[abishek2222]

Originally Posted by Sameer_C

he's got the smaller font to fit all the numbers.

.

I'd love to see his plates a bit more clearly, please do take a better snap sometime later at your leisure. Thank you

[agspins]

Hi Sameer, Congrats....she is superb, just one query i had was the German plates have skipped on 0 from 0100. Wouldn't that be a problem with RTO/Traffic as actual registration is 4 digits not 3.

[asit.kulkarni93]

You got one of my favorite BMW 3-series. This is one of the most smart and elegant looking BMW. I remeber back in 2009 in Bahrain, when my Dad was changing his car we did come across a E46 330i. He took a test drive and was happy. Suddenly he saw the car from the side and declared that we ain't buying the 330i because the ground clearance is too less. My Dad is a civil engineer so the car is usually on construction sites. I remember his colleague who had the Accord V6 always used to scrape the bottom.
Anyway i am really happy that you were able to fullfill your dream
Congrats

[President]

Congrats Sameer!

You have gone and fulfilled everyone's dream especially mine. The E46 is surely the most desirable 3 series in the BMW stable with killer looks, ever produced. And the one you have with such a low mileage and in pristine condition, gets us stunned. Way above the present generation cars for its long lived looks.
I myself have a soft corner for this beautiful shape and have owned two of them so far, out of which I still own the second one at present but a 316i pre-facelift. I can assure you that I must have tried harder than you to acquire a straight six E46 but was never as lucky. So lived and compromised with the 318i and now the 316i which gives company to my 1995 E34 525i straight six with 14K kms on the odo, a near museum piece that I rarely use.
Hoping to stay in touch with you and looking forward to some enjoyable BMW drives together, in the future.

I'm sure that you will really enjoy this babe and wish you many many years of Happy Motoring.

Cheers!
Rony
aka 'PRESIDENT' here

[Utopian]

Congrats Sameer for the E46. The car is in pristine condition. The styling is so clean and uncluttered compared to the contemporary German marquees.
Wishing you loads of happy miles with the beast.

[Sameer_C]

Originally Posted by coloneljasi

Congratulations on your new(ish) BMW. It looks absolutely mint and going by your obsession, it will remain so for many years to come.

If you need any help, please don't hesitate to ask.

Thank You, and yes im going to do my best to keep it as clean and well driven as possible. I'll definitely remember you incase i need any help.

Originally Posted by abishek2222

I'd love to see his plates a bit more clearly, please do take a better snap sometime later at your leisure. Thank you

I happen to have a close picture of his plates taken a little while ago when he had the full brushed silver 550i grills (now he's got the full black grill). Here it is, looks very clean.

Originally Posted by agspins

Hi Sameer, Congrats....she is superb, just one query i had was the German plates have skipped on 0 from 0100. Wouldn't that be a problem with RTO/Traffic as actual registration is 4 digits not 3.

Well, i've taken a risk to be honest. It isn't really allowed but everyones doing it with the normal embossed plates. I haven't been caught yet and hopefully wont be anytime soon (fingers crossed).

I guess you could blame/thank our inconsistent cops who at their mercy catch people when they feel like. I was told by them once that they have a stipulated number of cars they catch a day and don't bother catching any more or less. Therefore there are so many instances where we feel that we "got away", its not like they didn't see you, sometimes they just don't care.

Originally Posted by asit.kulkarni93

You got one of my favorite BMW 3-series. This is one of the most smart and elegant looking BMW. I remeber back in 2009 in Bahrain, when my Dad was changing his car we did come across a E46 330i. He took a test drive and was happy. Suddenly he saw the car from the side and declared that we ain't buying the 330i because the ground clearance is too less. My Dad is a civil engineer so the car is usually on construction sites. I remember his colleague who had the Accord V6 always used to scrape the bottom.
Anyway i am really happy that you were able to fullfill your dream
Congrats

Couldn't agree with you more on the ground clearance, i guess thats one of the many features i love about it. Filled with 4 passengers i was made to go sideways on most of the speedbreakers on Carter Road, Bandra.

Clearly no long journeys with excessive luggage and 5 people. No way!

Originally Posted by President

Congrats Sameer!

You have gone and fulfilled everyone's dream especially mine. The E46 is surely the most desirable 3 series in the BMW stable with killer looks, ever produced. And the one you have with such a low mileage and in pristine condition, gets us stunned. Way above the present generation cars for its long lived looks.
I myself have a soft corner for this beautiful shape and have owned two of them so far, out of which I still own the second one at present but a 316i pre-facelift. I can assure you that I must have tried harder than you to acquire a straight six E46 but was never as lucky. So lived and compromised with the 318i and now the 316i which gives company to my 1995 E34 525i straight six with 14K kms on the odo, a near museum piece that I rarely use.
Hoping to stay in touch with you and looking forward to some enjoyable BMW drives together, in the future.

I'm sure that you will really enjoy this babe and wish you many many years of Happy Motoring.

Cheers!
Rony
aka 'PRESIDENT' here

Hi President,

The e46 is by far the best bmw i've seen. i absolutely love it (even more now ) i cannot agree with you more when it comes to its timeless styling.

You've owned two before?! Thats just amazing, we definitely need to make a drive sometime in the future (once i get her completely sorted with a thorough service) Also now i know who to go to with any problem for my car. Hopefully i wont have any.

By the way, the idea of a mint e34 525i is absolutely breathtaking, you have to take me for a ride in that and waft over all the bumps on the road with its super huge profile tires! I'm going to add you to my buddy list (if there is one, fairly new to posting here, used to come here for information) and will be in touch! Please remember me incase there are any meets thats suitable for the e46 to take part in as well!

Originally Posted by Utopian

Congrats Sameer for the E46. The car is in pristine condition. The styling is so clean and uncluttered compared to the contemporary German marquees.
Wishing you loads of happy miles with the beast.

Thanks Utopian!

[abishek2222]

Seeing that your replacing the screen I remember a couple of aftermarket kits available which install into the exact same space which are available on alibaba with a full color screen and navigation. You could take a look in case you want to try that out. Which website are you using to get the BMW parts from for the car.

[revintup]

Got to say, your brother's F10 looks boring in front of the classy E46 that has seen a decade going by ! Thats saying enough of the lines and curves of the E46.

There is a prestinely maintained silver E46 118i in the flat of one of my relatives. It seems it was previously owned by the Governer of Punjab.

[dipen]

Originally Posted by President

I can assure you that I must have tried harder than you to acquire a straight six E46 but was never as lucky. So lived and compromised with the 318i and now the 316i

Originally Posted by Sameer_C

Hi President,

The e46 is by far the best bmw i've seen. i absolutely love it (even more now ) i cannot agree with you more when it comes to its timeless styling.

You both have one more company to drool over.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/super-...ml#post3216737
Personally a stick shift staright six with M compliments is a just too very perfect in India and very rare.

[sawnilrules]

@ Sameer, congratulations on the Beamer my friend. As every body else has posted, the E46 indeed is a timeless machine, and when the car moves, it does look like a poetry in motion. Even after 10 years of its existence, it still gives the F10 a run for its money.

I am super keen to know at what price you picked her up. It would be great if you can PM me in case you don't want to share it in public.

[Sameer_C]

For other things like the screen, i bought it off ebay for $110, its from hongkong and apparently its an original Sharp product (what came with the car)

The only problem with that is, a waiting period which can be anywhere between 10 days and a month or more.

Originally Posted by revintup

Got to say, your brother's F10 looks boring in front of the classy E46 that has seen a decade going by ! Thats saying enough of the lines and curves of the E46.

There is a prestinely maintained silver E46 118i in the flat of one of my relatives. It seems it was previously owned by the Governer of Punjab.

Haha, i sent him this, he wants to trade now!

Originally Posted by dipen

You both have one more company to drool over.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/super-...ml#post3216737
Personally a stick shift staright six with M compliments is a just too very perfect in India and very rare.

Personally a stick shift mated with a straight 6 and rear wheel drive for me is also the most perfect combination, but you have to think practically, this is my daily driver to work and back which is from bandra to marine drive. Now the thought of driving with a heavy bmw clutch in mumbai traffic, makes me want to walk home.

When it comes to M Compliments, i guess its everyones personal opinion. Me, i love the clean front bumper with the two fogs on either side. No mucking about with big scoops and what not, clean, simple & elegant. Now if i had an m3 that would be a whole other ball game


There's going to be a video out soon. Probably monday, i'll shoot it over the weekend.

[LP640]

Oh Sameer, what a machine! A precision tool with the solidly built feature that even today's BMW lack.

Every scroll I made while going through this thread was filled with so much emotion for me. My brain just went to nirvana and my heart skipped multiple beats! Even for you it would have been a nervous moment going to Delhi to get her!

Congratulation mate on a fantastic choice! Take care of her and she will give you lots of love in return.

My suggestions:
I have been in a friend's E46 316i in Germany. I guess it was a 2001 car. It had quite a lot of body roll. I asked him whats the thing? He said they have never changed the springs since they bought the car. The spring becomes soft over the time and the struts hard. Do consider changing the springs along with struts. This will also help avoiding scraping belly on Mumbai roads.

Regarding K&N, its a filter that allows more airflow which means it has less restriction because the filter material is not as fine as stock. I have had K&N Cold air intake system on my Elantra. With K&N your engine oil, even if Mobil 1 gets dirty fast. So you feel like changing it after 5000km. Also the throttle body needs cleaning much more often. I ended up getting hiccups from engine after driving about 2000km from every Throttle body cleaning session. This makes me feel K&N will reduce engine life, although how steeply, I can't comment!

Just my 2 paise!

[abishek2222]

The November 13 issue of Performance BMW perhaps has something of interest. You can find an ebook copy online if you looked around.

[Sameer_C]

Originally Posted by LP640

Oh Sameer, what a machine! A precision tool with the solidly built feature that even today's BMW lack.

Every scroll I made while going through this thread was filled with so much emotion for me. My brain just went to nirvana and my heart skipped multiple beats! Even for you it would have been a nervous moment going to Delhi to get her!

Congratulation mate on a fantastic choice! Take care of her and she will give you lots of love in return.

My suggestions:
I have been in a friend's E46 316i in Germany. I guess it was a 2001 car. It had quite a lot of body roll. I asked him whats the thing? He said they have never changed the springs since they bought the car. The spring becomes soft over the time and the struts hard. Do consider changing the springs along with struts. This will also help avoiding scraping belly on Mumbai roads.

Regarding K&N, its a filter that allows more airflow which means it has less restriction because the filter material is not as fine as stock. I have had K&N Cold air intake system on my Elantra. With K&N your engine oil, even if Mobil 1 gets dirty fast. So you feel like changing it after 5000km. Also the throttle body needs cleaning much more often. I ended up getting hiccups from engine after driving about 2000km from every Throttle body cleaning session. This makes me feel K&N will reduce engine life, although how steeply, I can't comment!

Just my 2 paise!

Thanks LP640! The emotion is unreal when you sit in a car like this, although there are so many newer cars out there, this is has something else to it, that Joie de vivre that very few cars can give you.

Going to delhi to buy her did not make me nervous it was nerve wrecking! No offence to any city, i love delhi's fancy bungalows and clean roads, but anyone would be scared to go to another city (which i've been to once before) and buy a car from a complete stranger knowing well enough that if something does go wrong there's nothing i can do about it.

Ideally, a CAI is fully exposed and placed at a lower end near the front tyre of the car, if thats where your intake was, its bound to get alot of dust in it due to Indian roads/climate. I would suggest wrapping the cone in one of those jackets & getting it cleaned with the K&N Recharger kit every oil change. It should help.
A CAI is definitely not an option for me, it might increase the airflow but i guess it would completely drown out the engine noise (which i'd want to marry if i could). What i'm getting is a stock replacement filter, with the current airbox still in place. That shouldn't really cause these problems. The reason for this is just ease of use, no more changing the filter, other than that the stock replacement filter has no perceivable gain whatsoever. I'm quite happy with the power, if at all, it would be ebay headers next.

Originally Posted by abishek2222

Attachment 1151072

The November 13 issue of Performance BMW perhaps has something of interest. You can find an ebook copy online if you looked around.

Downloading it as i write this!


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[shankarbn]

Great looking car and good write up. I have recently got myself an awesome pre facelift 320i M sport and it had only 30k on the odo. It has 135 style ///M wheels and half alacantra seats - just what I was looking for. And what's more - I found the perfect place to service it in Bangalore, gave it a full service and installed a new navigation/media system too. I will upload pictures and do a write up once I'm done with the road tax and Bangalore registration.