Five years of CSL ownership.

[Marv]

Yep, I've now owned the speed-holed one for five years. Covered about 25,000 miles in that time. The only things which have needed replacing (outside of servicing and tyres) so far are a DSC sensor and a wheels speed sensor. DSC Sensor was £140 to replace, wheel speed sensor was £110. So yes - I've been rather lucky with running costs.

The wheel speed sensor failed on Monday! When I was taking the car to have its MOT, about 100 meters leaving home, the dash lit up with warning lights, like a Christmas tree...Sods law, eh?

Other than that, it always puts a smile on my face when I'm driving, particularly the engine - don't think I'll ever get bored of the sound

Best thing I've done with the car, was driving it all the way to the top of Norway. Although my pace was slow, the car was just so good on the trip and dealt with some pretty tricky weather conditions, without any fuss.

I'm planning a trip down Spain, into Portugal and possibly all the way down to Gibraltar, in September.

Did have some thoughts around Christmas about selling it, but then a quick drive when the weather improved, soon put them thoughts to bed.

Here's five pics to celebrate five years

First road trip with Duncs and YK:


Some pass in Austria (Namloss, I think)


Deepest, darkest Suffolk:


The Vercor, France:


North Cape, Norway

[duncs500]

She's a beauty.

Just accept it Marv, you're not the selling type.

[Mito Man]

[mik]

First road trip with Duncs and YK:

I still snigger thinking about late-brake-corner on that trip.

[IanF]

Lovely looking motor, especially in that colour.

[Carlos]

Lovely looking motor, especially in that colour.

E46 M3's have aged well in general

[GG.]

Great post and pics. Agree with the others re the E46 ageing well.

Norway is a trip I'd love to do.

[Rich B]

Reminds me of mine (RIP )!

Yours is obviously significantly nicer though!

[GG.]

Reminds me of mine (RIP )!

Yours is obviously significantly nicer though!

Yours had the correct number of pedals however...

[Marv]

I still snigger thinking about late-brake-corner on that trip.

Oi, mate, as you were behind me, I'm sure you remember that:

A) My tyres were still fresh off the mould.
2) That corner jumped out in front of me, honest.
€) Mario dropped a banana skin and I had already ran out of coins.

Rich, your E46 M3 was lovely. Shame it went the way it did, but the V8 in your current M3 is an epic thing

[Rich B]

Yeah, I’m still loving the V8 3 years on.

Thinking back, my e46 was mega-reliable and relatively cheap to run too - I definitely had a sensor of some kind go, but other than that and some corroded brake pipes it was nothing but normal consumables over the 35k miles i did and it was on 140k+ when it was killed off.

If you keep looking after it you’ve got loads more miles to enjoy yours - especially as it’s losing no money!

[speedingfine]

3 years ago Rich! Blimey.

CSL looks good, always preferred the 968 though how long have you had that Marv?

[V8Granite]

My favourite car on the Forum. Amazing engine, truly special features and the E46 in M3/CSL form was one of the best balanced car shapes ever made.

Fantastic!

Dave!

[Coaster1]

5 years? Somehow I thought you’ve had it for longer than that.

Great car

Edit to add, sounds like running cost has been minimal too. You bought it at the right time, I bet if you’re to sell it now, the price would cover running cost (Inc tyres, insurance & tax, might even be enough to include fuel?!?) Proper zero cost motoring

[Brannen]

Still think it's one of the best looking BMW's!

[JLv3.0]

It might even be THE best-looking BMW. I'm going to give this some thought!

[tim]

They really did get that right - muscular and purposeful. I don’t think BMW managed another M series car since that looked sufficiently different from the cooking models to do justice to what was underneath.

I came -><- close to swapping the E60 535d MSport “we” (lol) had for a red E46 M3 but it got vetoed by HMTW. Hey ho.

[JLv3.0]

1M? Not as much of a looker but you don't mistake it for a 116d!

There's one down the road from me here, can't help but grin as it goes by.

[NotoriousREV]

It might even be THE best-looking BMW. I'm going to give this some thought!

Not as long as the M1 exists.

[Rich B]

It’s just the right solution for making a “hot version”. Don’t dick about with silly huge spoilers, just widen the track, flare the arches and drop it a bit. Done.