Used Car of the Day: 2004 BMW 330ci Convertible

by Tim Healey

Published: August 8th, 2023

used car of the day 2004 bmw 330ci convertible

As George Costanza once said, "there's still a little summer left." So if a drop-top appeals to you and you want one before the snow flies, this 2004 BMW 330ci convertible could be for you. Or you could live in Southern California or Florida and just have summer all the time.

Ahem. Anyway, this one-owner car has apparently been well-maintained and is in great interior and exterior shape. There are 144K miles on this six-speed manual.

The car has the Sport package and an upgraded speaker system, as well as Bluetooth.

The seller asks $8,000. Click here to check out this Oregon-based ride.

[Images: Seller]

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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.

More by Tim Healey

Comments

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7 of 21 comments

Johnds on Aug 09, 2023

I couldn’t recommend this car to anyone unless they were able to drop $5-10,000 for a repair or to maintain the vehicle. I’ve had friends buy cars like this, in his case it was an E class. He got a $11,000 repair bill and couldn’t afford a fix. It was only 12 years old and had barely over 100k miles. Unless you’re a mechanic, it’s a big liability.

3 Reply
- See 1 previous
- 28-Cars-Later on Aug 09, 2023
  
  Recon is always the variable.
  
  Like
- 2ACL on Aug 09, 2023
  
  @28
  And proper perspective. 'Baller on a budget' types need to keep it moving. Keeping something like this going is a labor of love.
  
  1
Theflyersfan on Aug 09, 2023

100% agree with others here - with a stick and in this condition, and can put aside $3-6K right away for what should only be a nice weekend toy, this is a great car from near the end of peak BMW. These aren't complicated in the interior, still look great and are not overdone unlike almost every other BMW right now, and this generation was just fun to drive. The right size, the right engine, the right look and feel. I would call this perfection if the miles were lower. But for 8K? No problem.

Now if there are any low mileage garage-kept Z3s out there...

1 Reply
- See 2 previous
- 28-Cars-Later on Aug 09, 2023
  
  Years ago I read there is some kind of design flaw with the Z3 where it can easily kill the driver in some kind of sideways collision (something like impact between B and C pillar and it collapses) and the Z4 remedies this. I think at this point pricing is similar between late Z3 and earlier Z4, why take a chance?
  
  $8K is very steep for this E46 IMO unless it comes with a stack of receipts. Adjusted MMR (to 150K miles) is $2,775, avg is $4,0 with 115K. This with no receipts may be a buy at $3,5-4 depending on condition of tires etc. The erstwhile drop top connoisseur should take his $8-10K to a better example.
  
  1
- SPPPP on Aug 10, 2023
  
  @28CarsLater - Your brain makes good points, but my gut says this one is a "yes". Seller's listing gives off a good vibe of a well-maintained car.
  
  2
- 2ACL on Aug 12, 2023
  
  @SPPPP: I don't blame you, as I can't imagine these getting any easier to find. The E46 is an earlier example of what I'm finding to be the case with my FA5 Si: plentiful in its prime, yet old enough that many of the survivors on the market now are more used up than not. Cherry specimens are already in the hands of connoisseurs and would-be investors, so some concessions might be required for those who want one before the latter group starts inflating prices.
  
  Like

Recent Comments

28-Cars-Later Actually pretty appealing (apparently I'm doing this now). On a similar note, a friend of mine had a difficult situation with a tenant which led to eviction and apparently the tenant has abandoned a 2007 Jag S-Type with unknown miles in the garage so he called me for an opinion. Before checking I said $2-3 max, low and behold I'm just that good with the 3.0L clocking in at $2,3 on average (oddly the 4.2 V8 version only pulls $2,9ish) and S-Types after MY05 are supposedly decent.
DO I have owned a 2012 LR4 since day one and it has been the best vehicle I have ever had the pleasure of having in the garage. I know how easy it is to hate on Land Rover but this LR4 is comfortable, has a ton of storage room and is so versatile. With 110k miles, mine is now relegated to ‘other’ car use but is still the go to for off road adventures and snow runs. Nice to see one featured here - I think they are so underrated.
Tane94 I'd be curious to know whether 87 octane is no longer the most popular grade of gasoline by sales volume. My Costco often runs out of Premium grade and I suspect 93 octane might now be the most popular grade of gas. Paying 40-50 cents more per gallon 87 vs 93 octane because of turbo engines is the real story
Redapple2 125 large? You re getting into 911 territory.
Redapple2 Industry worst quality prevents any serious consideration. I ll take an Evil gm Vampire Denali first.