Touring de force
I’m sure we’ve all been in the situation where we’ve bought an old car we don’t need simply because it’s there. I’ve gone and done it again, buying myself a 2005 BMW E46 320d Touring.
My excuse is that I’ve never lost money on a car. What can’t be sold on outright gets dismantled and sold in bits – you always seem to get more cash back that way.
With both of my E36 Tourings having been sold – the 1998 318i for £500 and a ropey old 518i harvested for £400 in parts – along with the silver 323i automatic for £475, for some reason I couldn’t resist the E46. But why, given I don’t even like E46s? Well, there were three good reasons. First, it’s a diesel and that means 50mpg. Second, it didn’t look a complete shed. And third, it was, £290. At that price, you cannot go wrong.
I had actually been skimming Copart for a 2007 Golf TDI 1.9 or 2.0 five-door, as I’d convinced myself that’s what I needed. Distracted by the BMW section, I noted that E90s or E87s were going for silly money. I mean, £5100 for a 2011 F10 520d Cat N with a bashed-in rear quarter and 140,000 miles? No thanks. Then I spotted an E46 320d estate in either black or very dark blue under the layers of dirt. The 05-plate meant it shouldn’t be rotten. It had beige leather, factory CD player, 190,000 miles and it drove. Bidding began at £90 and ran out of steam at under £250, meaning with fees it was mine for less than £300.
Go for it!
The following morning, I arrived at the auction house in a Merc Sprinter beavertail recovery truck and, within five minutes, an enormous forklift arrived with a filthy Beemer on its prongs. After it was loaded onto the truck, I gave it the onceover. There was oil and coolant, but the battery was dead. It had a V5 and two keys, and the toolkit was present, along with a wheelbrace and locking wheel nut key. There was a bit of bubbling on one front wheelarch and a patch of peeling lacquer on the bonnet, but nothing to fret over.
Back at my recently refurbished garage, I clambered over the rear seats and manually opened the tailgate, to find the battery almost submerged in water. Oops. Turned out there was a split washer supply hose and punching out the drain plugs drained it quickly. The battery was swapped for a big BMW one, the terminals were connected and it fired up on the first turn of the key.
There were no rattles, no smoke and it sounded crisp. I took it for a spin around the block on trade plates and noted the ruined front discs, goosed rear dampers and useless handbrake. No problem as I have a pair of brand-new front discs and pads and a pair of used but good Bilstein rear shocks. Those were fitted in a morning and another test run revealed that the cart could well be a keeper.
The MOT looks passable now that the brake pipes have been cleaned and greased, the chip in the screen is unlikely to be a fail point and, remarkably for an E46, not a single dash warning light is lit. The dual mass flywheel is making a noise when the pedal is halfway down, but the clutch feels fine.
A damaged but repairable Golf TDI with sensible mileage is still my preferred choice, but this old BMW might be a good stand-in until I find one.