I have always been a firm believer that care or lack their of has a HUGE impact on how reliable and/or maintenance intensive a car will be. I am extremely particular with my maintenance and care on my cars and generally benefit from this. Maintenance on an M3 will definitely be more than an Accord...I would think common sense would dictate that. However, the broad generalizations that Japanese cars are always reliable and BMW's are problematic is just wrong. If Honda's weren't reliable would they be worth owning...well that's for each individual to decide. I love my Honda/Acura products but my S2000's have had more unscheduled visits to the shop than my BMW's but I still view them as highly reliable cars. If you find a well cared for M3 then I think you would be very happy even knowing you might have to stroke a sizable check for maintenance every 30K miles. My 6 year old M3 looks outstanding and could be sitting in showroom somewhere...it's seats look less worn than the seats in my 2007 TSX. Just remember that they're due for service every 30K miles and know that it could cost you $2K...keep that in mind when negotiating price.

 

BMW's are not like Hondas in the sense that you cant just drive them 100k changing the oil only. the REQUIRE regular maintance. if you do that they are very reliable cars. there are E46 M3's with 150-200k on them running like champs. sure, like any car some have had problems from the get go, but thats not the norm at all.

if you keep up on fluid changes, valve adjustments and suspension bushings and they will never let you down. case in point(sort of) my 97 M3 with 121k, runs like a champ. its been well cared for all its life and its a great car to have. ive onwed it a year and spent $200 keeping it running, and that was for a new t-stat/t-stat housing/wp/belts and it was really just maintance.

the S54 is a gem of a motor, basically the 6yl version of the F20c imho and its a great motor to rev out and enjoy. dont let people that never owned an M car scare you from buying one, because they simply dont know what their talking about, in all honesty. i spend 6months researching M3's before i bought mine and after a little over a year of ownership id recommend a E36 or E46 M3 to anyone that can honestly afford one.

which brings me to my next point...

can you afford to spent anywhere from 500-5k in a years time to maintain an M3? inpsection II is 2k give or take, can you drop 2k in one afternoon and still eat for the rest of the month? serious things to think about. its the guys that buy M3's that cant honestly afford them that are the ones that will tell you that M3's are POSs. when my cooling system need an immediate overhaul on a sat, granted ive got connections with parts and labor and my repair was only 200 bones or so, i knew it was the price of addmiton(sp i know) for an M3 and just did the work. when 60k in a E46 M3 comes around and the shop calls you and asks for 2k for inspection II are you going to fall over backwords or pay to play? something to think about.

good luck and make sure whatever you buy to get it inspected, sadly many M3s get ignored buy the owners.

 

In my humble opinion, the M3 costs too much to maintain to justify its performance in this day and age.


Considering the cheaper C5 and C6's out there. Although if you do need the backseats....


and with the newer 370z's equaling or bettering the performance as well as 135's

again I like total package of the M3 E46 and I would want one, but if I had a little bit more money to spend I would look elsewhere.

 

also a good point. the 1 has not LSD option, bimmer's stand is that only the "M" gets LSDs.

C5 Zo6 is an option, C6 is nice, im a big vette guy. the E46 M3 has one of the best blends of luxo and performance of any car out there, imho.

 

i think its an amazing car, ive never owned one. but its on my serious to have list :]

for that price im sure u can get one with nearly no mileage.
sure maint. is really high, but you can expect that from an M car
i will have one, one day..
im all over m3forum.net

 

Don't all the new 1's and 3's have electronic diffs due to the traction control?

 

I never understand why some people are so work up when people talking about their negative experience with their cars. Everyone has his/her own experience, you can simply discount that. It sounds like the ownership of BMW seems to be a hit or miss.

 

Err, kinda as the doneffect said, the 325 example was just provided as evidence that the brand depreciates rather quickly because of relatively high maintenance costs. Sure m3 is kind of an exception, due to its rarity and whatnot, but it is what it is.

the town car? haha. a purely arbitrary example that the sort information the OP is seeking isnt provided. costs of ownership calulations don't extend beyond the first 5 years.

In response to your beliefs about broad generalizations, not so much boss.



Little reason bmw forums any better place. just get more diehards like yourself. somewhat akin to logging onto hondatech and asking if vtec is awesome

 

I've owned my E36 M3 for almost 6yrs now and it's needed nothing but basic maintenance. E46 M3's are more expensive to own though from everything I've read(6yrs on different BMW forums). I don't think we can really compare E36 M3 maint costs to E46 maint costs. You did make some excellent points though. I've only had one Inspection II done at the shop and it cost me about $600. Most of the stuff on the Inspection checklist is basic and can be done yourself.

 

since you own an E36 ill just ask this here
im in the market for a four door car, and i was looking at the E36 M3 Sedan since the prices are SO low now.
how are they? any known problems? most ive seen are sitting around 90k miles, will the car hold out for another 60k+ miles??
sorry to ask in here, but i found it better then opening a new thread for this.