MCxQubed

im gonna go with the bmw here. i love mustangs but your talking about a totally different machine with an m3. everyone on here follows 'you get what you pay for' idea, well i feel its the same here. my dad drives an x5 he bought brand new and now it had about 150k miles and theres never been any big problems. but yeah with bmw theres obviusly not as much of an aftermarket and its expensive for pretty much all aftermarket parts. plus like mentioned before theres specialized tools. really depends on what you really want.

edit: i thought it said e46 m3 so after all that i would go with the mustang lol

uberstang1

At the end of the day its still a bmw, id rather any musang over it regardless of performance because atleast your getting something with some soul amd heritage.

Schmalgar

My coworker hates his BMW because of the repair difficulties and cost. He is mechanically inclined and did most of his maintenance on previous cars, but cannot do it himself on this one. So like everyone is saying, that's definitely something to consider.

Me, I just can imagine comparing the two. I think you either prefer the American 'Muscle' genre or the European 'Refinement' genre. Hard for me to mix the two in my head. They are such different cars, that I think it really is gonna come down to your taste and preference. The M3 is a 'better' car, but like the guy above, I'd rather have a Mustang over a BMW (well except for maybe a convertible 650i...).

I think the only smart thing to do is get both.

Mike Hadz

i'm sure bmw's have soul & heritage too, but still i choose mustang =]

gravik

What year Bimmer did he have? The newer they've gotten, the more difficult and again in the *** they are to work on, just like VW's.

And E36 M3 > E46 M3.

If I had $16k I'd get both.

Should I be able to get a nice 'Stang for around $8,000?

What's the main weak points on them? I know with BMW's, at least the older ones, it's the cooling system that is the weak point.

uberstang1

Its like how many 80s and 90s BMW are on the road still? They seem to disapear after awhile probably due to the fact they turn into clunker just like everything else with the exception its not worth it to fix them.

MCxQubed

my cousin swears by e30's and hes had many that have ran into 200k-300k miles. i personally would not want an e30. if anything i want a bmw for comfort, power, and overall quality

BLKSTANGER

I have two co-workers that own them. One of them has had real good luck with his though he just spent $700 for a water pump failure. The other guy just had head light problems and spent $1,000 for two head lights. I rode in one of them I think it's a 98 and it seemed to run pretty good.

gravik

He got screwed then. The pump is $200 MAX.

Then again if I got a Mustang, and lets say the fuel pump failed, the dealership wants to charge $650 for that....Lol.

piledriver

Get the Stang, like everyone says, much easier and cheaper to maintain. Plus for the price of a SuperCharger and a few more mods, you will have a Bimmer Killer! Take it from me, look at my mods in my sig, I have destroyed M3's, M5's, I just hammered a 650 Convertible; that was a tough one, he almost got me! As for the 750's etc., it's fun just to let the old bastards driving those things think they are beating you ***; of course that is the case until I drop her into 3rd and floor it! Much fun indeed, even for a 57 year old fart like me!