uxg

Yep 8250rpm

Bounced it off the rev limiter too a few times (by accident of course )

I haven't driven an Evo 4 but it was also one of the cars I considered buying. Problem is for the price I would have paid for an Evo 4 I could pick up a much newer Type R plus I thought if I bought the 4 I would always be hankering after the Evo 6 which looks a bit better IMO. Anyway a few things I read about the Evo's put me off like the small fuel tank and the 4500 mile service intervals. As I do roughly 12,000 a year this would have meant getting the car serviced nearly 3 times a year.

Anyway performance wise I think the Evo and the Type R are pretty similiar 0-60 in the mid 4s. Although the Type R is still very thirsty on fuel it is not as bad as an Evo from what I have heard.

Depends what you want the car to do really. The Evo and the Type R are manic and in IMO opinion cream the M3 for performance and handling but if you do a lot of motorway miles they aren't as good as the M3. The Type R has a short ration box which means you are at 3,500 in 5th cruising at 70mph which can get tiresome on long journeys. The M3 is the more comfortable cruiser and looks smarter so if you just want to use the car for weekend fun and frolicks I would choose one of the turbo cars. If you do alot of miles or just want to cruise around in a still ocnsiderably fast tourer than go for the M3.

[Edited by uxg - 9/4/2002 11:23:25 AM]

uxg

The servicing intervals on M3's are longer probably about 10K or maybe even 12K with service prices compareble to the Scooby. Parts are quite pricey if you go through official BMW dealers, like I said £400 quid for wing mirrors not fitted!!? but specialists are a lot cheaper.

You need to make sure M3's have full service history and you tend to find a lot of M3's can be abused like most performance cars. They eat rear tyres like they have gone out of fashion. My mate rarely get's more thna 8000 on his although of course this depends on how enthusiastickly you drive. Plus the gearbox is often said to be a weakpoint on M3 even the 6 speeders. Signs to look out for are the gear lever and surround getting very hot soon after the car is started and obviously crunchy gearchanges. Also there have been alot of reports of the VANOS varible valve timing kit failing on M3's which is very pricey to fix. Around 2K I think so I would get that checked too.

Apart from that the BM's seem to be pretty much bullet proof and of course have excellent build quality. On the whole I think if you get a decent one they should be cheaper to run then a Scooby. I would also agree with the previous post in that convertibles aren't good in very hot countries. Although this may sound quite strange, if it is really hot they are very very uncomfortable. I have experience of this after driving in a convertible in Turkey. Your better off with a hard top and air con.

[Edited for typos. Work in IT and still can't type ]

[Edited by uxg - 9/6/2002 2:16:41 PM]

Martin J Stirling

Guys,

Thinking of getting a second hand 1999 E36 M3 convertible to replace my P1.

I have now moved to Barcelona and can no longer really use the power and performance of the P1 over here so was thinking about one of these little beuts as a repalcement.

Does anyone have any thoughts, experience or opinions of the car?

Be grateful for any feedback either 1st or second hand experiences.

Many Thanks,

MS

Claudius

Hi Martin,

I had an E36 M3 3.2l, but the coupé, not the convertible.

Nice car, lots of toys, very controllable drifts. Brakes fade quickly, but I guess you dont use it as a rally car anyway, so that should be ok.

At 53000km, the gearbox broke and was replaced for free at the local dealer.

Dont expect any impressive acceleration though, especially not from the convertible which is even heavier. The 3.2l is torquier than the 3.0l but not as fun.

Hope this helps

STi 7

very very nice cars, my bro has one, i'll show u a pic of his some time, when i get round to scanning the pics!

its an Evo Cab, really nice to drive and a lot of power! theres more ways to do an M3 up than there is to do a subaru IMO.

Claudius

I'm sure we all know what an E36 M3 looks like

A 3.0l is 286 bhp and heavy, a 3.2l is 321 bhp and heavy.

And there are much less ways to "do up" an M3 since it is NA and no competition (suspension/wheels/brakes) parts available for it.
Unless you means neons 'n stuff

foz01

There is loads you can do, koni, Bilstein, Ap brake upgrades etc etc!

And it will **** all ovetr most scoobs inc the P1 from a rolling start

Claudius

I had customised Bilsteins and a Tarox 6 pot brake kit on mine. I guarantee it was nowhere as fast as my Evo.

But we're talking about a convertible here, anyway, not a performance car. As I understand it, Martin just wants to hear about possible problems and how much they are to fix, that type 'o stuff...

uxg

Nah don't think so. Have had a go with a mates E36 Evo and it was a hardtop so it was lighter than a cab. Rolling start from 2nd or 3rd gear and my Type R was pulling at least 6 or 7 car lengths by the time we got to 4th gear. We did this about 5 or 6 times to make sure it wasn't a fluke (he couldn't beleive it). I even gave him about a second head start on one occasion but just reeled him in. A standing start would have been even worse.

Still out and out acceleration isn't what these cars are about as mentioned before, they are too heavy but the engine is still very flexible and excellent for high speed cruisng and it does have quite a pleasing sound when on song.

What they do have though is excellent build quality, brilliant interior (the leather seats on the Evo model are amasing) and they are very comfy and come with nice toys inside. I reckon they also look classier than the Subaru too.

Bad points I would say are very limited back seat space, rear tyres get eaten at an alarming rate (321bhp RWD ) as well as brakes and apparently the 6 speed gearboxes are a weak point on these cars and can break quite easily as they get very hot for some reason.

As a less manic, more refined alternative to a Scoob it is a great car, just don't try to race any jap spec Subaru's

Brendan Hughes

Never had or been near one, just read Scoobynet for the last two years. E36 generally viewed as squishy squashy, meaning you will either be relieved or utterly bored soon after moving out of a P1.

As long as you view it as a comfy car with straight-line poke, rather than a race car with leather and leccy toys, should be fine.

How hot does Barcelona get, and can you stand it? Convertibles on hot days can be horribly uncomfortable - like having a high-powered hairdryer pointed at you, then sunburn at the end of the day. Suppose that's only 3 mths of the year though, the rest is OK.

Good luck
BJH

mozzaITA

r u sure we are taking about a BMW M3 here, ive been in a 3.0l one many times as my cousin owned one, it was really rapid, it kicked ***.

The sensation of speed was amazing, its the quickest car ive been in and the only thing that gave him a good race was an intergrale evo 3, to 60 there wasnt much init but after 100 the m3 was pulling lenths from it.

i was thinking of gettin one, the 3.2 evo has 6 gears and alloy bonnet and wings methinks.

uxg

Oh I agree they are certainly not slow or lacking in power and would certainly beat a standard UK Scoob in a straight line. It was certainly one of the fastest cars I had driven for quite while but I think the way the engine delicvers it's power is a bit misleading and actually makes the car feel quicker than it is. I have since been in cars that are noticeably faster even though they have less bhp. My Type R has about 300 bhp but convincingly outdragged it every time and this was before we even got to any corners.

Like I said the extra weight is it's biggest disadvantage i think. Still very nice cars, but just designed for different purposes I think. As a comfortable cruiser a Subaru, Evo or any other 4wd turbocharged rally rep can't touch it but for out and out performance and handling it has been left behind

mozzaITA

Hold on..... U must have an impreza wrx sti type r thingy???? i thought u had some honda type r and u were making amazing power/performance claims..... ahhhh, i see ur point now, the type r impreza is my favourite, im thinking of gettin 1 or an evo4 or an M3 LOL..

They are the ones that rev to 8250 rpm arnt they????

mozzaITA

I couldnt agree more than you, i love evo's but especially the evo 6 TME anyway like u said can get a 4 but can pick up a newer type r for that money!

at the moment i do less than 10k miles a year but things can change so i dont know what to do, im still worried about gettin an import, the parts issue is scarey and nobody ever gives a straigh answer whenever i ask about parts for imports....

id like to drive an evo, type r and an m3 then i'll make my mind up although ive been in an m3 many times but ive got zero experiance of imprezas or lancers, shame, ive always wanted one though! need test drive or b passanger.

uxg

Like I said I drove my mates M3 a few times before I got my Type R. At the time I thought the M3 was awesome until I drove the Type R. The Type R is a lot more raw than the M3 so some people can find that off putting but for the handling and sheer driving enjoyment I think it's in a different class to the M3.

Don't worry about the parts\imports thing either. So many people have imported or are importing cars from Japan these days that their is a large aftermarket for them now. Their are now lots of specialist companies in the UK who work on Jap cars at the moment, plus with if you get a Scooby this site is a big help with stuff like that. Parts and labour can be expensive but I would say no more so than the M3 (My freind recently paid around £400 to get new M3 mirrors cos his ones got knicked!!!)

The only thing I find a pain is that the Type R is very thirsty for fuel and for Jap imports it's important to always use Super Unleaded and octane booster which can be a bit of a pain.

Martin J Stirling

Thx for the replies so far.

Does anyone have any idea of ownership problems, running costs, servicing and the like? How reliable are M3's? I know that I would be taking a step back in terms of performance, but to be honest I never get the chance to use it in Barcelona.

Cheers,

MS.

M3 Evo

No guessing for what car i have.....

Sorry claudius but i just proved last nite to a friend whos recently purchased a secondhand evo6 rs how much quicker the m3 really is from a rolloing start....

M3 evo is great fun, good looking, well built, handles well and goes like stink!

M3 Evo

Martin the serviuce intervals vary - it depends on how hard you drive.....the dash has a service indicator which lights up when a service is needed - i drive very hard and manage around 12,000 miles. what you gotta look out for is the inspection 2 service - a major overhaul costing at least £800

Otherwise the car is bulletproof in every other respect......

M3 Evo

Timing chain and VANOS are sore points - will last 100,000 miles though but its expensive to put right. The maunual gearbox will last forever - the problem is the SMG gearbox - avoid at all costs.

STi 7

hey M3 Evo, hows the car doing?

M3 Evo

Hi STi - up to 35,000 miles now and it just gets better with every mile! Although with weather like we've had today a convertable is tempting

Had a good play with a new Carrera 4s yesterday, although it was fractionally faster it wasnt sufficient to pull away more than 3/4 cars lengths at anytime chuffed to bits......

Must admit did get tempted by an Esprit V8 i saw for sale the other day - that'll show the porsche whos boss! hehehe

Right off for a blast to stalk some scoobies

STi 7

where abouts you from? anywhere near me?

M3 Evo

I'll tell you if i see you in chat - dont like posting details in here - carjacking etc

mozzaITA

M3 evo..... how comes sombody with a impreza wrx sti type r can out drag an m3 whilst an evo 6 rs cant? i find that hard to belive!!... i though the rs was absoultly mega fast (maybe its down on power#?), ive been in 3.0 m3 manytimes and thought it was fast, but they are heavy cars some 1500 kg while the impreza and evo should be no more than 1300 kg.

i could be wrong and i am a fan of all three cars which i mentioned.!!!.. one of them will be my next car but not a evo 6 rs as £££ is much more!!!

TopBanana

It's worth knowing that if the VANOS goes (and they often do), BMW will pay for the part out of goodwill but only if the car has a FBMWSH!

Mountbatten

Yup I can vouch for that. VANOS was diagnosed as dying on my E36 Evo only 4 weeks after I bought it from Heathrow BMW. Was replaced under warranty (after a bit of "persuasion" from me) and came in at £1,586. That coupled with the Inspection II service that the garage did before sale (£1,390) meant that I did quite well out of it really
Go for one with a warranty of some kind. It'll kill your wallet otherwise.

Cheers

M3 Evo

Mozza - basically everything was fair - a rolloing start took out the advantage of the slingshot 4wd drive transmission and it was identical up to 110 (kp/h officer cough cough) then i eased ahead suprisingly easily. I must admit though that the RS feels alot faster.

Who cares its all in the name of fun anyway