Sooooooo, I love Lexus vehicles and I love my SC300 Buuuuuttt I am a little older now (27) and not getting any younger. I feel that the SC is becoming a young mans car, most of the guys that own SC down in my area are from 18-25 years old and well not trying to say I am so much more mature than them but I feel that I need a car more my age. And latley I have been eye the E46 M3 I have always loved that car and I feel its just my kinda car. Its a BMW it can been tracked on the weekends, and if I want to boost it one day (prob not) it can be a much much faster car than it already is. So I was trying to see if there are any current BMW owners on the forum that can give some advice on this. I love Lexus because of how easy they are to work on and basically low mantenance they are especially a used one. So questions I have are, how is the mainteance on these cars? Can I do most of the maintenance myself (I am a DiYer)? Are replacment parts crazy expensive ? I mean if it is amazingly outragious to own a bimmer then that just might sway mt to just stay Lexus and pick up a 3gen GS. But damn I love the M3, so any input would be appreciated

 

i know a lot of people work on the e46 themselves, if you are diyer then you are off to a good start. for sure more to work on as the car is older (typical german). someone can correct me, but i think parts on the car usually isn't that bad and i think a lot of aftermarket companies also have stuff for the e46 too.

but if the owners are what you concern about, i am not sure if e46 m3 owners are that much older?

 

no not worried about owners I mean it is what it is, but ur not gonna find to many 18-25 yo driving M3's with booty rims and body kits and rice burner exhaust wanting to drift them like they were still in there old s14. Thats just me though. I have been on the M3 forums and its easy to right off the bat whats up. I am basically looking to get into a car without needing to mod it too much and still have a great looking and fast car. know what i mean

 

I duno if i would say the maintenance is easy, but it's not that expensive if you know where to look for parts. Just take a look at e46fantanic, there's so many e46 m3 that finding used parts is super easy (this also makes it quite cheap).

 

I personally would not buy a car that has been tracked. There are plenty of E46 M3s out there to purchase, don't make an emotional decision.

 

i thought he mean he can get the car and track it during weekends

but yes, i will not get a car that's been tracked

 

Yup thats what I mean, I would love to have a car I can track "effectively" on the weekends and drive to work on Monday morning, and take my wifey out to a nice place on friday nights

 

Clean and simple

 

wow, I totally read that wrong. I'll reply more in detail later. I would get the later model year E46 M3s if I were you though. Also, not a SMG.

 

Yup for some reason, a guy on E46fanatics told me the same thing. That the

"Perfect M3 = 6MT with reinforced subframe kit and stronger vanos bolts. This car should last a LONG time. There are many people over 200k on the M3"

 

Here you go:
http://m3.madrussian.net/modelchanges.shtml

QUESTION - I'm thinking of buying an M3 - what is the best year? And what should I look out for.
http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=189390

When I was looking, I would only consider 04 and up. Not sure if that fits your budget.

 

yup, later yrs got a lot more solid, i would consider 05+

and yeah, 6mt is better. the smg was new and i remember reading problems left and right

 

This is gonna be a nice upgrade. I do hope you'll keep your SC as a DD or for your wifey.