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Originally Posted by HumblePie
So I went back to the dealer again today (twice in fact). I drove both the new E90 330i (fully loaded 6sp) and the E46 330i ZHP (fully loaded minus premium package). I drove the E90 first. Again EXCELLENT ride. Very refined interior. The main power is definitely around 4500-5000 RPM. I can definitely feel more power in that range than in the lower RPMs. The interior is fantastic and is pretty much everything I could ask for (at least in that class of vehicle  ).
I then switched out vehicles and tried the E46 ZHP. This car felt faster in many ways. It could be the gear ratio, the short shifter throw, the springy clutch, etc. In any case, I felt that there was more power (even though the E90 has more horses). The interior in this car although nice, seemed dated and tired when compared to the E90. It still would stand great on it's own but the E90 seemed much cleaner and had more appointments like dual climate control, power rear sunshade, iDrive, etc.
If I consider going with the E46, I could save about $6k off of MSRP. The E90 (at least from this dealer) is firmly set at MSRP and I would not be able to pick it up until May 6th.
So now I am stumped. I thought I was going 100% for the E90 but after driving the E46 ZHP, I am not so sure. The '05 was just a bit more fun to drive and felt a bit smaller than the E90. I can probably get away with driving the E90 one more time before I drive the dealer nuts but $6k off is nothing to shy away from either...
Thoughts?
Here is some eye candy for ya...
E46 ZHP (1Mb)
E90 (1.6Mb)
Full size available upon request. |
my honest answer... I would suggest getting the E90 330i with sports pacakge, put on a set of H&R Coilovers and call it a day.
The e90 330i has the more modern engine and technology, and you cant really upgrade that in an older car. However, the lack of crispness in the handling can be easily improved through suspension work, so buy the car that car be improved more easily. I did the same with my E46, I put on a set of coilovers, and my car has handled like (or rather better) than an ///M car.
Even the lack of power down low can be fixed with a differential swap. Alot of us E46 owners would swap our differentials for the ones from automatic models since those were geared lower to bring up the performance of an automatic closer to the manuals. Differential swaps are cheap as hell, measured in the mid 100s.. like 500-600 or so.
Coilovers are probably a mod every single owner should do to make a BMW handle like a BMW should, unfortunatly our cars are watered down a little bit for the mass market, but BMW are great because they make it so easy to bring performance back to where it was intended.