Used Car of the Day: 2002 BMW 330i

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

Remember when the BMW 3-Series was considered the almost perfect sports sedan? Pepperidge Farm remembers. And so do I. This E46 2002 BMW 330i is also a reminder.


It has just over 130K miles on it, and the seller is asking for $15,250. It's a manual and the seller has owned it for 10 years and is now looking to off-load it due to "life changes." We've all been there, I think.

The owner added the turbo a few years ago and says its E85 compatible. He or she has all the maintenance documents available. Same for the documentation of the turbo build.

It's a California car. Go check it out here.

[Images: The seller]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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3 of 21 comments
  • Astigmatism Astigmatism on Jan 25, 2023

    Boy, what a rolling disaster this thing likely is.


    Which is a pity. I had a 2002 330ci when it was new, black sapphire metallic over tan leather, and it is by far my favorite car that I've ever owned to this day.

  • El scotto El scotto on Jan 25, 2023

    For the next three weeks: Price is firm! Three weeks after that: Price lowered! and 28 more pictures. Three weeks after that: Price on a for sale sign and a note: trades considered. Three weeks after that: Must Sell $ 6000.00 OBO. Three weeks after that: Jr's dad pays 4k cash. New driver dings and scrapes? Doesn't matter a whit. Any repair over $800? It goes to the junkyard. Jr will be the last but very proud owner of this BMW.

  • Mike-NB2 This is a mostly uninformed vote, but I'll go with the Mazda 3 too.I haven't driven a new Civic, so I can't say anything about it, but two weeks ago I had a 2023 Corolla as a rental. While I can understand why so many people buy these, I was surprised at how bad the CVT is. Many rentals I've driven have a CVT and while I know it has one and can tell, they aren't usually too bad. I'd never own a car with a CVT, but I can live with one as a rental. But the Corolla's CVT was terrible. It was like it screamed "CVT!" the whole time. On the highway with cruise control on, I could feel it adjusting to track the set speed. Passing on the highway (two-lane) was risky. The engine isn't under-powered, but the CVT makes it seem that way.A minor complaint is about the steering. It's waaaay over-assisted. At low speeds, it's like a 70s LTD with one-finger effort. Maybe that's deliberate though, given the Corolla's demographic.
  • Mike-NB2 2019 Ranger - 30,000 miles / 50,000 km. Nothing but oil changes. Original tires are being replaced a week from Wednesday. (Not all that mileage is on the original A/S tires. I put dedicated winter rims/tires on it every winter.)2024 - Golf R - 1700 miles / 2800 km. Not really broken in yet. Nothing but gas in the tank.
  • SaulTigh I've got a 2014 F150 with 87K on the clock and have spent exactly $4,180.77 in maintenance and repairs in that time. That's pretty hard to beat.Hard to say on my 2019 Mercedes, because I prepaid for three years of service (B,A,B) and am getting the last of those at the end of the month. Did just drop $1,700 on new Michelins for it at Tire Rack. Tires for the F150 late last year were under $700, so I'd say the Benz is roughly 2 to 3 times as pricy for anything over the Ford.I have the F150 serviced at a large independent shop, the Benz at the dealership.
  • Bike Rather have a union negotiating my pay rises with inflation at the moment.
  • Bike Poor Redapple won't be sitting down for a while after opening that can of Whiparse
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