You may recall a while back, Car Throttle bought a very beat up BMW 330d Touring for very cheap and turned it into a tire-shredding, track-lapping monster. Now, Alex has bought another E46 BMW 3 Series Touring, only this one was much cheaper and much…rustier.
In this new video, he shows off his E46 BMW 330i Touring, which he bought for £150. That’s less than an entry-level Chromebook and instead of it being able to only browse the internet, it’s an entire car with a six-cylinder engine, manual gearbox and big trunk.
However, there’s a lot of rust. Like, a whole lot of it. The wheel wells are basically perforated at this point, there’s rust on the tailgate, on the door sills and basically everywhere. It’s a rust-bucket, there’s no doubt. But, it costed less than a year-long gym membership, so who cares.
As far as mechanical issues, it’s actually not too bad, especially not for £150. The engine had a bad thermostat, which is cheap and easy to replace and it has some broken rear springs. But, let’s face it, Alex was going to put this car on coilovers anyway, as any good enthusiast should. So who really cares about some broken rear springs?
He also makes a good point for the E46 3 Series Touring being a great daily beater, because of it being a rust-bucket. There’s a luxury to not having to care about or maintain a car. It’s beat to hell, so let it be beat to hell. He has a dog and gear he likes to haul around, so he can do all of that without caring if it gets scratched or dirty. It’s like a good pair of work boots, it’s okay if it gets beat up and dirty. It’s a reliable companion for those times when you know things are gonna get messy.
