May have found something - needing price validation

[bbiess]

BIMMERPOST / Classifieds

Asking Price:

None

Item Interest

I found a nice '04 3.0 liter that I'm very interested in and want some opinions on a couple things.

Here are the details on the car:

• Original owner
• 28K original miles
• Completely dealer maintained (has every receipt)
• Sport Package
• Premium Package
• Warm Weather State - has never seen snow or rain

The owner is asking $18.5K.



KBB says his asking price is very good, however, I'd like to sanity check that . Comments?

The car is located 1K miles away from me and I'll need to either fly-down and or have it flat-bedded up to Michigan, which I'm hoping will buy me a few dollars off the asking price.

Also, prior to finding this beauty I was hell-bent on either an '05/'06 as I like the restyling that was done in '05. Assuming I can get over the headlights / taillights on an '04 what else changed in '05? Are there features that make an '05 a better car than an '04??

Any thoughts / suggestions are greatly appreciated!

[portugee]

The '03 - '05s are basically identical. The facelift you're referring to came in '06. Even then, besides the styling, only the engine options changed. Pretty much the pre-facelift 3.0i come in performance wise somewhere between the post-facelift 3.0i and 3.0si.

I recently bought a '03 3.0i and it's plenty quick enough. Mine is very similar to the one you are showing here (same color, but mine has beige interior) with 7,500 miles on it for $18k if that gives you any idea of what you would want to pay.

[pokeybritches]

There are far more performance modifications for the pre-facelift models, if that is important to you.

[bbiess]

...and that is important to me. Why is that the case? And what kind of mods are we talking about?

[pokeybritches]

Originally Posted by bbiess

...and that is important to me. Why is that the case? And what kind of mods are we talking about?

The internals are much stronger, especially the crank (forged vs cast in the post-facelift) and sleeved blocked. This is the main reason there are no mass-marketed forced induction kits for 2006+ models, but there are at least five for the 2003-2005 models (ESS, VF Engineering, G Power, RMS, Simpson, and so on). The E46 3-series has many more FI kits available, and with some modification or coaxing from the kits' creators, you could probably get one for your car.

[bbiess]

thanks for the info. Have any opinion on the asking price? Seem fair?

[pyo]

I picked up an 04 3.0i in feb for 17k, aw with dream red, sport and premium with 37k miles on odo

[E85 Sport]

Man, that's exactly what I have been looking for.

[bbiess]

FedEx'ed a deposit today, PPO at a BMW dealer on Friday with a final price determined after that.

My 4 month search might be nearing the end. Fingers-crossed!!

[E85 Sport]

Originally Posted by bbiess

My 4 month search might be nearing the end. Fingers-crossed!!

Fingers crossed!

You should fly down to get it and stop in Nashville on your way home.