Rokerlad

Just noticed there are now lots of 4 yr old examples of these cars on the market with reasonable miles in the 12 / 13k mark. I've always wanted a laid back, leather clad luxo barge like this. Anyone had one / recommend them?

Recaro

I have to say I quite fancy one too.

Bloke at work just bought one and he loves it. Has Sat Nav in it. Think he paid £13K for it and its an X Reg.

He says it drinks petrol a bit when hes driving it around the town/urban area (ie, sitting in traffic), he's is also a automatic so that may make it worse.

trackman

Yeah, can recommend them very highly. I sold my P1 because it attracted all the wrong attention (great car that it was, sadly missed).

I went for a '51 plate 330ci. I can confirm from a personal point of view that it is a fantastic motor! Great on the motorway, comfortable, responsive and classy. It's economical too for a 3.0, averaged 35mpg @ 80mph on the motorway with the aircon off (stingy get).

Aaaand the best one for last......the barries/chavs/boy racers (insert term of choice here) don't look at it twice!

It's quick in a restrained kind of way. I miss the driving experience of the scooby, but for day to day use the 330 suits my needs at the moment.

sti-04!!

Well to be honest i looked at them before i bought the gay icon's car (TT225) !

The 330 in any guise is a great car, they will easily keep up with a wrx & with a good driver maybe even an Sti

Well worth a look

Rokerlad

Got to say I fancy an auto one of these. Something sedate , easy to drive in City centre traffic, with a bit of overtaking speed. Leather seats, wooden dash, mutli function sterring wheel. Enjoy the ride

elgordano

they are great cars. i've got the auto but i get bored with driving it after a while. i miss my scooby

turboman786

I've got a 330ci auto convertible......very nice car, and Im pleased with it in most respects, having owned M3's, scooby etc...howevere I wish I'd got a manual, as I find the auto whilst good, makes the driving experience a bit detached and dull....and I find that the car canes fuel around town, they are OK on a run or mixed driving but around town I am astonised how quickly it devours fuel......I blame the auto box!

Get a sport version as well, with the nicer bumbers/'M' sills/'M' steering wheel etc, and get one with sat nav/tv as this will greatly assist resale.

WRX280

Go for a 330d and get a unichip on it.

Thats what i have as my daily drive and its magic!

Paul_M

Nice car, my dad has one. Very smooth, nice sounding engine - I was surprised at how much you can hear the induction note as standard. Steering feel and balance is great, brakes are very confidence inspiring too if a little over-assisted for my tastes. In comparison to my 840Ci it feels more nimble and has better steering feel (mine has a steering box like the M5, rather than the rack and pinion of the 330). You can actually get people in the back of the 330Ci unlike the 840! Prefer the V8 engine though, feels stronger throughout the rev-range whereas the 6-pot feels like it needs 3k on there to really shift. Oh and the V8 sounds awesome once you wind it up, 6-pot is nice but nowhere near as characterful.

It would definitely have to be a manual for me though, this car would be wasted with an auto. It can be a very enjoyable driver's car with great feedback, the kind of car you can cruise in comfort all day but still get really involved on the back roads. A car to be driven, not feel like you're being driven in

SJJ84

I brought a 330ci sport just a few weeks ago, and have to say it's a lovely car, highly recommended to anybody. If you want the sport model make sure its a '01 onwards model as these have the different bumpers etc. Standard equipment on the sport is also very good, electric everything. Really nice to drive, comfy, smooth, quiet and economical on a run when you want it to be, or fast, well balanced with a nice tone if you floor it. Mines a manual and that drinks fuel round town, much better on a steady run obviously, can only imagine the auto would be worse on consumption. What ever one you get, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

turboman786

SJJ84, what kind of 'economy' are you getting around town in your manual?...I only get about 18mpg doind lots of shortish journeys in pretty dense urban areas...

sti-04!!

Thats about right, they drink it as if fuel is going out of fashion

trackman

Sorry to butt in but mines a manual, I get 25 to 27mpg around town.

sti-04!!

All depends on what town though

uno70s

My previous car was a 330ci sport auto. Sold it after 15 months cause it was just too dull (imagine the manual would be better) and not that great for ride quality.

Best part of the car was the leather interior which is in a different league to that of the scoob.

Worst part was the handling in the wet (would prob help if I had any sort of driver ability) and the numerous minor electrical glitches.

It would do about 25mpg on my normal commute through heavy traffic (wrx does 27)and a little over 30 on a long run.

In truth I doubt I'd buy another. The wrx is much more fun on my normal commute and if I wanted something for the motoryway I'd go for a 5 series.

In terms of performance, on a particular stretch of dual carriage way I use every day I have managed about 115 out of both cars.

BTW The auto was great for traffic light grand prix, just mash down hard and off you go.

turboman786

It just baffles me how anyone can get 25mpg out of town driving in a 3.0 litre car....Im not doubting that they do, its just I could never get anything close to that! But Im consoling myself on the fact that my car is probably the best spec 330ci out there (IMHO!), and hopefully come resale time, I will recoup a good chunk of my outlay, hence negating the extra ten or fiftenn quid juice I put in!

BTW: its a 330ci sport auto convertible, black, red leather (stunning!), harmon kardon, tv/satnav, leccy folding mirrors, in fact leccy everything!

uno70s

I wouldn't buy a new beemer for resale value, they loose money like any other. But it does mean 2nd hand they are a good bet. My car lost a total of 13K in 30 months, and it had only covered about 13000 miles.

with reagrds to mpg I thought 25 was bad considering I used to get about 34 out of my old VR6, then again it did probably weigh a lot less.

LG John

My mate is in the market for one of these - they are excellent value now IMHO. They are also bloody quick! I got beasted by one at crail when they first came out and I was in my VTS. It beat me by as much if not more of a margin than the classic shape scoobys that day!

dpb

Not so much space inside ( was looking today ) - i think id go for 5 series diesel.......

SJJ84

Not 100% sure on the town mpg, the computer reads an average of between 29 and 30 mpg. Think it's probably low to mid twentys in town and above 30 on a run. Coincidently mine is black with red leather and harmon kardon, just my roof doesn't fold like yours!

turboman786

An excellent choice sir! However I find that black is impossible to keep clean for longer than a day!

I still think that my car would have been simply awesome if it had a manual box.......or maybe I'm just not an auto person...

Dazzler

Was thinking about these at the weekend, after seeing a couple in that gunmetal grey colour, with the latest front headlights. Think they look very smart indeed, just not sure that for quite a heavy car that 220bhp is enough to give you great performance.

Is the 330cd a better choice? Does it have similar performance from standard? You can chip them too to squeeze some more hp out of them, which is difficult to do with a petrol version. You loose the engine noise though, which is a bummer.

Early next year I've got to make a choice of what car to get, which car transport a family with two kids from time to time. The runners so far are 330ci, 330cd and a 530i Sport.

turboman786

They are 231bhp standard, perfromance is good, but not mind blowing!

The Chief

What tuning options are available i.e. Chip and exhaust? surely this would liberate a few horses and get it up to the 250 mark, has anyone done this?

A neighbour used to have one and it sounded quite nice with an aftermarket exhaust on!

trackman

The ultimate mod for these (apparently) is to get them supercharged. Think they develop 340bhp in this guise. Not sure about the torque figures though.

the conversion costs about 2000 quid or is it 4000? (Thinks aloud) Can't remember.

The Chief

M3 performance for 2k that sounds tempting!!!!

trackman

Yeah, that's the question raised by this conversion.

There's a fair few things to take into account, will it handle as well as the M3? Obviously the power delivery will be completely different too. Would be interesting to test the two back to back.

john banks

M3 at half a bar does about 500 BHP http://activeautowerke.com/supercharger/e46m3/main.php

About £6k for the cheaper 440 BHP kit, but bye bye traction, finesse, warranty, resale... No I'm not tempted. Wrong cars for this sort of shenanigans IMHO.

flat4_ire

yeh man but the kinda people who are putting this on their M3 aint the type of guys who worry bout resale! IE: rich baaastards

330uk

Is there a forum dedicated to E46 330ci ?