A3 3.2 Swap to 130 M-Sport or E46 M3

PaulAr said:
The M3 is epic to drive, sounds mega on chat, I can see the attraction.

Worth a punt if you get nice one cheap enough, you could maybe get a years running and sell on without getting burned?
Agree that it is looking dated now though, inside and out.

As for the 1 series....see above

For cheap,swift, reliable rwd antics, what about an RX8?, still look great IMO, cheap too, very thirsty however but wont be that much worse than a 3.2 and wont matter if you dont do loads of miles.

Good luck
Paul
Click to expand...

They are cheap for a reason, yes fun, nice looking and not bad value but never more than 22 mpg, and chances are anytihng with more than 50k on clock, needs tips doing on engine, £3k upwards, if you are lucky and it starts bad starting at hot, a £500-00 upgraded starter motor, will prolong it for a few more k. and over 54 plate £400-00 tax in my opinion steer clear.
 
corsa-tuning.jpg


I keep telling ya !!You know you want one Paul so just except it :)
 
I recently changed from a S3 to a 1 series BMW, if i could give you one piece of advice it would be ''DON'T''. They are a pile of crap in comparison to the A3, simple.
Mark
 
Any particular 1-series? 116d? 123d? 135i?

What exactly is it that makes you say they're "a pile of crap"? Some specifics would be useful, to let him know what to look at and form his own opinion on.

Simply saying "don't buy it, it's crap" is no use to anyone.
 
mitch78 said:
Any particular 1-series? 116d? 123d? 135i?

What exactly is it that makes you say they're "a pile of crap"? Some specifics would be useful, to let him know what to look at and form his own opinion on.

Simply saying "don't buy it, it's crap" is no use to anyone.
Click to expand...

I bought a 123d M Sport,simply for the BMW diesel Biturbo engine which is excellent, I like the looks which of course is like marmite and also I like the interior although feels a bit plasticy in places and apart from the leather is not as nice a place to be as the A3. My main issues with the car refer to the ride quality and handling. Firstly the ride quality is awful, very harsh and crashy with the car easily becoming out of shape and the back end jumping and skipping around when cornering at speed. Most of the problems are caused by the runflat tyres which also offer very poor grip in both wet and dry conditions. These problems can be rectified by changing to normal tyres, but this then causes handling problems requiring a rear suspension bush upgrade, in total you would need to spend around £1000 (tyres and bushes)to improve the handling and give a satisfactory ride quality.
Would I make the change again ?? in short ''no'' I wouldn't. IMO buy a M3 or another Audi.

Hope this helps.

Mark
 
Go for the M3, I had one for a year and regret every minute of selling it!

By the way the running costs are not high, my M3 was a lot cheaper to run daily than my 06 plate R32, which is the same 3.2 as your A3.

Go for it!
 
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