Matt Farah of The Smoking Tire picks up an E46 M3

[heinzboehmer]

Could one individually order a LSB car after 2003?

Yep. LSB was available until 04. Any 05 and 06 LSB cars are individual

[Obioban]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the m-texture interior. That would probably be the best interior option if you're trying to sell a car. Ditto on the no options.

Could one individually order a LSB car after 2003?

EDIT: I guess all of these + a dealer-installed Dinan kit (S2 since the S3 came with a supercharger) would be the unicorn.

Dinan didn’t do great work on the e46– not sure how much value impact that would have. They’re supercharger is especially bad.

[Chas3n]

https://youtu.be/_PbvkEpj-uU

He speaks more.

.02

This platform is bound to have “arm chair experts” granted when it came out the demographic of forum users for the chassis were usually nerdy professionals. Some of us here remember the early days of M3f, and how the obsession for parts and DIY’s evolved.

To date I have not seen a forum as nerdy about technical aspects of a vehicle as I have with the e46 M3. Lotus guys might give us a run for our money, but the e46 M3 specifically holds a podium spot for the amount of knowledge acquired by its forum members. Matt either doesn’t understand as his focus was likely off forums and in digital media, or he has no understanding of car ownership demographics.

On to his other point, while I agree his less than 20k mile M3 likely does not need any rod bearing work, it certainly would be prevalent to go through its subframe mount points. Given his driving is mostly canyons, it couldn’t be more useful for him.

Overall it shows that just because one maybe “famous” for being an enthusiast, they still can have a low IQ in aspects of ownership. Matt doesn’t seem like the type to own a set of wrenches though.

Edit after reading responses:

Again I whole heartedly understand how color means nothing to some, but for the collector market, it absolutely does. This goes for any chassis, not just the e46. So far LSB’s and ZCP’s have commanded the highest prices.

[shibui]

https://youtu.be/_PbvkEpj-uU

He speaks more.

.02

This platform is bound to have “arm chair experts” granted when it came out the demographic of forum users for the chassis were usually nerdy professionals. Some of us here remember the early days of M3f, and how the obsession for parts and DIY’s evolved.

To date I have not seen a forum as nerdy about technical aspects of a vehicle as I have with the e46 M3. Lotus guys might give us a run for our money, but the e46 M3 specifically holds a podium spot for the amount of knowledge acquired by its forum members. Matt either doesn’t understand as his focus was likely off forums and in digital media, or he has no understanding of car ownership demographics.

On to his other point, while I agree his less than 20k mile M3 likely does not need any rod bearing work, it certainly would be prevalent to go through its subframe mount points. Given his driving is mostly canyons, it couldn’t be more useful for him.

Overall it shows that just because one maybe “famous” for being an enthusiast, they still can have a low IQ in aspects of ownership. Matt doesn’t seem like the type to own a set of wrenches though.

Edit after reading responses:

Again I whole heartedly understand how color means nothing to some, but for the collector market, it absolutely does. This goes for any chassis, not just the e46. So far LSB’s and ZCP’s have commanded the highest prices.

I agree. I think the right word here is "passion". A lot of E46 M3 guys are passionate about the platform, and are understandably a little excited about a relevant car journalist getting one. At the same time, I'm sure a lot of guys that don't even own E46Ms have heard these talking points echoed throughout the years, and bum-rushed Matt's DMs with their opinions.

I do think a lot of our demographic have fallen into the doomsayer mentality. Can the subframes crack? Yes. Can the rod bearings go out? Yes. Could it help to refresh the VANOS? Definitely. But there will always be cars that won't be affected by any of those things even without the preventive maintenance. In all likelihood Matt's car is fine in all categories at the moment, especially since it came from EAG. Now, it could so happen all those things affect the car in the future, but not everyone values that peace-of-mind equally. In any case I doubt he'd have any problem footing the bill. Another part of it I think is it seems he enjoys keeping the car as stock as possible since the car is so mint.

[lvm3sm46]

With the lack of mileage he will do with the car he's probably better off not touching it.

[jet_dogg]

I'm in the camp of couldn't possibly care any less than I already don't that a "relevant" youtuber just got an e46 m3. I just really don't care that matt farah, matt moreman, or anyone internet famous got an m3. Did I mention it means zero to me? It doesn't affect me, my life, my self-esteem, my enjoyment of the car or anything else. I prefer the opposite.

I don't care about stratospheric rising values and don't get hard-ons watching bat auctions. I'm almost disgusted at this whole situation to be honest.

The only good thing, which should have happened sooner, is the values rising just enough to keep these out of kids hands who raped them once people realized what I knew the day I picked mine up from the dealer 18 years ago.

[shibui]

I'm in the camp of couldn't possibly care any less than I already don't that a "relevant" youtuber just got an e46 m3. I just really don't care that matt farah, matt moreman, or anyone internet famous got an m3. Did I mention it means zero to me? It doesn't affect me, my life, my self-esteem, my enjoyment of the car or anything else. I prefer the opposite.

I don't care about stratospheric rising values and don't get hard-ons watching bat auctions. I'm almost disgusted at this whole situation to be honest.

The only good thing, which should have happened sooner, is the values rising just enough to keep these out of kids hands who raped them once people realized what I knew the day I picked mine up from the dealer 18 years ago.

Unfortunately I think a lot of those kids ruining/crashing some nice examples had a hand in the values rising. 😆

Take some solace in that it probably won't ever get as bad as what Porsche guys go through. Hopefully.

[r4dr]

Matt said the car had the subframe recall done and has the paperwork to prove it. Since EAG definitely knew about this, it makes a lot of sense why they said to leave the subframe alone. I'll quote our own sticky note:

The is the official BMW fix for the subframe issue. Foam costs ~$100, and the job takes ~30 minutes to do. To date, I have not see anyone have subframe failure so long as they did this BEFORE cracks developed at the subframe mount points. BMW part number 83190007361. I suggest doing both the driver and passenger side cavity, which requires two foam kits.

This platform does have a ton of armchair experts, which has its pluses and minuses.

The only fix I would say he does is drop a Dr. Vanos unit on there with all the good stuff, and keep an eye on oil analysis results. He's good to go.

[Obioban]

The subframe recall was just an inspection, unless cracks were seen.

[maw1124]

I agree with jett_dogg here that the YouTube and social media influencers don’t bring much of anything more than hype to the discussion. And I’m not one for hype. By the time they get to the party, the forum guys have already fully versed everyone in what’s worth knowing, and generally indicated to the influencer hype gang which cars are worth covering.

I’ve always made a practice of joining at least one forum for every car, because I’m always buying rare cars and don’t want to rely on the muppets at stealerships. This is my one that’s not so rare, which is really comforting actually. One of the reasons I bought it was “they made tons of them so everyone knows how to work on them and parts shouldn’t be an issue.”

This forum does great for this car, DIYer or not. Thanks. The 500EBoard is another standout forum for that car, probably the best I’ve seen period. I chose this forum because it comes the closest to that one, which I’ve been on forever. But I also follow E46Fanatics for a less, let’s say “passionate” take on the car. It’s still useful. The S55 forum on MBWorld used to do a great job, but with such a limited run vehicle and no collector hype, that forum now sounds like a farm in rural Louisiana on a hot summer’s night. The E55 and C63 forums there though are still must read internet if you have those cars.

I’m all for learning from others and contributing where I can, and have met some great people on car forums over the years. But the YouTube gang are really just there to bring attention to themselves most of the time, so I regard them as such.

maw

[Chas3n]

The subframe recall was just an inspection, unless cracks were seen.

This.

What’s worse, if there were cracks, a body shop (not BMW) would cut out the rear floor and weld in the vert one.

I’d prefer a car that did not have its chassis hacked up by a body shop.


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[Obioban]

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2001-bmw-m3-130/

145,000 mile imported, grey interior, 2001... .

Coupe/LSB/6mt-- $50,000

[oceansize]

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2001-bmw-m3-130/

145,000 mile imported, grey interior, 2001... .

Coupe/LSB/6mt-- $50,000

Sold for more money than a 46k mile manual 2005 ZCP in Interlagos with cloth seats from a year ago. lol

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2005-bmw-m3-50/

Or this tiag on grey with 27k miles. I guess color trumps everything.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2006-bmw-m3-coupe-77/

[Obioban]

Pretty sure coupe (and 6mt?) trumps all-- has their been any big ticket verts?

[oceansize]

Pretty sure coupe (and 6mt?) trumps all-- has their been any big ticket verts?

I meant within the world of manual coupes it would seem color is most important (not mileage, interior, zcp, or post 2003) as winning bid seems crazy considering the mileage and interior albeit the car is in great shape, but who knows at this point. It would seem irrational people have entered the game.

I do think there is a roughly equivalent anomaly on the vert side with that being a tiag on grey vert for $44k with 49k miles. Who would have ever thought?

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/20...onvertible-66/