[dancorvette06]

Me and a few of my buds are wanting Manual E90 335i’s for senior Yr. We have all put in a lot of research, and personally I have 3 friends with Manual e90s (one N55, two N54). I have a $9,000 budget and am going to pay 1/2. Considering that, hopefully, by next summer the used car prices will chill. Do you recommend the 335i as a first car?

[RnmEvo9]

Originally Posted by dancorvette06

Me and a few of my buds are wanting Manual E90 335i’s for senior Yr. We have all put in a lot of research, and personally I have 3 friends with Manual e90s (one N55, two N54). I have a $9,000 budget and am going to pay 1/2. Considering that, hopefully, by next summer the used car prices will chill. Do you recommend the 335i as a first car?

Nope, it's not a good first car. Get yourself a Civic or Corolla for a first car as it will be much more reliable to take you to your destinations. Once you are familiar with the rules of the road and have more disposable income coming in, upgrade it if you so desire.

[Saif2018]

Originally Posted by dancorvette06

Me and a few of my buds are wanting Manual E90 335i’s for senior Yr. We have all put in a lot of research, and personally I have 3 friends with Manual e90s (one N55, two N54). I have a $9,000 budget and am going to pay 1/2. Considering that, hopefully, by next summer the used car prices will chill. Do you recommend the 335i as a first car?

Definitely not a good first car, unless you are ready to spend a lot on maintenance/running costs

[Cubieman]

$9000 in today's money will get you a >150k deferred maintenance 335i in all probability which means you could have some big time frustrations/bills.

I wouldn't want any BMW as a first car honestly, but that all depends what $ you have to throw around, how much downtime you can afford and your mechanical ability.

Maybe find a nice E46 325/330, sporty, good looks and MUCH less problems then the N54, the N54 engine itself seems alright, its just everything around it that sucks.

People spend so much time and $ on these N54s it's crazy...I guess I'm in that group now.

For a first car I guess I couldn't think of a worse choice tbh, MAYBE a 335d or N52 based car as the least, but most def. not an N54/55.

All American here but think Asian, or find a used last gen Pontiac GTO/C5 Corvette or something if you want performance and don't have to shell out quite as much in maintenance.

[E90lmao]

I started with an E46 as my first bmw then graduated to an E90 335i after a few years of working on my e46 and I'm glad I practiced on an E46. If you break something on an E46 it's a lot cheaper to fix than an N54 E90 trust me. You want to learn how bmws work with a cheaper car first then once you understand bmw things (plastic clips, retaining clips on coolant lines) then get an N54 so you won't spend a fortune learning on how everything does and doesn't come apart 😬

[bimmerfan1972]

I love my 2011 E92 but if you have not worked on cars before I would not do it. And I don't mean oil changes and tires, I mean really working on cars. My car is very reliable now, but I've fixed pretty much everything that routinely breaks, and a lot of stuff breaks on it. Parts can be expensive but if you are willing to do the work you can save a lot of money and it's a great car. The car is so powerful though, I'm not sure I want a 17 year old driving it, but maybe that's me. At 17 I would have destroyed a 300+ hp car and probably killed myself.

[chris82]

Originally Posted by bimmerfan1972

I love my 2011 E92 but if you have not worked on cars before I would not do it. And I don't mean oil changes and tires, I mean really working on cars. My car is very reliable now, but I've fixed pretty much everything that routinely breaks, and a lot of stuff breaks on it. Parts can be expensive but if you are willing to do the work you can save a lot of money and it's a great car. The car is so powerful though, I'm not sure I want a 17 year old driving it, but maybe that's me. At 17 I would have destroyed a 300+ hp car and probably killed myself.

it's a fast car for 17 that's for damn sure

[lookalikehuuh]

DO NOT BUY A 335I AS A FIRST CAR.

Take your $9k and go find a good Corolla or Civic you will thank me in 5 years.

I will be straight up, I'm an engineer by trade and have more than $10K in tools in my garage just to keep up with maintenance on my 2 BMWs. Even if you DIY your own repairs the cost of parts for a 335i can set you back $1K+ easily for a single failure. If you don't DIY then make sure you have $3-5K ready at any random point in time for immediate repairs.

[tej98]

I agree with all other responses. A 335i is not a great first car at all, mostly for two main reasons - repairs and safety for a new driver.

If you aren't working on the car yourself, you will need a substantial amount saved to keep the car running in the first place. I'm thinking that a $9k 335i is really a $15k car when it's all said and done with repairs. And that's really only counting the parts cost, I have no idea what labor costs would look like.

I would not want anyone I know to have a 335i as their first car even if they could work on it and afford the parts. A RWD twin turbo car that makes tons of torque before 3k is a recipe for disaster with a new driver. Add in some inclement weather and experimenting with turning DSC off and all bets are off. To be 100% clear, if the 335i was my first car there is a very high chance I wouldn't be here today.

If I had to recommend a first car, I'd look into N52 328i E90s or 330i cars. These are robust, make decent power, are simple to work on, and a great way to get into cars without much risk. Great opportunity to learn and get ready for an N54 car.

My first car was an E46 323 5spd, and I loved it. Learned how to work on BMWs and provided great reliability.

[Cubieman]

A 323 would be a great one if it must be a BMW, I forgot we are talking about a 17 year old here, disregard my comments about a GTO/Corvette!

My first car was a 97' Grand AM GT and I got myself in trouble plenty with that (180hp?)

If it snows where you live you will hate yourself for getting a RWD daily as well.

[BSM n54iS]

I think your username should be your first car tbh

[dancorvette06]

Thank you so much for your responses. I really appreciate it

[Torgus]

Can you afford new injectors and to install them? https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...-13538616079kt

This is just one example of an expensive part that is known to fail on the N54. Even if you work on your car yourself and do all maintenance you need at least 3-4k in cash at all times because shit will break.

Also, a tuned 400whp/450wtq rwd car is way to much for a new driver. Sorry, this is a fact. You want a POS to learn to drive manual on REALLY good. Then move into a 335i or whatever you fancy.

As said above get a civic or something similar with a manual. Good MPG, reliable, and will get you through HS and college and maybe your 1st few years out of college when you are not making decent money yet.

[Saif2018]

Injectors, HPFP, Turbos etc N54 is a money pit for new drivers and I agree a tuned N54 is a deathtrap for a new driver too.

[F13.KENN]

I bought my 335i when i was 18 and somewhat regret buying it early. Just turned 21 now. Have matured a lot over the last year and a half but man have i done many STUPID things with the car when i was 18 & 19.

If i could do it again i wouldve got an e46 and saved my money. If i did that i would be in very nice m3/m4 or maybe even a mk5 supra.

Bought my car for $8500 fully loaded, and have spent $13k in the last 2.5 years in maintenance and mods. But i have driven it just shy of 100k miles since ive owned it and i am very aggressive with maintenance & my single turbo kit has slapped a lot of extra $$$ on my total costs

[E92.Dom]

Like the guy above me said, I'm almost 21 now and bought my car when I was 16, I have loved every second the hood and the bad of owning such a special car, my dream car if you will. However I regret getting it as my first car. I wish I had a car to beat on and not feel bad about, an e36 or something to learn how to work on cars and beat the piss out of. But do whatever is going to make you happy.

[ash6r]

I got my 135i N54 two years ago when I was 21 as my second car. When it works, it’s a blast lol. When it doesn't, it’s really annoying and super expensive. Plus, for 9k its gonna be a high mileage and not that well looked after I bet.

When you get it pretty much you will have to do all the gaskets (ofhg, oil cooler gasket, valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket), coils, spark plugs, drive belt, pulleys, water pump, any plastic hoses or pipes that have dried up and become brittle. If it’s been driven hard for its whole life, you will probably end up having to do the suspension bushes, control arms, drop links etc. Then comes the expensive items such as turbos (2k for stock ones or 1k for chinese hybrids), injectors (2k minimum nowadays), high pressure fuel pump (1k for the part). For that I would recommend you log car your car with MHD to see if you need to replace any of the expensive items. I log mine as often as I can.

I sometimes do regret getting this and wished I saved up a bit more got myself a M240i with the B58(way more reliable). But i do like the hydraulic steering of these cars and they let you feel more of the road. I test drove a M240i and it seemed quite numb.

I'm not telling you not to get the car, but make sure you have a few grand available at all times just in case something breaks later down the line. You'll definitely spend at least 1k fixing all the oil leaks at the start. I don’t think 300hp is too much to handle. I came from a 60hp VW polo. The acceleration was big step up but since these cars already have amazing handling, they're quite planted and very predictable. The few times I have turned off traction fully in the wet going around corners at speed I was able to correct it easily and was never out of control. The only car my gf has ever driven was mine and she was able to drive at speed fine in the wet and such. Just have common sense and respect the power.

[Cubieman]

How in the hell you young guys have money out of high school for these cars is beyond me..

[Saif2018]

Originally Posted by Cubieman

How in the hell you young guys have money out of high school for these cars is beyond me..

My thoughts exactly,

Could barely afford a E36 320i as my first car, a E36 3.0 M3 with 286bhp felt crazy fast in a mates car years after and was well out of my reach.

[F13.KENN]

Originally Posted by Cubieman

How in the hell you young guys have money out of high school for these cars is beyond me..

For me, i started a&p school 3 weeks after high school & was out at 19. Hired into commercial aircraft maintenance shortly after. Absolutely love what i do every day & the pay is pretty great on the commercial side, especially for being 21

[Spyro235]

I owned my 335i from 22 to 25. It was a crazy fast car. I would not recommend this for a first time driver. There were a few times early on that the traction control really saved my ass. the quick spooling lays into the power, and you can lose grip gradually enough as it spools that an inexperienced driver will have the car get away from you. I also actually found that I enjoy the balance of driving my e46 ZHP (330i) better on the streets, I like the steering and chassis feel a bit better.

I would HIGHLY recommend an e46 for a first car. Great cars to learn manual, and not crazy powerful enough to get you in a ton of trouble if the car gets away from you. More then enough power- my drift car is a stock powered 330i. My current fun street car is my 330 ZHP, and it's more than fast enough to get out of it's own way and is super fun to drive!

[Wolf 335]

I've said this before,

Owning a 335i is like dating a gold digging instagram model that you know will screw you over within the first month.

Because she will excite you, you will enjoy getting screwed over on a monthly basis and even ask for more.

Then one day when your belt snaps and gets sucked into he engine, or injector fails, or alternator dies, or literally any cooling system componenet fails,... that day as you stand on the side of the highway freezing your ass off in -30C snow fall, while some bastard is hooking up your car on a flat bed... is when you realize wtf have i done.