1999 BMW 3 Series 318i SE from UK and Ireland - Comments

Front brake discs disintegrated.

Rear bumper became unhinged over a speed hump.

An appliance. Passionless, funless, also flawless. It annoys me when people stare in envy when I drive past - those folks must never have driven one of the most anodyne motorway sample-carriers ever. I deeply regret choosing this car.

It is slow and has massive flywheel effect.

Perhaps a 330 is fun, but as a 4 pot - awful. Does what it says on the tin - cruises without effort for miles and miles, but don't expect any fun at all. A self drive bus.

Don't worry, unfortunately your comments apply to the 328 also. Must be *very* annoying after having owned an Impreza Turbo.

Your comments are spot on.

Yeah, I've got a 323i - nice engine, absolutely loads of grip but pretty anodyne and the interior is so boring. Almost too good to be fun. Overpriced also. And why do BMW feel the need to fit that fuel consumption 'guilt' needle which goes quite literally off the bottom of the scale when you accelerate?!

If your worried about fuel consumption you shouldn't own a BMW!! I feel the mpg meter is a nice touch.

My new 330i does about 31 on a run and 24 round town. For a 3 liter 6 cylinder I feel this isn't to bad particularly compared to other manafacturues like ford.

To the original person who posted this review:-

Are you sure it was a BMW you were driving? I find your review very hard to believe. The BMW 4 cylinders are very refined and smooth, if you can find a better 4 pot I would like to hear from you. Also they sound great but just don't have the same power as a bmw straight six.

Also would you get the same attention in say a vauxhall vectra. I am personally very pleased with my car but also enjoy the attention it gets that you just wouldn't obtain with an inferior make.The quality is just superb, no other can compete with this. Sure you pay more but the quality is worth every penny!

The 3 series is a nice car but totally without character. However beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say...

As for the last guy saying you get a lot of attention driving one... where exactly do you live? In my part of London they are more common than Vectras and Mondeos and no one bats an eyelid if you drive one. You would probably get more attention driving a Fiat Multipla :-)!

As for the quality, have you ever sat in a new Audi A4? The build quality of a 3 series simply does not compare. How they can put cheap rocker switches on the stereo & climate control systems on a £25K car I will never know. It's not like BMW don't make huge profit margin on their cars already without having to resort to cost cutting of this nature.

I think you are comparing the A4 to the e36 bmw (3 series 92-99) If you compare the e46 to the a4 there is just no comparison. The BMW is a superb car, better that even the A6.

There are definetly no rocker switches that for sure!!

I live in South Yorkshire, I can imagine london as you say though. Upp int yurkshire tis a bit different!!

Original Poster here!

Thanks for your comments - in response:

1. I don't want 'attention'. If I glued a parrot to my head in the street I would get 'Attention'.

2. Better 4 pots than the E36 lump in the BMW 318?

Subaru Boxer

Ford Zetec 1.8

GM Ecotec 2.2

Honda VTEC

VAG 1.8 T

Toyota VVti

PSA 2.0 16V

...I could go on. Every one of these is more powerful, more characterful and more driveable than the BMW suitacse 4-pot and I'm sure there are others I haven't driven.

Don't let your love affair with the propeller badge blind you to how dreadfully boring and soulless the 4 cyls are. I've even driven diesels with more feel and personality than the E36 lump. I made a bad choice. I can't wait to change my car in 3 years time.

I am not a BMW 3-series owner, but did contemplate buying one. I never did and don't regret it either. They are too common for starters, no one gives them a second look (in London anyway). Also I have seen these dressed up 318SE models at the traffic lights trying to show some performance and you leave them behind!

To the original poster!

If you are going to go from an Impreza Turbo (Japanese rubbish) to a BMW, unless you are "downgrading" why are you not looking at an M3 Evo?

You can't compare a 318i to an Impreza Turbo!

BMW's are very good cars, but I believe that although the latest shapes are very comfortable, they have lost the fun factor of the old models.

I am actually on my 8th BMW at the moment (A 1994 540i Touring 6 Speed Manual), having owned a few 318i's (and one 316i) I can say that although they are not the fastest of cars, they do the job - and well.

The E36 Shape (last shape) is a nice car, I owned a 96 328i Touring Manual before my 540i Touring, and the 328i was a very fun car especially with its M Suspension... and it went pretty fast for what it was.

My point being, if you want a fun BMW, rather than a "comfortable" one, then go for the older shapes... the new shapes are too round and too designed for corporate drivers. BMW are no longer making great looking, fun sports and prestigious cars - instead they are starting to make "normal" cars, and in my opinion this is definitely not the way BMW should be going...

Do you really expect anyone to take your opinion about 'drivers cars' seriously when you call the Subaru Impreza, Japanese rubbish?

Original poster here -

By some miracle I have been able to exchange my BMW mid-lease. Amen! I now have a car which is the exact opposite in many ways that the E46 BMW 318: a Honda Integra Type-R.

Fast, hard, raw and capable it drips with personality, yet it attracts almost no attention from non-petrolheads.

I made a terrible choice with the E46, now remedied - thank God, although my comments re: the 318SE E46 still stand.

Wait a sec.

The 318 is the base model.. It does all the things that a bmw with a larger engine does.. but it doesn't have the go!!.. I'm not being funny, but, reality check here, If you want a fast car don't buy one with a 1.8 litre engine. This is not complicated.

The 318 is for people that want a bmw, but don't want the associated high insurance costs or fuel consumpsion.

Honda's compared to BMW's is like McDonald's compared to a 5 star restaurant. One is cheap and fast and the other one is luxury and has class. In addition, BMW has a wider choice of engine sizes. It's not fair comparing a top of the range Honda type R to a base-model of BMW.

I run a car leasing business in the UK and we often buy BMW E46 either new or used in all engine sizes. There is no doubt that the sixes are superb, the old 1.8 is quite ordinary in comparison, but you pay your money etc... however recently we have taken delivery of the new UK built Vanos engined 318s and this is without doubt a match for any 4 pot engine on the planet. The quality of the E46 is superb, especially the interior, the Subaru is another great product, but the attention to detail is more focused on the drive-train, they really appeal to different markets and both seem to achieve high mileages without much problem. It seems some writers on this site don't want us to have a choice of car,to dismiss any BMW as rubbish is simply quite startling!

Leasing man, you write as if BMWs are a sacred cow. The 318 is a well assembled, but entirely boring transport. Vauxhall have made wonderful 4 pots for years, and even now their 2.2 ecotec is more flexible and charismatic than the double vanos BMW lump.

Enjoy the residual values of threes, but you are fooling your self if you think a BMW 318 SE is a match for a Mondeo 2.0 zetec in anything, but perceived quality and clueless bystander envy.

BTW I am amused by the 'attention' posts here - the E46 was Europe's best 2nd selling family car in 2001 - that's right, less exclusive than a Laguna, C5, Primera...

E 30 Series.

I not sure what qualifies a 'petrol-head'.. but I've had a few different nationalities in my time... including British, Italian, Swedish, Japanese and French. About half of these were new. Despite being the oldest vehicle to date, I am still bewildered by the level of quality and refinement that BMW managed to cram into the 88-92 E30 series (this vehicle must have been designed in the early seventies??). I've often heard mechanics mention that this is BMW's 'best' model range to date.

The current 3 Series (E46?) seems a beautifully crafted car, and I recently test-drove the 330d Tourer with a view to purchase. (v.v. quick..) Incredibly however, I felt that my (now ancient) E30 Tourer was both smoother and more solidly built... perhaps I've lost the plot completely here.

Am I now condemned to looking at a c-class, A4 or V40?

Alternatively, does anyone know if the post-88 E30 convertibles are of a similar quality to their hooded counterparts. (And did they ever come with an interior roof lining?) I might just save the money and get one of these too.