What to expect - - - It's all over the map.

I'm like you - nothing that I can conceive going wrong that I won't be able to repair myself, and I have found parts to be priced along the lines of "normal" car parts - provided you don't want to use genuine BMW parts on (in may case) a 12 model year old car. That said............

I have an '02 4.4i. A coworker here has a 2005 E46. Both are our daily drivers. Hers has been just about 100% trouble free. Only issue I know of is some electrical issues whereby the car insisted she had a tail light out, which wasn't. So reliable for her that when they got a new car, she chose to keep the E46.

Mine has, from what I can tell by reading this forum the last several years, less problems than many out there. Still, I had the very common transmission failure of, without getting into details, an axial bearing that fails and results in "slip-bang" as it goes into failsafe. I pulled it apart and replaced the bearing ($40 or so as I recall), and replaced the orings and clutches while I was in there (that kit was under $400). Normal hand tools, righty-tighty, lefty-loosey applies. A few quirky things, and otherwise mostly wear parts - suspension items, water pump, brakes, etc. (again, go aftermarket like rockauto.com and it's no big deal). Let a CV boot go too long so replaced the entire half-shaft, but that was only $60 for the whole axle assy (rockauto, again). My cost of ownership has been extremely low ONLY because I do everything myself.

However, I would not have this E53 as my only car, but I also have options on what I choose to drive, and I choose this, even for road trips.

If you understand by reading through this forum that there are a variety of little odds and ends (and the occasional big one) that WILL occur, and you you can shrug it off, order the part(s), and just roll with it, then you will probably enjoy it as much as others do theirs, as you will also read about on this forum.

Just don't expect an E46 ownership experience in a bigger package.