Welcome to hoovy's garage the dumbest automotive channel in all of youtube - and this is a legend right here - a 2001 e46 chassis, bmw m3, a car considered by many bmw enthusiasts, to be some of the best they have ever made. If bmw had a marvel cinematic universe, this car, according to the fanboys, would be iron man, but i'm not sure if this thing deserves to be iron man, to be honest with you: yes, it is a legend and yes, it is a fine driving car, but does It really deserve its status that it has i'm kind of conflicted on this. But in my quest to assemble the bmw dream team, a lineup of cars that i consider to be the best of all time of any automaker ever bmw in 2001 - something that's not really being celebrated at all, even though it's his 20th anniversary, except by me, and Just me buying hoopty versions of it. I knew it wouldn't be complete without an e46 m3 in the model lineup, and this car does have a lot of really good things going for it now.

Don't get me wrong. I really do think this car is beautiful and it is a fine driving car with plenty of power, but i'm not sure if it deserves the hype that it currently has and the crazy prices, but some good things going, for it is certainly a worthy successor to The original bmw m3, a beautiful car from the e30 chassis with a four cylinder engine that screamed to a high red line, and it's certainly a huge improvement over the car that was in between the e36 m3, which in the us only had 240 horsepower. The interiors would fall apart and you could get them with normal slush box automatics, really not the best of bmw m cars ever and this well. This is way way better than that, but there are some downsides, which i shall show you in a tour of the e46 m3 and well.

This one i bought has a pretty big issue, but before we begin a tour on this legendary car that i'm unsure about i'd like to thank policy genius for sponsoring today's video and being a continued sponsor and policy genius can save you tons of money. As is america's leading online insurance marketplace, i've gotten great feedback from viewers about using policy genius and, if you've been holding out, do yourself a favor and see how much you can save on home and auto insurance policy. Genius makes it easy to compare home and auto insurance in one place and they can help you find home and auto coverage similar to what you have now, but at a lower price, they've saved shoppers up to 1 250 per year over what they were paying for Home and auto insurance now i know you probably have been with the same insurance company for years and it may have been a good deal at first, but from my experience, insurance companies tend to start lower, then gradually increase premiums over time. Often, at a rate, you don't notice until before you know it you're overpaying and when you have a hooptie fleet like mine, insurance is very important, but not only to have the best value on insurance, but the best coverage for what you need and policy genius is Here to help getting started with policy genius is easy, first head to policygenius.com hooves and answer a few quick questions about yourself and your property.

Then the policy genius team takes it from there they'll compare rates from america's top insurers from progressive to allstate to find your lowest quotes. The policy genius team can look for ways to save you more, including bundling your home and auto policies if they find a better rate than what you're paying now they'll switch you over for free. Their top-notch services, earn policy genius. Thousands of five-star reviews across trustpilot and google policy genius never sells your information to other companies and they do not add any extra fees.

So support me and my generous sponsors. They support so many other great youtube channels, so go to policygenius.comrubies and save yourself some money. Now, let's get back to spending money on bmws and the strangest and dumbest shopping spree that i have ever ever done. So, yes, it is dark outside and yes, we are still going to the car ninjas to get this bmw inspected in this video, but it will be in the morning.

For me, i have just a few days to make a bunch of youtube videos because of this crazy schedule that i have with tv shows and things. So i'm cramming a lot of things in bear with me. I'm almost at the end of this another two weeks and then i get back to a somewhat normal life. But let's start on this e46 m3 and let's start with the positives.

As i said earlier, this is a very worthy successor to the original m3 and it is absolutely gorgeous. They took the chassis, which was already good, looking and made it mo better. Starting with this hood, which you can see, has a little hump to it, to accommodate the larger s54 inline six intake and, of course, there's more bulges with the fenders. They originally put these gills in because they were functional to add extra cooling to the engine.

They weren't necessary, but they kept them on anyway and well. The wide hips continue to the rear. It is absolutely gorgeous, but also really subtle if this were parked far away next to a normal bmw, 3 series. Coupe most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference but enthusiasts, see this and see that it's an e46 and go oh, my god, and then they run inside and they look and make sure that it's a six speed.

Because if it is the smg, the automated manual transmission people will go, it's total dejection, it's not that horrible, but you want the 6-speed. This is the one to have the coupe with the manual transmission and it only has 77 000 miles on it. The engine of the hood is well a great one: high revving, you can see 8 000 rpm almost to the red line, and the presentation is very nice with the intakes. I think the horsepower 333 or 43 high 300s more than enough for a lightweight car of this size with a six-speed, makes it very fun.

And this is still a relatively simple bmw when it comes to all the extra gadgets and technology that kind of ruined bmws. That followed this after this, in my opinion, bmw became less of say, a driver's car building, the ultimate driving machine and building the best they could of that to how much technology they can cram into a car how much cool glitzy stuff they can do like. I drive and other things to make people come in and buy cars and well that's not what i like: that's not what old-school bmw enthusiasts like, but it was a huge success for them and their sales well skyrocketed. So they were right from a sales standpoint, but it's definitely not pure bmw from the old school, so this is considered by many to be the last of the breeds.

So why am i unsure about it being a legend? Well, it has to do with it. Being the last of the breed and well, some of those technology issues did creep into this thing, but first of all, the reason why i don't think this should be a legend in the same sentence as say an e39 m5, a car that i bought for the Bmw dream team as well that's getting fixed, it was quite a big project. Is production numbers the e39 m5 they made well, i think 10, 000 of them a little less than that for us sales and there's really nothing like it in terms of replacement. The next generation m5, which i had, which was absolute disaster, did come with a manual transmission option, but most of them were the smg automated transmissions, and they were a nightmare for multiple reasons.

The most unreliable bmw ever made many considered to be the worst, even though it was good, looking and incredible power with the v10 engine, but the e39 is really the last. The breed with a great engine, almost 400 horsepower six-speed manual and nothing like that has been made ever since a mid-size, almost full-size sedan with a six-speed manual transmission and a great v8 under the hood plus pretty darn rare, like i said, less than 10 000 of Them in the us, the e46 m3, on the other hand, was a lot more common production as far as u.s sales, there's 30 or 40 000 of these. So a lot of them and most of them were six speed manuals. So there are a lot of these still on the road and as far as bmw, making a car like this.

Well, they still kind of make it today with the two series, the m2, the m2 cs, the m3s that follow there's a lot of great models with the v8s and such so really. This isn't the end-all be-all of the m3 in this form. Just when it comes to normally aspirated inline-sixes, which i guess is what bmw was famous for after this, there was v8s and then turbos and all that jazz. So it is the last in some ways, but really you can go into a bmw, showroom and buy kind of a car like this nowadays with some turbos.

That is a lot faster and well way more fun. Another reason why i think these cars are a little over hyped. Is this the beginning of bmw's really inexcusable mechanical snafus that started taking place in the engine in other places before bmws? They were made fun of because of their cooling systems. That would get brittle and be made of plastic and things falling apart in that nature, but not things that were just engineered badly from the start, like rod bearings the engine on this car that would fail before a hundred thousand miles the vanos issues that would pop Up the regular valve adjustments so get way out of spec and make these things total dogs.

The suspension also didn't hold up real well and well. Interior wise. It was much better built in the generation before, but i mean you look at this and think this is a 30 40 000 car. Now i didn't pay that much for it, because it has a serious issue and that's despite the fact that it only has 70 something thousand miles on it.

77 000 miles and a big stack of service records which i'll go through well in the morning. When i take this thing for a drive to the car ninjas to look this thing over and i'll show you the really really scary issue, which is why i got this thing so cheap, so 77, 000 gently and well maintained miles mostly at a bmw dealership. Some issues, like the tire pressure, monitor light on, even though the tire pressures are all good uh. The visor for this sunroof has fallen in here or it's disappeared, but the big issue, and why i got this thing somewhat cheap - is this noise, which is not on right now, because i have the clutch in, but when i release a clutch, we have this strange Wine now normally, you would think, throw out bearing since it's related to the clutch, but a throw out bearing usually rattles.

It doesn't make this noise that actually goes with the engine as far as revving put the clutch in it goes away. So i have no idea what that is, but what i do know is it drives totally fine, otherwise, and the only other issues that i know of is a really big oil leak. Unfortunately, i can't leave the clutch in all the time, though, but once you let it out and let the s54 and line six go. Oh, it's! It's really good 333 horsepower, which is i mean plenty, it's absolutely perfect.

The interior. The quality of this thing is fantastic. The car feels substantial. It is the ultimate driving machine it.

It is what bmw stood for all these years ago 20 years ago, so different. Now, until you stop and put the clutch out, then you hear that again i mean i do get why these are so expensive. It's such a huge jump in quality, with everything from the previous generation m3, the e36 and the one that followed with the v8 and other things. Well, it's just it's not the same car.

It's a big bloated! Not this! Not this! That's why i'm taking the highway to the ninjas instead of the normal round? Oh wow, but, as i said, these things are very expensive and it's so big of a delta nowadays between this and say a normal three series with the performance pack, that's ehp that it doesn't make very much sense to me to own one of these over say A 330, especially if you can get one with the four-door and have a little more practicality, you get basically the same driving experience with a little bit less power, but i mean 333 horsepower nowadays a camry's doing that. So, who really cares if it's a little less than a three series and you get way way less maintenance headaches? You don't have to worry about all the thanos crap or rod, bearings or well. In this case, a transmission. The m3 is sort of the beginning of the era of bmw really losing its way when it comes to quality of the mechanicals 77 000 miles, and this thing is basically already mechanically told itself and service records and well who knows what's next, but man, it's nice.

It's probably worth putting up with, but i mean you could get a c5 corvette for less money have better performance and a more reliable car. I guess if you're getting a backseat, a gto, but those all those gto's aren't very pretty. Maybe it's worth we'll see if it's worth it when the car ninja takes a look, because that oily could be something really expensive. Ninja nice nice, a little nicer than the last one huh you improved a lot yeah, i'm proud of you.

2001. M3. 77 000 miles. Stacker records, so the vanos has been done with the valve adjustment.

The rod bearings have been done. Perfect. Don't need to worry about that perfect. What we do need to worry about is this.

Take a listen. I got the clutch in clutch out. Oh, it goes away. It's not throw up bearing no.

No, we can listen more once he's in the air. It's talking to you yeah. It also has a pretty decent oil leak because it's a bmw yeah what they're doing a little behind the scenes with a high quality camera for johnny's new channel car ninja, because you guys are divorcing right, uh, just a trial separation. Oh, i see okay, so go to your new car ninja youtube page.

Yes, yes, okay! Thank you! No problem that would be the the 9th or the 10th youtube channel in town right for cars, probably well according to elliot there's nine. So that would be 10. number. 10, yes, very nice, okay, um! I was hoping that the leak came from your um timing chain tensioner.

It's not it's not yeah, because that's a very easy fix. Now there is a plug beneath your uh manifold exhaust manifold and that's kind of a pain to get to so so we need to see that up in the air yep. So what you wanted to see it running up in the air anyway, so i guess we'll do that the uh transmission, but it looks nice, it's it looks perfect. Do you think these cars are worth the hype and all the trouble that keep them running? Yeah yeah and you're not saying that just because you make a fortune off of fixing these.

No i mean they're, pretty cool, very reliable engine. Main thing is yeah, where rod bearings go out in 70, 80 000 miles. They don't go out, you're supposed to change them or just change your oil on time. So you buy more time and i had one with 180 000 miles and the road bearings are never been done.

Okay well and then the vano stuff and the valve adjustments and everything i'm telling you the guy, had the car with 40 000 miles put 140 on it sold it to me and pretty much. I did all the service on it. So it's how you service the car, i think there's a little bit of a bias sample here, of course, he's going to say that, but anyway up we go because in my mind this is urination, bob's, car and yeah, it's an automatic and that kind of kills. These things, but it's a big burberry v8 and these things are worth like half or less than the m3.

Oh another thing, while you're in there my uh it's gone. Has it disappeared, i'm going to say the entire life real, quick? Oh there we go you've already fixed my entire life. Yes, that was one of the other things i was going to ask you about. Where is it? Maybe you don't even have one did it fall out, or maybe somebody removed it for for weight to save all the two pounds, because that is like half a pound or so okay, i'm gon na remove some covers, because this doesn't make any sense if it's engine Oil or transmission fluid it kind of looks like transmission fluid.

So wait, are you? Are you wizarding? Were you tasting, no just smelling and it does smell like gear oil? So this is your transmission leaking? Oh, so the big leak is not. The engine looks really dry. Yes, so i'm about to crack the uh filler plug and see if there's any fluid in it um for your noise, because it sounds like like a windy turbine stuff. You know yeah, so i could just be low on fluid uh.

Or did i burn something up from being low on fluid? Yes, yeah yeah, it might be too late on that. Where is it leaking from? If it's over here it has to be on the on the main seal, the front seal looks really good. Yeah uh-oh looks really good, but there is a tiny differential leak from the pinion um. It's not a big deal.

I mean it's not leaking badly badly, but it's totally up to you. If you want to fix it well, if you're taking the transmission. Now you take the drive shaft out so then you'd have to fix it yeah if the transmission needs to come out, which is looking more and more likely. Huh yeah and also your uh right height for your headlights is coming apart.

So that's just a little sensor for just the headlights, yeah yeah. So when you turn your headlines, headlights turns with you yeah. I might have to change this. The rod, i think that's the least of our worries, so the transmission you're going to check the level here.

Yes, in a second and some goo came out and look at that is the same exact fluid that is leaking over here yeah. So it's not low. It's it's not low, probably been topped off, but then yeah it's sort of a fairly futile effort fresh. It does have some sparkles in it wonderful anyway, uh the rest is perfect.

I mean you got brand new brakes all around no leaky struts. You got all the plastics which is weird for an m3, so i would say this is well taken care of um other than the fact that it's already had rod, bearings done and the banner is done and then the transmission is gone at 70 000. So these are amazing. Cars super reliable.

Yes, this this inception filming is really throwing me off here. It's uh all right! Well, should we look up it's going to be used transmission? Obviously, obviously, yes, let's look it up in the uh other things huh by by far this is the cheapest estimate. You ever got from me. So oh really, yeah 695 dollars yeah does not include the transmission you're gon na provide that yourself.

So, oh, okay, so that's just labor labor in one steal, ten dollars 695. Unfortunately, a used transmission is like three thousand dollars so yeah could be worse. I mean there's not much else wrong. I'm glad that leak was related to the issue.

So not that not bad, not bad! I mean i bought it, knowing that that was going to be a problem and it turned out to be worst case scenario so can't complain that much and it is a beautiful m3 we're rounding out this dream team ninja, making you rich, oh yeah, thank you for Watching you.