Life after the S2000

[LEWD]

Hey mate, my family has been running a 6cyl E46 since new ('02) model, it has 380,000km on it and it has never had a thing go wrong with it....I guess its all about maintenance. I think inherently they are a solid car, but there are a lot of cars out there that people have bought of the original owners and havent taken care of them. I looked at buying a E46 M3 before my S2k and 60,000km cars were in worse condition than our family E46.

I take your comments about the euro, ultimately though the bimmer is going to be a lot more enjoyable to drive due to its chassis than a euro.

As for the cab comment, I stand by it, I cant stand boring cars, if there is no driver involvement, I may as well be the passenger.


slightly off topic, I started looking at E36 M3's, pretty cheap.....mmmmmm........

[seihoa]

old euro car = expensive repair bills and parts.

[LEWD]

old euro car = expensive repair bills and parts.

That's a pretty broad statement.....any old car is expensive to repair....as are many new cars....its how likely they are to go wrong which is key.

[pilotb777_300]

That's a pretty broad statement.....any old car is expensive to repair....as are many new cars....its how likely they are to go wrong which is key.

I agree. I will be the first to say I love bemmer's. I even considered a 330ci at one stage quite seriously. There was a few things that put me off them though. The manual transmission was crap with very long throws and the automatic had problems with some of the early model E46's up untill the 2004 update. I agree if they are well maintained you are less likely to get problems, however buying a second hand E46 in this price range will have high km and theres no way of telling how well the car has been looked after by the previous owner. I think I will stay away from german cars in general unless I'm buying new and I know its been looked after well. Great cars to drive though !

cars these days are just not what they used to be ! the 90's was I belive one of the most exciting times to buy a car. So many fun cars to choose from. now theres nothing !

[brendan1990]

mps isnt a bad option, just throwing this one out there, a subaru liberty spec b, u could go for either the h4 gt turbo version, or the h6 n/a, both have very similar power outputs, both have a 6 spd manuel or you can go with the 5 spd auto with flappy paddles if your into that stuff, both have si drive, awd, and plenty torque, and the wagons are sleek as, but either the sedan or wagon has tons of space, very comfortable. also i just had q quick glance and you could easily get a sti spec liberty with brembo's, strut bars, more power etc for under 35k. anyway ill stop talking up subaru now heres a link to a nice sti tuned liberty wagon.

http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/...8225&silo=1011

[SlobberGoat]

Why not go back to your "roots" and get a 88/89 Honda CR-X?

[alvin_R]

i will say Golf GTI or Audi A4 will more close ur current status...

[brendan1990]

i will say Golf GTI or Audi A4 will more close ur current status...

didnt he say he doesnt want to go german?

[pilotb777_300]

yeah no german cars please and specially no VW ! lol my parents , cousins and my mrs parents all had either the golf or the jetta turbo DSG and are all cursing at VW reliability. everything from sunroof opening on its own, to oxy sensors dying every fwe month all the way to gear box replacements. They are great cars and heaps of fun to drive up untill 100K at which point all the problems start.

I think if I had to drive a german car, audi seem to be the most reliable from what I hear. Well the new ones anyway which is very odd cause I was always under the impression most of the VW parts are audi parts.

Anyways like I said before unless I can buy a german car new, I'm sticking with the japs !

I test drove an MPS 6 only an hour ago... not a bad car (very fast) but felt cheap compared to the euro and only high KM one available within my budget.

I think I'm either gonna get a 2006 CL9 Man LUX or a 2008 FD2 manual or my prefered option a DC5S (although the mrs will have something to say about the DC5S and the cramped rear seat space)

[9large]

^ You can't go wrong with a CL9 or FD2 but if I were to stick with Honda, I'd get the CU2. Also, I'm not sure about your previous statements about staying away from turbos due to reliability. From my experience, yes, European cars are generally more expensive to maintain (they tend to use the "oh it's European" brand image to justify the higher charges), but any car - no matter what brand, Honda or otherwise - will suffer reliability problems if they've been mistreated (poor mainteance, abusive/bad drivers, etc.). So unless you're the original owner, it can be hard to determine exactly how the car has been looked after. Based on this, I can't see any logical reason why you'd stay away from a stock turbo-charged car. My WRX - my daily driver - has been fine.

[brendan1990]

just buy an nsx =D

[tay113]

i just got out from a golf gti dsg like what you all have negatively stated but its a fairly new one with extreme low km.The positive side,its a hell of a great drivable car in a different fashion.Having said so,i still drive an old 16 years seat ibiza 1.4 manual from new and apart from having the clutch changed in 2001,no problemo.Just had the air-con gas top up and its cold and nice,cheap new pair of rotor $70,brake pads $35, air filter $25.This car had not much pampering till now.Changed the engine oil to semi synthetic plus oil filter this morning after jacking up and its running great. $300 a year for full comprehensive insurance.Unfortunately ,the rego in SA is fairly expensive.I suppose its always great to know the history of any car you want to buy.For one,i would recommend an alternative cheap 5door car as back up and in another sense preserving the s2000.So this is having best of both worlds and that is my opinion.cheers tay