to fall apart and your likelihood to stop paying for it if that’s the case. I found this was the case when the buyer financed my old STI. It was on a red list of sorts and they even wanted evidence it had a new motor, FSH etc. as buyers had (according to the guy requesting it) a tendency to buy the car, break it and then stop paying.

I am assuming you want to finance in order to have enough cash available to get everything right. Weigh up the rates you are getting with the costs and risks of buying cash and doing just the bare minimum initially. Your cash reserves will recover and those thousands in interest saved will slowly allow you to do the deferred stuff without exorbitant interest rates.

Also note the cooling global car market. You’re going to be saddled with a 270k car that you may pay for twice over in finance, drop 100k into maintenance wise and it’s worth 400-450k at the end of it

With all this in mind, you may as well just buy a sorted e90 or newer...

 

[TBP88]

There is no warranty that will cover preventative maintenance. You can’t just go to them and say “well here’s this bill for bearings and vanos that I would like done on my 22 year old car that I bought yesterday”. Not even new cars with motorplan will fix something if it isn’t broken.

In the case of broken, with an E46 that means a full 150k motor rebuild… which they will gladly pay 15k of… or less since it’s a 22 year old car and the limits are probably tiny.

One way or another all the preventative stuff has to be done asap and all the deferred maintenance addresses soon after.

You also realistically aren’t going to finance this car. It’s going to be a 270k personal loan (maybe dressed up as VAF) and your interest rate will reflect that. On these old cars the bank doesn’t care so much about the value as much as whether the car is likely to fall apart and your likelihood to stop paying for it if that’s the case. I found this was the case when the buyer financed my old STI. It was on a red list of sorts and they even wanted evidence it had a new motor, FSH etc. as buyers had (according to the guy requesting it) a tendency to buy the car, break it and then stop paying.

I am assuming you want to finance in order to have enough cash available to get everything right. Weigh up the rates you are getting with the costs and risks of buying cash and doing just the bare minimum initially. Your cash reserves will recover and those thousands in interest saved will slowly allow you to do the deferred stuff without exorbitant interest rates.

Also note the cooling global car market. You’re going to be saddled with a 270k car that you may pay for twice over in finance, drop 100k into maintenance wise and it’s worth 400-450k at the end of it

This 1000x over.

Your warrantee simply won't cover the level of parts alone you'll need on (almost) any M. I said in your other post, the E46M3 market, even though it's slowed a bit, is still too frothy. Like-for-like Z4Ms are around R100k cheaper, with a really nice Z4M being R350-400k and a really nice E46M3 being R400k-450k.

If it simply *must* be an M car, I'd honestly just save a bit. Rates are sky high so even the lowest risk assets yield nicely (I'm sure some fixed deposit 2 or 3yr things are well clear of 10%), if you can put your money there for a few years it'll probably be enough in a few years (with some added saving) to cover the car. I'd be extremely weary of financing *any* car with no motorplan. A 20yr old M car is probably the worst possible car to finance, your *surprise* bill can be R50k like nothing.

 

[TBP88]

This 1000x over.

Your warrantee simply won't cover the level of parts alone you'll need on (almost) any M. I said in your other post, the E46M3 market, even though it's slowed a bit, is still too frothy. Like-for-like Z4Ms are around R100k cheaper, with a really nice Z4M being R350-400k and a really nice E46M3 being R400k-450k.

If it simply *must* be an M car, I'd honestly just save a bit. Rates are sky high so even the lowest risk assets yield nicely (I'm sure some fixed deposit 2 or 3yr things are well clear of 10%), if you can put your money there for a few years it'll probably be enough in a few years (with some added saving) to cover the car. I'd be extremely weary of financing *any* car with no motorplan. A 20yr old M car is probably the worst possible car to finance, your *surprise* bill can be R50k like nothing.

Just to give an idea - the newer owners can chime in, but (front) brake disks on a Z4M are around R5k per side.

So if you need to do brakes parts alone is gonna be well north of R10k. Tyres if you run 19s for a decent brand are gonna be R3-4k per tyre. So another 15k or so fitted and balanced. These are just consumables, things that 100% will need doing every few years.