Looking for a first car. Manual. $5k (Chicago)

[danilo]

Hate Honda's so much man.

[Wisco]

Understood but a $5k e46 is going to need that much in PM to get on the road so now it's a $10k car. You could buy a one-owner Hyundai coming of lease for that and never have a problem. Cheap performance car is an oxymoron my friend and BMW isn't the exception to the rule.

You can do whatever you want, but you asked a question and are getting a reasonable answer.

Hate Honda's so much man.

[webster]

Agreed with Wisco any E46 at that price point will double the purchase price in maintenance costs within the first year.

Unless your parents are willing to throw money at a car that you will constantly need to throw parts at I highly discourage this line of thinking but then again if that were the case you probably would have a higher budget to begin with.

[az3579]

Well if you're dead set on an E46 (I totally understand), then a 325i is probably best within your price range. Decent ones can be had for 5k, whereas the 330's are more expensive. 325i's are powerful "enough" (184hp) to not get into too much trouble but have enough pep to get up to speed on an onramp for a highway. Parts pricing for them are similar to 330's, but they do suffer the same common problems as 330's, and there are a lot of them. Reliability-wise, the 325 is about the same as the 330.

As long as you're willing to wrench on the car yourself, you could save a boatload of cash. Parts aren't usually crazy expensive, and sometimes you'll have to buy used to keep the price affordable, but just be prepared to constantly be putting money into the car. It's not uncommon for people to spend over 1-2 grand a year maintaining their E46's, and that's usually at a minimum.

I suggest you hit up Autotrader and get a feel for what's within your budget. You'll find plenty of E46's in that price range, just make sure they're not beat up or neglected. Ask the owners for the maintenance history, and if you're not sure whether a car was maintained well enough based on the history, post up the history here and you'll get plenty of opinions on that matter. If the owner can't provide a history, pass on the car, unless you don't mind taking the risk.

I highly recommend you get a Pre-Purchase Inspection on whatever car you are interested in buying. Have the owner, or yourself if you're test driving the car, go to a reputable shop and have them do a PPI on the car. They will tell you everything that's wrong with the car and how much it would be to fix those items. This is a VERY valuable service and will give you an idea of what you're dealing with. They usually charge an hour or two of shop labor, but what's $100-150 in the long run when you're buying a $5000+ car?

Good luck!

[BMWM3186]

When I was looking for cars, I was at the point where I would have bought a nice 325 with the sport package if one popped up. Sure enough one did for $4k with about 100k miles. I was gonna go look at it the next day, but the car sold in less than 18 hours. And then I found the Zhp. Obiously you need to be aware of what shops charge to fix these cars if you don't want to fix them yourself. I'll occasionally help my friend fix these cars for someone else and make some good money (compared to other jobs available at my age) even though he would charge them less than half of what a shop would charge.

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[Oli77]

Reality sets in as I realize that my 2005 325i with sport package and a refreshed suspension is probably only worth 4K at 114K miles.
I cut a deal with my wife that i can keep the car as long as it costs less than 1K/year to maintain.

[danilo]

Reality sets in as I realize that my 2005 325i with sport package and a refreshed suspension is probably only worth 4K at 114K miles.
I cut a deal with my wife that i can keep the car as long as it costs less than 1K/year to maintain.

See that's exactly what I mean man! A car from $5-7k isn't a problem because I'll be getting very soon so I can afford to buy parts needed for when/if things go wrong.

[ELCID86]

Reality sets in as I realize that my 2005 325i with sport package and a refreshed suspension is probably only worth 4K at 114K miles.
I cut a deal with my wife that i can keep the car as long as it costs less than 1K/year to maintain.