Looking for a reliable sedan; however, I need some power for hills and quick accels. onto the vast LA freeways. I know BMW's are a general pain to maintain; however, I was thinking of older ones in fairly good condition. I know the square body 3rd Gen. E36's are good, but might be too old for me just barely. I'm looking into a 4th Gen E46 4-dr (non-AWD) and just wondering if you guys think the Auto or Manual transmission is more reliable. I used to drive an automatic one and it lasted til 250,000 miles after some rough tranny shifting and just died on me on the road. Wondering if the automatic or manual is better to avoid having to rebuild or breaking the transmission?
Keep in mind I plan on getting one of these for around $3-5K around 100,000+ miles, and not trying to find myself in a huge money pit. Just came from a 03 Honda Civic which withstood a lot but was still a money pit driving it like a child and modding as much as I can without changing the crappy D17 auto tranny.
Well the old BMW's were built better than the new ones. I think I'd go with the manual transmission just to eliminate the complications and potential issues of the automatic. As long as you don't pay too much, which it sounds like you already know, and you can find a solid one that can pass a mechanic inspection, you might be ok.
Thats what I'm thinking 90's to early 2000's because the new ones seem like Prius's with v6's and tranny slips.
I would say e30 bmw would be a lot more reliable but if that is too old e36 or e46 might be OK with a manuel transmission. Have a mechanic make sure that it is in good shape and keep up on maintenance and you should be fine. I see you live in LA and it might be a pain to shift up there so I would do some research on their automatic transmissions. They can be good cars for a while just take care of it.
https://www.carcomplaints.com/BMW/
Yes I get it will be a pain in the arsenal; however, I really don't like the feeling of tramny slips which is why the my mom's old one had to be rebuilt and eventually died on me 50,000 miles later.