How about the fact that BMW designs their water pumps out of what I can only imagine are some legos, held together by Elmer's glue? Something that probably outlasts ownership of most cars in many other brands. Wastegates that fail prematurely. Turbos that go out before they should. BMWs are fun cars, but longevity is the last thing considered when they're designed. Google 'water pump failure' for BMW and it's literally designated a club to join on bimmer forums. Guess how many water pumps I've ever replaced in 15+ years of driving on other cars? It rhymes with hero if that helps you narrow it down.
My family (parents, siblings) have owned a few BMWs. Extended family has owned BMWs. Stuff breaks on them entirely too often, and the replacement parts are pricey. I almost bought a 3 series a while back until I was specifically told on a bimmer forum that it's almost a right of passage and source of pride that you do bi-monthly maintenance on some of these cars to keep them on the road. If you want to fight me on it, you're wasting your time because I don't really care, but anyone can feel free to google BMW reliability and see for themselves what a nightmare these cars can be. Not saying all models, because I won't pretend to know the ins and outs of every car ever manufactured by BMW, but it's enough that it's a fair association with the brand. Frequent, expensive repairs on a BMW being a tired trope? I appreciate the laugh this morning. Just giving my 2c to OP, ya'll are welcome to get defensive over a car brand if you'd like. Good luck OP
I think your perspective is skewed by bimmerforum lore and memes. The quality of posts on that website has ebbed and flowed greatly and owner demographic has changed rapidly to teenagers and wannabe tuners so you have a lot unreliable info on there now. I am a long, long time member there and personally own and maintain several models with legit issues like vanos/rod bearings/subframe integrity etc. So yeah, I know about a particular part of a car being turned into legend. And great, we all know e9x 335i issues. Next tell me that the 8 series is a reason not to own any BMW lol.
This is an individual who is perfectly capable and willing to spend less than half a day replacing a water pump, thermostat, expansion tank, and some belt tensioners ONE time in the likely length of ownership of said vehicle. Hell, he doesn't even need to replace anything but the water pump and expansion tank if he doesn't want to. We also don't know if it was already done by the PO. This isn't going to strand OP. 80k miles is the conservative estimate for a cooling system refresh. That's every 4 years if OP drives 20k miles per year. 1 half day every 4 years worst estimate of OPs time is certainly not frequent when you are honest with yourself.
You take advice from some random poster on bimmerforums likely just trying to scare kids away from the platform so they don't make an uneducated decision and feel better about their "cool" vanilla 3 series. So why not take input from me, an actual accomplished and professional mechanic? I'm not fighting you on anything other than that you are talking about something you don't actually know anything about other than something like your uncle had a car (we don't know anything about him or the car in question) and someone online told you "bro, like, you gotta actually like change the oil more than every 18k miles and like you know it costs $35 more dollars for a window switch than my Hyundai."
The replacement parts are definitely not pricey and no one should be buying parts from or getting their car serviced at a dealership unless they are old and rich in 2020. Hence, the use of realoem plus the myriad parts sources available at the click of a button.
Finally, I'm not arguing for people to go out and buy a 20 year old BMW. I am suggesting that OP would be a good candidate to take advantage of this situation given his particular abilities. I arguing that people shouldn't talk about things they actually have no experience with other than family anecdata and having 40 forum posts on bimmerforums lol.
Go drive and love your Japanese car. It's no skin off my nose and I truly hope you enjoy it! I'm out.
Edit: and just for fun I went on FCP Euro, one of the more expensive parts websites because they feature a true lifetime unlimited warranty on all parts they sell (ship your used oil back to them for free replacement no kidding) and searched e46 M3 waterpump and thermostat parts kit and it was ~250 bucks and that is paying the M tax on a more expensive chassis and for a legit lifetime warranty. So if one sourced the parts from big box auto store they would be similar price to any other vehicle these days. That has been my experience over 10+ years doing this for clients of various makes and models as well.
