Does anyone on the forum daily an E46 auto?
I'm still considering E46s to replace the Mazda I daily. The issue is that so far in the last year I've found precisely one E46 with a manual box for sale. It's in a rough area of town and the seller doesn't respond to questions thus far. I'm not keen on going in person over there - a rough part of Lima is a dangerous place to be, especially as a Gringo.
There are however various autobox E46s (325, 328 and 330s). Whilst I prefer manuals, I wonder what it would be like to daily an auto E46. I suppose it may help soften shock loadings in the drivetrain, and delay the boot floor/subframe cracking, but what is the autobox reliability like? I have VERY little experience with autos, only the ZF 6 spd in the LR3, which isn't totally hateful all the time, and the WJ box, which suited it's 'mobile sofa' character.
Is it possible to still have a play and balance on the throttle with an auto E46, or does the torque convertor really spoil that?
With Lima traffic, opportunities for playing aren't that common, just occasional low speed junctions, some dirt tracks, and one downhill tightening 270 degree off-camber with big 8" kerbs 'on-ramp' (especially fun when a truck leaking diesel has been down it before you...actually a common occurrence here!). It would still be nice to wind on opposite lock once in a while, however.
My parents had two E46 sedans--one with a stick and one with an auto--and I can't recall them have any transmission issues. Widow regulators, though, were a different story.
I had facelift 325i auto with sports package and it was pleasant daily.
I inherited a '00 automatic e46 328i and never got on with it. For whatever reason, the slushiness of the torque converter + the electronic throttle made it hard to hold a steady speed around town, sometimes it seemed to start out in 1st and sometimes 2nd which resulted in unpredictably abrupt takeoffs from a stop the times it grabbed 1st. (I know it sounds like I just don't know how to drive, but I don't have those issues with other brands of cars with slushboxes and definitely not in cars with sticks.) It's also pretty aggressive about downshifting when you lift the throttle, even in non-sport mode which is annoying to me. I don't want intense engine braking when I lift the throttle unless I manually call for it or the car is in sport mode.
There are two different autoboxes used in these cars, I think one's a GM and one's a ZF. IIRC, the 323/325 had the ZF and the 328/330 had the GM, but I could be wrong about that. I think the ZF is known for lunching the reverse band or something. The GM box is a lifetime fill unit with a life of supposedly around 100k.
I'd hold out for a manual myself. The car will be far more desirable to buyers when/if you sell it compared to a garden variety auto e46
