Just sold my 1er which was supposed to be my track rat....I'm slowly shopping for a good E46 M3...I have other cars so this one will be my track car..it will be hardcore...I'm just waiting for the right car, right price and I will pull the trigger. I originally wanted a CPO 06-07 M3 when I ordered my 1er in late 07 but didn't do so...After two years of driving a car that is a beast on straight with gobbs of torque ...I sold it took a bath and now ready for the E46 M3...No more HPFP issues nor warranty issues(Going to maintain it myself/along with independant shops).Coming from bikes and Honda/Acura in my younger days, I can add also miss high reving N/A engines...reving the N54 past 5000 rpm was useless even with a tune.
Get an E46 don't look back..you'll still have money for an other car...while if you put all your eggs in one basket with the E9X things might be different. The only people that are saying why did you sell a newer car with 13K miles on it are people who are not into car but more into status and image. All the people are me (relatives,friends etc) are saying that the E46 looks old and is for people that are trying to pretend to be rich by driving an old bimmer....little do they know....I just let them talk. (I have a pic of my 1er with my friends AW E46 M3 the more that I look at it the more that I find that the 135 looks a bit better but...that didnt keep me from selling it for an old Bimmer that has a real LSD). I'm more into function over form.
Op: I wanted to get an E90 M3 but I figured out that the the E9X M3 don't really fit my needs...The E9X are very good DD and I already have 3 car that I can DD.....might as well spend less money and have more fun (also less depreciation). OH and that rasp
......And let's be honest in this economy 40K....yes 40K can get you far these days....60K for a used M3 over here against 20-25K for an 02-03.(Canada) Even the 05 that you're looking at can be good bang for the buck. You could drive it for an other year or two and trade in it for an 08 E9X. By then you will see when the first 08 reach 4-5 years old the depreciation curve will the a bit steeper so you will be able to pick them up for next to nothing(as compared to now)