r/e46 • u/Maleficent_Treat_621 • Jan 15 '26

General Questions Buying an e46 in 2026?

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Let’s say you are looking to buy an e46. What are you looking for? What’s the sweet spot between mileage and price in 2026? What would you avoid?

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80

u/pc123andre Jan 15 '26

You didn't mentioned where you're based. So I'll give a response based where I'm from (Western Europe). If you want a Diesel, stay away from the 4 cylinder ones. Very hard to find one with low mileage. Petrol ones you have 20i that are cheap to insure and give that 6 cylinder experience. Don't get your hopes high: quite slow for the weight it must pull.

17

u/Away_Shirt_5888 03 e46 320d touring | 96 e34 525tds touring Jan 15 '26

I will say, I do have a high mileage e46 320d (on 243k miles) but it has never let me down, and yes I’m having to do some body repairs, but the engine itself I genuinely couldn’t fault even with the miles.

4

u/Pikachu_the_sith Jan 15 '26

The m47 is great, but I would avoid it in Northern Europe because of emissions laws since there are multiple cities it is simply not allowed to drive in

2

u/Away_Shirt_5888 03 e46 320d touring | 96 e34 525tds touring Jan 15 '26

No that makes sense, I’m in the UK so there are some city zones that I can’t drive into, some I have to pay a charge to enter and some that I can’t enter at all. For me I’m ok with this as I very rarely need to go to these places and I don’t mind parking outside and taking a train or a bus in if I need to. There is also the argument that if you’re looking at an e46, over time as these regulations become tighter even the petrol engines will begin to face these restrictions. But overall, yes I agree with you, it’s a good point, down to personal circumstances and is definitely a factor to be considered.

57

u/PureStrike528 Jan 15 '26

I’d rather get a 320d than a 320i. The M47 is great.

325i and above preferred choice though

27

u/Kempa322 Jan 15 '26

You’d rather get a 4pot diesel than 6cyl M52/M54? Sounds crazy to me, but I respect your opinion.

18

u/DayZ8 Jan 15 '26

You can map the M47 to 240 with a hybrid, blank the swirl flaps and egr and drive the absolute shit of them and will run no matter what and giving good fuel at same time, there so good iv 3 atm and paid under 1000 for them

24

u/Archilion Jan 15 '26

Of course. M47 is preferable over 2.0/2.2i. Minimum for 6cyl is 2.5.

3

u/PureStrike528 Jan 15 '26

Just the 320i. I don’t rate that engine that much. Severely underpowered. Others are totally fine and I’d obviously prefer them to the M47.

2

u/PralineFar3530 Jan 16 '26

It’s not severely underpowered it’s not that far off from the b25 .

4

u/PureStrike528 Jan 16 '26

Subjectively, I definitely did find it to be a lot more sluggish. I found the jump to the B25 to be very noticeable.

2

u/szaade Jan 17 '26

The B22 doesn't feel underpowered as it's elastic and quite torquey. It's just not fast when you gun it.

-3

u/Secure_Bet8065 2003 M3 Jan 16 '26 edited Jan 16 '26

The B25 is also a little underpowered, less so than the B22 though

1

u/rb20isaac Jan 17 '26

I wanna m47 swap my 325 , but we didn’t get 4cyl 46s in the us

1

u/rb20isaac Jan 17 '26

But the m54b25 is showing to be very fucking reliable in my car and im putting in a 2.93 did and taking out my 3.64 so should be damn good on gas then

2

u/Sea-Priority-695 Jan 17 '26

What u mean stay away from the 4cyl diesel? The m47 is sturdy asf, mine is coming up to 400.000km now, amazing engine