Looking to buy one more bimmer e46 or e53?

[fmugur]

I don't think it's a good idea but it doesn't seem like any of my family members like Honda or Toyota. This is for my daughter who's driving an odyssey since she got her license.
It seems like i6 is a better option since I am not looking for power and mostly for reliability. How would you sort them in terms of reliability?
4.4 is not bad but I didn't enjoy the chain guides job but I guess I can do it again if I have to.

Is there any of you that is planning to trade it in soon or you have major mechanical problems and want to sell it as is? Pm me if you are.

[pnoyako85]

If i was to add another vehicle specially if you are looking for safety,I would go with an SAV e53..the fact that is safer and reliable to put on stuffs shopping,foods,goodies than an e46 on trunk space wise....as far as gas..i would go with 3.0i rather than 4.4i or 4.8is...your looking for safety as not for power...

[PropellerHead]

We own both an E46- bought new and PCD in 2002- and an E53 X5- our second after driving the 3.0 for 7 years.

We spend about $3000 a year to keep the 330 on the road with a trusted indy. I even let him do the maintenance. I was only a year out of CPO when I sold the 3.0 E53 to our neighbor. I had just changed the alternator, and a couple pulleys.

Both were as reliable as our maintenance schedule allowed. In over 10 years with the E46 and now 8 in an E53, I have never been stranded. Having said all of that, my wife had the choice to keep the E53 with 100k miles or her E46 that she ordered just the way she wanted it ten years ago.

She chose the E46. They are very different cars. It depends really on what you (or your daughter inasmuch as she has a say) want. I would suggest that the E53 has more critical moving parts than a RWD E46, so that naturally offers more opportunities for maintenance and repair.

Buying on the used market, I would probably look for the E46 to offer fewer potential problems than the E53, but it all really comes down to the car and how it was maintained. I would buy a fanatically maintained and recorded E53 over a dealer maintained E46.

[Rodie]

My thought is that these are two very different vehicles as far as the driving experience is concerned so I would go with what you (or she) likes.

I went from an E36 to an E39 -- and thought 'wow, this is much more car.'

Had the same experience going between the E46 and an E53. I would think that a used E46 would be significantly cheaper to buy (and slightly cheaper to maintain) than a similarly configured E53. More availabilty of parts (especially used, etc.)

I'd also consider an E39 if you are looking far enough back (2002-2003.) If you get a 525 or 530 you can be safe and fairly frugal at the same time.

[tmv]

I never have an E46 so I dont know about them. Our E53s are reliable. My wife drives an 01 and my daughter drives an 02, both with M54 engine.

[JCL]

My daughters got a Toyota and a Honda for their first vehicles. Those fit their savings and budgets. We helped out, but we won't buy them cars. One daughter thought we should buy her an M3 at one point (she liked the colour). Good time for a life lesson. The Honda and Toyota were safe, and were both equipped with serious snow tires.

We have had both an X5 and an E46. When we sold the X5 it was newer than our E46, which my wife drove daily, but my wife wouldn't drive it, she thought it felt big and heavy. Having an SUV was practical for us, so we got her a new X3, which she liked much more than the X5. It was more similar to her E46.

Your daughter sounds like she needs a Honda more than she needs a BMW, but if you want to get her one, an E46 makes much more sense than an X5 IMO. E46 is more reliable than an X5, and better on fuel. Not sure who is making the decision, since you say you don't think it is a good idea.

[fmugur]

Good points and info here. Thanks guys. My wife uses the city transit to go to work and the second car we have is being used mostly by my daughter (Odyssey).

When I said that's not a good idea is because I didn't think my kids need BMW as their first car. So, now plans changed a bit. We are not buying any car for my daughter right now. Most likely an used Honda civic (thanks Jeff) when she goes to University and if she wants something better it's on her. Until then since we don't need the van anymore we most likely will replace it with a 3.0 X5 and it will be shared between my wife and kids, but... I test drove one today and I found a huge difference in power comparing with my 4.4. The X looked very good and I don't think it had an engine problem but I pressed the pedal to the metal and I thought my Odyssey goes faster. No need for power though. This is going to be a shared vehicle between the kids and wife. I will test another one tomorrow.
This particular one was 2002 with 187000 KM for 9K. It had the SES on and needs new brakes and who knows what else. The steering was harder than mine and an irregular vibration at idle which again I don't feel on mine. I can scan it with GT1 next week and see but is it worth 8-9K? My wife loved the color, it was a dark gray.
The guy says that the dealer offered him 8K for a trade in...
A friend of mine sold a similar one a few months ago for $5700 but I didn't think I would buy another X5 at that time. I was busy fixing mine