Think I'm gettin' me a Bimmer

[Aaviel]

Got a PPI, mechanic said the engine is great, seals are great, clutch should last another 30-50K miles, brakes will last another 15K miles, but it does need new tires soon.

Yeah they are awesome cars. The cooling can go between those ranges though really.. I had mine to 112K with no issues. But it is great preemptive maintenance (google e46 cooling)

 

[SSSnail]

Nice...if it were closer I wou....IT'S AN AUTOMATIC???

Hey hey, easy now... That's the exact same as my car. I can have some fun with the automatic in the twisties with the Tiptronic (the auto is because of necessity). But it's quite capable, even as an automatic. 120K miles in now, and she still purrs like an inline 6 would :awe:

 

[OVerLoRDI]

The 3 litre in the e46 is one of my favorite engines. It just has this great rumble at low rpm and an even better scream at high rpms.

My mom has a 2001 330i with 220k on it. Still runs great, cooks a little oil, but has been bullet proof.

 

[Aaviel]

I miss my old Imola Red ZHP

 

[Fritzo]

Lookie what Ima driving home

 

[JulesMaximus]

Lookie what Ima driving home

Congrats! :thumbsup:

And it's a convertible! Nice!

 

[SSSnail]

Congrats Fritzo. But, I read somewhere that these things are horribly engineered and just generally suck. Make sure all the buttons are in their places...

 

[Throckmorton]

Nice! Good job finding one with a manual.

 

[Fritzo]

Congrats Fritzo. But, I read somewhere that these things are horribly engineered and just generally suck. Make sure all the buttons are in their places...

It appears to be pretty solid. Drove it 300 miles home and it handled like it was new (well, the clutch grabs a little higher than half way up, but that's expected with 80K miles). Supposed to be near 60F today so I might find me a twisty road.

I was validated on I-90 on the way home when a Civic SI diver pulled up next to me and gave me a thumbs up

 

[Fritzo]

Update:

Had a big scare!

The Service light came on over the weekend. I took it my mechanic, and he said it was running lean- might be an O2 sensor, PVC valve, or leaky hose. Had him check it out and then get an oil change.

The mechanic came back after 20 minutes with a worried look on his face:

"Um....when's the last time you had an oil change?"

"I just got the car, why?"

"Well, it looks like the previous owner overtorqued your oil pan bolt and broke it off in the pan."

"AGGGH!!! Can you get it out?"

"Well, it's still in the threads, so I'll try. If it drops in though, it'll probably be about 5 hours of work to drop the oil pan."

I was facing $400-$700 worth of repairs there depending on if the oil pan needed to be replaced. Got a call this morning that they were able to get the bolt out though, so

!!!!

On top of that, I reported the issue to the dealer, and they're going to cover the charges for everything, so

x2!!!!

BTW- it was nice out over the weekend, so I drove down some twisty roads with the top down and this thing is an AMAZING driver. Getting to 5000rpm in 3rd causes a case of perma-grin I guess it's a fairly rare configuration too, so I was getting a lot of looks. Not used to that after driving a Scion for a few years.