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02Anders

Oxford Green 330Ci Sport

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Hi everyone,

Being a serial-BMW-owner and having been through a wide variety thus far from '65 vintage up to '97, I have now owned my '02 Oxford Green 330Ci Sport for a bit more than a month.  So I figured it was about time to start a thread on my first E46...

She was produced in January 2002 and sold new from Ocean BMW in Cornwall.  Besides being a top-of-the range 330Ci Sport, she was fairly low spec. being optioned only with Light Beige Leather, Myrtle Wood Trim, Front Centre Arm Rest, Grad Tint Windscreen, 3rd 3-Point Rear Belt, BMW 6-CD Changer and Beige Mats.  With that, the first owner paid £ 30,611 for his brand new E46 when he took delivery on the 2nd March 2002.  She had clearly lived a rather protected life when I picked her up about a month ago with zero rust anywhere, as far as I can tell factory paint everywhere, only 56,000 miles with a full service history and documentation including the original Bill of Sale and all MOT Certificates.

All three previous owners have kept her 100% stock, and while I often tend to subtly personalise my BMW's, I'm honestly quite tempted to continue the trend and keep this one factory spec.

The other day I made the most of a warm and sunny day, and gave my 330Ci a thorough clean both inside and out...

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So far I've treated her to new discs & pads on the front while she got new sensors on all four corners.  I've also had two small soft dents taken out - one on the bonnet which despite its small diameter was very visible, and another small one low down on the left front wing.  Other than that it's really just been a frenzy of cleaning and polishing, though I'm still nowhere near the level I want her.
Next up, there are a few small scratches in various spots that I want taken care of.  I also need to have all four MV1 alloys professionally refurb'ed and treated to new BMW roundels.
And then more cleaning and polishing of course.  

But most important of all is just how much I'm enjoying being back behind the wheel of a BMW, after a year and a half as a Volvo C70 T5 owner.  While I can't really fault the C70, and I did really enjoy that 5-cylinder T5 engine, well... it just wasn't a BMW.  I guess I'm just a hardcore RWD-junkie!  ^_^

Edited by 02Anders
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9 hours ago, DJ Syxx said:

Looks nice congrats, very rare colour looks in great condition. I spot a lovely 2002 in the background too :)

Thx mate!  :)
It's funny how many people seem to not like green cars??  I guess I'm the odd one out, as I've always been quite fond of the majority of green shades on well... the majority of interesting cars.  This is my second Oxford Green BMW, having owned a late E34 Touring in the same colour a fair few years ago.

The 2002 in the background is actually the very first car I ever bought!  This coming October she will have been mine for a whooping 25 years...
She's a very stock and original July '73 car in Verona Red.  Besides that I also own a '72 Agave Green 2002 which has been breathed upon - heh... just a bit.  :P  She gets driven in anger on Historic Hillclimbs & Sprints.
There are pics of both 02's here in my intro on the forum:  

Anyway, I should soon have some fairly interesting updates for this thread, as I've just purchased a complete Bilstein B12 Pro Kit, and also a few new OEM parts to help me shine up the interior a bit...

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Cheers mate!  - appreciate it...  :)

The beige leather makes the interior a very pleasant and inviting place to be.  Not as teutonic as BMW's typical black interiors often end up being.
Though I wasn't too sure about the Myrtle wood trim at first.  But then again, I'm not sure any of the other trim options would have really suited the Light Beige Leather as well.  I usually quite like the Black Cube trim on a E46, but it really goes best with a black or grey interior - heh.. or if the first owner was brave enough to tick the box for a Red interior!  At least I vastly prefer the Myrtle Wood over the very light Birch Wood trim.  So all in all I guess the Myrtle Wood trim will stay.

Now I'm just waiting for Sytner's to text me that my latest purchase of new parts has arrived for me to pick up...  :P

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If you do decide you want a change from the Myrtle trim let me know. We can do a swap :-) I have black carbon cube. 

Edited by Ruesta
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11 minutes ago, Ruesta said:

If you do decide you want a change from the Myrtle trim let me know. We can do a swap :-) I have black carbon cube. 

Arrrrggghhhhhhh.....  :blink:
Don't do this to me!
I had just settled into having the Myrtle Wood.  I was content.  And then you go a throw a curb-ball like that, thoroughly knocking me on my arse...

Hmmmmm... think I need to give this some thought.
If the rest of my interior had been any other colour than Light Beige, then I would have definitely taken you up on that offer ASAP!!
Just looking at the trim options on their own, I much prefer the Black Carbon Cube over the Myrtle Wood.
But I'm just not too sure how the Cube trim will look combined with the Light Beige Leather, and even more so combined with the beige dashboard and doorcards??
Was the combo of Light Beige and Black Carbon Cube even an option from the factory??
Does anyone by any chance have any pics of a Light Beige E46 interior with the Cube trim?

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15 hours ago, 02Anders said:

Arrrrggghhhhhhh.....  :blink:
Don't do this to me!
I had just settled into having the Myrtle Wood.  I was content.  And then you go a throw a curb-ball like that, thoroughly knocking me on my arse...

Hmmmmm... think I need to give this some thought.
If the rest of my interior had been any other colour than Light Beige, then I would have definitely taken you up on that offer ASAP!!
Just looking at the trim options on their own, I much prefer the Black Carbon Cube over the Myrtle Wood.
But I'm just not too sure how the Cube trim will look combined with the Light Beige Leather, and even more so combined with the beige dashboard and doorcards??
Was the combo of Light Beige and Black Carbon Cube even an option from the factory??
Does anyone by any chance have any pics of a Light Beige E46 interior with the Cube trim?

To be honest if it was mine I would keep the Myrtle as its a bit different, so many have carbon cube and your right, not sure how well it will go with the beige, might look a bit odd.

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5 hours ago, Ruesta said:

To be honest if it was mine I would keep the Myrtle as its a bit different, so many have carbon cube and your right, not sure how well it will go with the beige, might look a bit odd.

My thoughts exactly Ruesta.  Well, mostly because I'm just not too sure that the beige leather and the black cube will compliment each other particularly well.
Though I would still love to see an example of beige with cube if anyone has that combo...

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On 7/7/2017 at 20:08, Benji83 said:

You've commented on it so presumably you've seen the interior but maybe you forgot? It's black but I don't know about carbon cube. WOOD ALL THE WAY

HaHaHa... I must have been so focused on those very cool center pieces to the leather seats in @daboy E46, that I totally missed looking at the rest of the interior...!!  :lol:
But there you go - Light Beige leather with Black Carbon Cube trim must have been a factory option then.  It actually works much better together than I had expected.
But still, having seen it now - I think I'll do as both @Ruesta and @Benji83 suggest, and stick with my Myrtle Wood trim.

On 7/8/2017 at 12:30, mjn said:

Damn, that's a lot of beige!

Heh... not to your liking, I take it...?  ;)
The funny thing is, in the US they tend to really love their tan interiors!  Even combined with white paintwork, which I honestly find a rather mis-matched combo.
But here in Europe, a beige interior is often quite an acquired taste.  Personally though I tend to like them as long as it's combined with a dark exterior colour such as black, dark blue, dark green or perhaps a deep burgundy of sorts.
Each to his own...  :P

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Yeah, i'll never be a fan of beige plastic. Just reminds me of Rovers from the 80s and 90s. Cheap plastic everywhere.

Don't mind some cream leather, a bit of luxury, but beige plastic? Nope.

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14 minutes ago, mjn said:

Yeah, i'll never be a fan of beige plastic. Just reminds me of Rovers from the 80s and 90s. Cheap plastic everywhere.

Don't mind some cream leather, a bit of luxury, but beige plastic? Nope.

Fair and square mate.  :)
Luckily we all have varying taste - just imagine how boring it would be if we all liked the same things...

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Just now, 02Anders said:

Fair and square mate.  :)
Luckily we all have varying taste - just imagine how boring it would be if we all liked the same things...

Agreed!!

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Lovely looking car @02Anders  I like the wood finish, goes well with the beige and the green exterior.  I agree with keeping it stock, especially with low mileage beautiful examples like ours. Give it 10 years and it will be a very collectable car.  What did you pay for it if you don't mind me asking?

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Hi guys,

I honestly haven't been particularly active on this forum.  Not near as active as I had anticipated anyway.
Guess I've just been too busy with the upkeep of my classic BMW's.  Currently I've just brought my hillclimb/sprint 2002 back to a bare shell and she will now receive a full resto with fresh paint and all...

Anyway, as for my 330Ci Sport, the past 18 months of ownership have really been very uneventful - that's of course a good thing!  The E46 just gets on with the job and seems to never set a foot wrong.  I had the Bilstein B12 Pro-Kit installed, and I'm really quite impressed with the result.  Not really a harder ride than the stock Sport suspension, but somehow it manages to be more composed when pushing on a bit on undulating back roads.  Also treated her to a set of four new Conti Sport tyres recently - I prefer them over the Pirelli's that were on her when I bought her... 

However, I've decided the time has come to sell.  For some reason - despite having more than 50 posts - it seems that I can't start a thread in Cars for sale area, so I guess this will have to do for now...
I will no doubt miss her!  But I currently have all of nine cars on the drive, and that's really waaaay too many.  So at least two will have to be sold - maybe even three...
The thing is, I've decided to focus my attention on bringing my '81 BMW M535i back to its former glory.  It's going to cost both time and £££'s, but it'll be worth it.  Once done, I'm going to do something a little controversial, and actually attempt to drive the M535i as my daily!  It'll be a bit of an experiment, trying to use a classic car as a daily, but if any daily can put up with this treatment, I'm sure a M30-engined E12 is as good a choice as any.

So long story short...
If you're interested in a very clean, original and unmolested E46 330Ci Sport, mine is now up for grabs!  I sincerely hope she will go to a good home that will continue to treat her as well as I and the three previous owners clearly have.  The very first post in this thread has more information about the specs of the car.  Since buying her 18 months ago, I've added about 10k miles so mileage is now approx. 66,000 miles and still with full service history.
I'll be looking for £ 4,950 which will include a fresh MOT (she's already booked in for one...)
If you're interested, you can email me on: ab (a) viaretro dot com

 

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Edited by 02Anders
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Wow! What a car. If it was a manual I'd likely be all over that, despite the colours not perhaps all my cup of tea. 

This will be an investment for someone if they look after it as I see the values of 330i coupes on the up soon, especially low mileage clean ones like this.

Modern Classics magazine made a similar prediction not long ago too.

I hope it goes to someone who'll appreciate it and looks after it!

Kirkynut 

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Time can play a part as rubber and plastics go brittle. Rubber doesn't like being still in respect of bushes. 

Heat cycles can kill things like coolant pipes etc though. So a high mileage car that's spent all day on the motorway, adding up the miles will be better than a high mileage town based car that's got hot and cold a lot.

As this car has such low miles it can't have had too many hear cycles and it has been used, just not that much. So to my mind, it ought to be a good buy. I'd still replace the usual suspects in the coolant system, but I'm anal.

Kirkynut 

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