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.

  • Lostjr Sedans have been made less practical, with low rooflines and steeply raked A pillars. It makes them harder to get in and out of. Probably harder to put a kid in a child seat. Sedans used to be more family oriented.
  • Bob Funny how Oldsmobile was offering a GPS system to help if you were lost, yet GM as a company was very lost. Not really sure that they are not still lost. They make hideous looking trucks, Cadillac is a crappy Chevy pretending to be fancy. To be honest, I would never step in a GM show room now or ever. Boring, cheap ugly and bad resale why bother. I get enough of GM when i rent on trips from airports. I have to say, does anybody at GM ever drive what everyone else drives? Do they ever then look at what crap they put out in style fit and finish? Come on, for real, do they? Cadillac updated slogan should be " sub standard of the 3rd world", or " almost as good as Tata motors". Enough said.
  • Sam Jacobs I want a sedan. When a buy a car or even rent one, I don’t want to ride up high. I don’t want a 5-door. I want a trunk to keep my stuff out of sight. It’s quieter, cars handle better, I don’t need to be at the same height as a truck. I have a 2022 Subaru Legacy Touring XT, best car ever, equipped as a luxury sedan, so quick and quiet. I don’t understand automakers’ decisions to take away sedans or simply stop updating them — giving up the competition. The Camry and Accord should not be our only choices. Impala and Fusion were beautiful when they were axed.
  • Spamvw I think you need to remember WHY the big 2 and 1/2 got out of the car business. Without going political, the CAFE standards signed into law meant unless you had a higher gas mileage fleet, you couldn't meet the standards.The Irony is that, the law made sedans so small with low roof lines, that normal people migrated to SUV's and Trucks. Now we get worse mileage than before.
  • TheEndlessEnigma Somehow, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai/Kia and Mazda are able to build sedans in North America AND turn a profit on those sedans at the same time.
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