View Full Version : e46 330xi
Ahoy there, folks... Here are the latest test drive reports.
1. 2006 330xi, very well optioned (quite highly priced). Great seats and ok ergonomics, except for the seat belt holder doesn't vertically adjust, the seat belt feels like it's on my neck ready to decapitate me. The driving/handling felt tighter than I remembered e46 xi's to be... Power, very unimpressive. The RFT's were extremely noticeable. Even my gf commented when she drove. No compliance, just leaden cylinders, felt like half car half steam roller/zamboni or sth. It's really too bad, if they had room for a spare, I might have considered euro delivery of a 335xi - though that is overkill for my needs.
2. 2004 330xi. The e90 (and owning other, newer generation cars in the meantime) makes me feel like my trusted friend, the e46, is a bit dated in the interior. Sort of like seeing an ex and she's not as pretty as you remember her to be. However, it is damned comfortable (seat belt not on my neck) and rides much better. (sort of like an ex :eeps: ) The engine feels a little more raucous and lively as well, overall quite fun compared to the e90 (which is better set up and perhaps more capable but way more dead - talking non-335 here). The particular e46 I drove was in terrible shape but it did emerge as the winner - so I'll start really looking now.
Clutch sucks in both as in all modern bmws that I've driven, I think a stop and CDV will go some way towards this.
Soooo... For my purposes, the big winner is once again the e46 330. I just love and miss bmws. And when the goal is not to be fully sporty (for which the zhp was obviously better) but a daily, I think they are great. It is a big step down from the s4 but I kind of like them more (and they are more comfy around town) as well as I have a good mechanic for them.
The e46 330xi had good steering feel (did not feel dead) and not too slow - though certainly it doesn't feel fast to me anymore after a year with the cayman and lately the beast. The only issue is the suspension. It is jacked up and it is SOFT. I assume this can be modded somewhat.
The only real issue I have with the xi's are in philosophy, that they are a bit contrived. When the i is quite a bit better 99% of the time, it is a tough argument. However, even with snow tires, I am not as confident driving into deep snow with a rwd. In three seasons with rwd and snows, I only had trouble a couple of times, but then during a couple of big dumps, we had an impreza to rely on. I happen to like driving into snowstorms...
I guess I must be a bmw fanboy if an afterthought for bmw with all its shortcomings, the xi, competes with audi's best effort, the s4. It will be slightly funny if I go out and buy my third e46 330 (albeit the last two were zhps). It is however a fine daily machine.
rumatt
10-01-2007, 12:04 AM
rides much better. (sort of like an ex :eeps: )
:bustingup
kognito
10-01-2007, 09:44 AM
I used to have a 2002 E46 325xi
CDV removal is a must for "normal" clutch operation
Does anyone (Nick?) have experience on xi suspension modification?
wdc330i
10-01-2007, 11:36 AM
Does anyone (Nick?) have experience on xi suspension modification?
Check in with Clyde, too. And Terry?
On my mild test drive, the e46xi was fine for a daily - though I know over time I'm likely to wish for sth firmer and lower.
kognito
10-01-2007, 11:37 AM
There are some good coil over conversions that lower the suspension close to the height of a normal E46.
I looked into doing to my wife's car, but I figured it would still handle like a fat, overweight pig.
forget the xi, get a real e46 and a great set of snow tires. BMW's awd system sucks compared to Audi's. You have a good Audi now (or recently:dunno: ) believe me you will always be comparing the BMW to your Audi. (and you will be banging your head for buying the crappy xi drivetrain)
Unless you are planning on buying an Automatic. The computer in the xi starts cutting back power when wheel slip is detected. In my 5 speed, I had many occasions (when driving in snow or ice) where the computer would keep cutting back to a point that it would almost stall the engine.
kognito
10-01-2007, 11:39 AM
Yeah, Clyde used to have one, too
forget the xi, get a real e46 and a great set of snow tires. BMW's awd system sucks compared to Audi's. You have a good Audi now (or recently:dunno: ) believe me you will always be comparing the BMW to your Audi. (and you will be banging your head for buying the crappy xi drivetrain)
I know this all too well - I've had two winters in the zhp and one with the 528 and they were excellent in all but two (very deep snow) occasions. Unfortunately, that is exactly when I'd like to go skiing.
My issues with the xi are philosophical, real and imagined, in that order:
1. Afterthought, not bmw's competence (philosophical)
2. Soft & high (very real, either can live with it or can lower a bit)
3. How is at limit behaviour? Zhp was very predictable on the snow. Does the xi/dsc combo do weird stuff? (imagined)
Nick M3
10-01-2007, 12:24 PM
Koni and Bilstein have FINALLY released dampers for the xis. You don't want to lower them because they actually have LESS front suspension travel than the RWD models, in spite of the skyjacker suspension wheel gap.
Any ideas on how it would ride with koni/bilstein? Any snow experience with the xi? I'm mainly concerned about spooky behaviour.
Nick M3
10-01-2007, 01:07 PM
XI snow handling is extremely good. I've never had any issue with spooky behavior, outside of DSC problems - DSC is capable of stalling the car in really awkward traction situations.
I was OK in up to 10" of snow, and stability was excellent.
Konis would depend on how you adjusted them, Bilsteins would ride harder. Honestly, if it's a daily driver, you might want to just go fresh stock.
XI snow handling is extremely good. I've never had any issue with spooky behavior, outside of DSC problems - DSC is capable of stalling the car in really awkward traction situations.
I was OK in up to 10" of snow, and stability was excellent.
Konis would depend on how you adjusted them, Bilsteins would ride harder. Honestly, if it's a daily driver, you might want to just go fresh stock.
Wow, that's surprisingly positive given how you were down on the 325xit when you owned (I remember a few of your posts from the 'fest). However I think this is because you were trying to make a performance car out of it, and you're ok with it as a daily, which is the same for me as I have the Cayman for that.
OTOH, I'm really scared of DSC doing idiotic things. So far the s4 system does not seem to have the intrusive nanny nature that dsc has. I say 'seem' as I've not experienced ESP in snow yet. The audi I had a long time ago was pre-ESP.
wdc330i
10-01-2007, 01:39 PM
Wow, that's surprisingly positive given how you were down on the 325xit when you owned (I remember a few of your posts from the 'fest). However I think this is because you were trying to make a performance car out of it, and you're ok with it as a daily, which is the same for me as I have the Cayman for that.
OTOH, I'm really scared of DSC doing idiotic things. So far the s4 system does not seem to have the intrusive nanny nature that dsc has. I say 'seem' as I've not experienced ESP in snow yet. The audi I had a long time ago was pre-ESP.
We also had no problem with our 2003 325xiT in snow (we did however buy dedicated snow tires--LM22s). Only noticeable thing is that it burns through brakes (since it uses the ABS system for its AWD traction) faster than my RWD 330i (2002 and still on its first pads/rotors). Our 530xiT has a different AWD system, but we haven't really had any snow to test it out--and it's too new to know about the brakes.
Nick M3
10-01-2007, 02:04 PM
Wow, that's surprisingly positive given how you were down on the 325xit when you owned (I remember a few of your posts from the 'fest). However I think this is because you were trying to make a performance car out of it, and you're ok with it as a daily, which is the same for me as I have the Cayman for that.
OTOH, I'm really scared of DSC doing idiotic things. So far the s4 system does not seem to have the intrusive nanny nature that dsc has. I say 'seem' as I've not experienced ESP in snow yet. The audi I had a long time ago was pre-ESP.
If I knew then what I know now, I'd probably still own it. (And a Z06, or something that I could have bought for the delta between that thing and the fucking E46 M3.) It was FAR from perfect, but it was a pretty good package for what it was.
Only noticeable thing is that it burns through brakes (since it uses the ABS system for its AWD traction) faster than my RWD 330i (2002 and still on its first pads/rotors).
See this really bothers me. It's just so wrong. What if you held that happy DSC button for 8 seconds... Would it still eat through brakes?
wdc330i
10-01-2007, 02:37 PM
See this really bothers me. It's just so wrong. What if you held that happy DSC button for 8 seconds... Would it still eat through brakes?
It was the baby toting auto, so no I didn't do that. But it is a good reason to buy one with an extended warranty. Or the last model you can find CPO. The 2003 is still in the family--it had two brake jobs before the warranty expired.
kognito
10-01-2007, 02:43 PM
The DSC button only has one mode in the xi. you can press it, and partially dis-able the DSC, but holding it in longer does nothing.
I thought it was a pain in the ass in snow, because I would always forget to push the DSC button as soon as I started the motor.
With the DSC switched off, the car was a little more "fun" in the snow, and it did then limit the amount of computer "takeover"
kognito
10-01-2007, 02:46 PM
One other thing. . .for my second winter I ended up buying snow tires and rims for it. With snows it drove much better in the snow.
I have owned an Audi 90, an A6, and an A4 and none of them needed snow tires. (well, actually the A4 could have benifited from snows)
Back when I drove my old a4, I made do with the crappy all-seasons that it came with. Of course, I never got stuck. A memorable case was when I drove back from Quebec to NYC, through the adirondacks with a foot or more of snow on I-87, in the blizzard of December 30th, 2000. Later that winter, I climbed up the hill to a girlfriend's family hut in a foot of snow.
However, I did have "moments" and had to catch the car plenty and in their third year, the all-seasons had me white-knuckling.
Then I had three winters with bmws & snows. No white knuckles, actually no problems. During a couple of snowstorms I had to leave them parked, once I missed a parking spot as it was piled with snow and I didn't have the traction to get on it. For one really good dump in lake placid, we took the impreza to the mountain, and it didn't get stuck on the way out. 15" fresh that day.
Now, without the impreza safety net and with the cayman as the rwd car to keep, I'm hesitating giving up awd for the second car. And the s4 is awesome, it's just not a bmw.
Nick M3
10-01-2007, 04:34 PM
See this really bothers me. It's just so wrong. What if you held that happy DSC button for 8 seconds... Would it still eat through brakes?
Actually, the 330 just uses the brakes very slowly, as it's got something like twice the pad and rotor area doing basically the same amount of work.
I recommend Axxis Ultimate brake pads for day to day street use. Not that much less dusty than stock, but great feel, great street braking, and very nice to the rotors. What I found was that the Ultimates wore the rotors about half as much as the stock pads over the same mileage.
Drove a e90 325xi. Quite liked it to my surprise (see previous comments on e90x)... Slow but smooth - sort of like the 528 with a very friendly clutch. Felt really tight enough to not give up much handling to the i's. It's possible the e90 330xi's were not in the condition this was car was in. I'm intrigued, it's a very nice, competent, unobtrusive honda-like machine with decent steering & suspension for every day use.
So the e46 vs. e90 xi wars go on, I'll sample a few more and make a decision. A4's & subarus are less likely...
wdc330i
10-03-2007, 12:55 PM
Drove a e90 325xi. Quite liked it to my surprise (see previous comments on e90x)... Slow but smooth - sort of like the 528 with a very friendly clutch. Felt really tight enough to not give up much handling to the i's. It's possible the e90 330xi's were not in the condition this was car was in. I'm intrigued, it's a very nice, competent, unobtrusive honda-like machine with decent steering & suspension for every day use.
So the e46 vs. e90 xi wars go on, I'll sample a few more and make a decision. A4's & subarus are less likely...
If I were you, I'd buy the e90 328xiT. Not much bigger for a whole lot more utility--handy for ski trips, etc. And it handles very nicely. A great complement to the inutility of your Cayman.
I did only get 17mpg on my test drive though - I guess there's not much economy when wringing it out. The car needed revs pretty badly - but the like-new condition (only 14k miles) and long list of options are pretty charming.
wdc330i
10-03-2007, 01:03 PM
I did only get 17mpg on my test drive though - I guess there's not much economy when wringing it out. The car needed revs pretty badly - but the like-new condition (only 14k miles) and long list of options are pretty charming.
I'll bet the 328 is a bit more efficient. The 330i gets better mileage than the 325. But you're still probably looking at 17 at best around town. 28 on the highway.
I just looked up the "new" epa, this is pretty accurate for my fleet so far. It rates all e90 xi's (325, 328, 330) 17/26. The other contender, the e46 330xi is rated 18/27.
If I were you, I'd buy the e90 328xiT. Not much bigger for a whole lot more utility--handy for ski trips, etc. And it handles very nicely. A great complement to the inutility of your Cayman.
I'm not a huge fan of how the 3xiT's look. I guess if I were close to having kids and if I'm tired of audis there's not much else. But a sedan with fold-down seats will do.
The cayman has actually surprisingly high utility as it's very comfy and has lots of storage space. I've toyed with the idea of going skiing with it. I can't subject its interior/exterior to that kind of abuse just yet. Come to think of it, it's pretty tempting to get a decent snow set for it, encase it in Rejex and take it in to the north country. It will feel a tad cramped though. If I don't end up buying a bmw (but I know myself and I feel like that bug bit me yet again), my gf's civic si + snow tires would be just fine...
Final note on this... Shopped for and did a real test drive of the e46 330xi with some room to play. Steering, ride and power are fine. The suspension and the high tippy feel felt downright dangerous in high speed lane changes. Clutch, as e46 clutches seem to be, felt nasty. Shifter is nice and fluid, with that nice retro wood knob. Perhaps if one scored a nice, clean one in the teens, that'd be worth it - but it is very compromised driving. My 7-yr old 528 is a better car to drive than these.
This ends my interest & commentary on the e46 xi's. They really are an afterthought. An a4 of that generation is a better car to drive. The e90 xi's are also much, much better.
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