2002 BMW 3 Series Reviews from North America

Cooling system.

Alternator.

window regulators.

Accessory belts, tensioners, & pulleys.

Valve cover gasket.

Crankcase ventilation system.

DISA valve.

Cracked lower intake boot.

Oil filter housing gasket leak.

This car drives and handles great. It goes exactly where you tell it to go. Chassis, transmission, and engine all work very well: very smooth with great feedback to the driver. In short, it is the indeed the ultimate driving machine, though this comes at the expense of everything else -- reliability, practicality, etc...

Unless you're a gear head or you're willing to pay for all the requisite repairs and maintenance, unload the car at around 50K miles.

The cooling system is a huge issue -- plastic idlers for the belts and plastic parts throughout the cooling system can fail catastrophically at any point after 50K miles.

In my view, many of the failures are inexcusable. All these items should have a design life of at least 10 years/100K miles. BMW could easily attain this standard if they selected better materials.

I still like the car, even if some of its flaws are inexcusable.

Suspension bushings had to be replaced, and the interior is showing signs of plastic discoloration.

Sunroof rails jammed.

The car is nimble and mostly reliable. I've driven it between the east and west coasts of the USA six times, and only had to have suspension bearing replaced, and it still runs great as a daily driver.

Super fun on mountain roads, but unstable in snow and ice.

CV boots, front inner and outer, cost = $480 - 110.000 km.

Thermostat - $380 - 160.000 km.

Headlight washer pump - $110 - 180.000 km.

The rest of the costs are just regular maintenance: oil changes, spark plugs, brake pads, fuel filter etc...

Sooo... I've owned this car long enough to write down something I guess...

Nice car to have; it looks so nice when it's clean.

The all wheel drive system is insanely good if you're living in Canada - Alberta. I can't believe I never ever get stuck with this car, and it's only 8 inches high off the ground.

In winter time I try to drift with this car, but there is no way make this car drift, except for sliding on the ice. Somehow the traction kicks in, even if you hold the DSC button to turn the system off, it still takes over...

Power is really good. It's only 185hp, but if you floor the gas pedal, she goes so fast, which BMW even says is lightning speed take off...

Mileage I got:

City 9.2L/100km

Highway 6.5L/100km

Mechanical issues never happened; looks like they made this car with non-breakable materials...

So... I sold this unit about 3 months ago, and bought a 2006 530xi... feels the same, I got the same mileage on gas, only a few things different, exterior and interior. Interior so quiet compared to the 325xi, which I won't compare because it's a totally different unit. But the 2006 530xi has killer looks...

That's all I can say... Thanx...

Check engine light comes on for no reason that can be found, but goes back out. Had car checked, but no problem found.

Great HWY mpg, avg 31 - 33mpg, and very quick and smooth ride, and with today's gas prices, that's a good thing for such a sporty car.

Found the car to be roomy enough for me and comfortable all around, Sound system, radio and CD are all great, and plenty of truck space, and the keeper for me is, comes with full size spare on the proper / matching rim.

I purchased the car as used, but at 48000 miles, the car really had not been driven (for a 6+ year old car), below 10,000 a year. Clean and rides like new. Simply a great deal and car.