Comments on: 2007 BMW M3 V8 Engine Details

By: Bavarian Missile

Bavarian Missile — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:54:23 +0000

Up till now its been my Sunday car so Ive always done around 5000 ks a year……..only running costs are services,thats all thats been done on it in the 4 years Ive had her, oil, coolant, filters, tyres {last about 10,000 ks on her ,like most performance tyres} that sort of thing,she is a low ks car hard to find I know. Make sure you get it checked out!

Find a low k car and you should be fine,brakes can be a bit exy even with non genuine parts ,I was lucky all four rotors and pads replaced on mine before I bought it,will need a new clutch I guess in the next 12 months but thats only about $1300 to replace similar to if not cheaper than your average Aussie performance car,clutch kit about $600 so parts not that bad as you would think. If you go on the Caradvice Forum and look me up in the members section you will see my car. Cheers

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:33:48 +0000

Yes, but the point was that it doesn’t take much to turn the thing into a serious performance machine at a fraction of the cost of an M3. I was actually quite disappointed with the stock car, but its great fun now. Nonetheless, have been considering a 2-3 year old E46 as an upgrade. What are running costs like assuming 15,000km per annum?

By: Bavarian Missile

Bavarian Missile — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:21:21 +0000

Maybe Jason but the point is yours is modified,there are many cars we could spend $10000 on it will out accelerate the M3,this M3 will run to the red line all day long and without having to take it to your ricer tuner to tweak it!Im betting my stock E36 M3 {yep thats ten years old} would have out run your stock Rex,Ive had a few runs with Rex’es and they are yet to catch me. Oh dont get me wrong Im a fan of REX’es bang for buck there great value,would be my choice if I didnt have the M3.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:00:47 +0000

I probably shouldn’t be posting this in this forum, but food for thought. I own an MY06 WRX. I have spent about $10k on it and after driving the new M3 and GTS, would comfortably say that my humble 2.5l turbo would wipe the floor with both in terms of both handling and acceleration. For the extra $10k the car is pumping out over 200kw at the wheels, close to 450nm in peak torque and in the two years I have had it, it hasn’t skipped a beat. Yes, its a plastic fantastic rice burner (albeit genetically engineered rice) but for the money and performance I am finding it very hard to part with.

By: Merlin

Merlin — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 07:34:28 +0000

Ok all good points,I own a bmw e39 528i,best dam car I’ve ever owned,has things in that holden/fords didn’t when it came out.

As for reliability,there’s a BIG myth about bmws, people think there bullet proof,well there only bullet proof if you service them at least every 12 months if not 6 for things like oil,there’s a reason why bmw ENGINEER there cars different,how else do you think there motors are so smooth,engineering philosophy is second to none,if that means pushing the boundaries and getting it wrong form time to time,rather that than a BORING slapped together Toyota!

As for petrol,OttoAu! My bmw runs on 91 or 95 for that mater,or 98 to while were at it,it stipulates in my owners hand book that for optimum performance of my m52 i6 (not a hipo motor) it is best to use 98,take it form me,if i run the cheap stuff it drinks it!

There a good reason why we’d all sell our grandmas for an m3,it’s not just the motor it’s the whole dam car,i’ve driven an e46 m3 and that car is just of the planet,makes a good track car,yet a well balanced daily driver to!

As for performance,my 2.5 i6 can out handle any thing on the twisty’s (it’s a bmw after all) has enough pace to keep up with traffic,us bmw owners are use to old story,my you know what is bigger than your you know what,and im NOT talking CI :p

By: Lisa Preston

Lisa Preston — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:50:06 +0000

Oh forgot to say,check out http://www.rsportscars.com for more under wrap photos of the NEW M3.

By: Lisa Preston

Lisa Preston — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:46:57 +0000

I hate the argument that come from Aussie Muscle Car owners when it comes to getting done by a Euro 3.0 litre . I normally get ‘Well what do you expect bro,my fully sick Commodore didn’t cost me $140.000,it doesn’t come with all that technolgy” Grow up ! In the UK last year you could buy a Fully Sick 6.0 litre Monaro for 36,000 pounds or an E46 M3 for 37.000 pounds.Don’t think they sold more Monaros,do you? If you want to put the VE up against BMs Motorsport range then stop complaing about the cost of it! Apples with apples please. And whats with Holden every time they add another litre and extract 10 kilowatts from it putting a badge on the back .OH look its got 307 kw oh impressive. Thank god BMW doesn’t put 373 kw on the badges on the M5 and 309 on the new M3.Even Ford doesn’t bother with that crap. Yes I have owned Commodores , had 2 SS and 2 Brock. Kept buying another each time one would go back to the dealer for yet another problem. Finally learnt that for my driving style,BMW was the only one that could handle the punishment {got an M3}. Didn’t even Holden in an early Wheels article for VE state something about the VE being a bogan BMW. Hey Holden you know China make there own BMW’s un badged of course ,maybe instead of spending a billion on the VE you should have put an order in to China for some copies and then just rebadged them Commodores? Similar quality too ! Get original Holden,stop coping every one elses ideas.Should have called the VE a Heinz,it has sooo many of every one else’s stuff on it. And finally if Holden could match BMWs policy of extracing 100hp for every litre then that would mean the 6.litre would have as much grunt as V8 supercar! Hows your drive train like that Holden ? Bang!!!

By: Devil's Advocate

Devil's Advocate — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:40:29 +0000

Just an update WRT Displacement on Demand (DoD) on the V8 VE models. Don’t even think about it. When they went from VZ to VE, they changed the 6.0L V8 from the L76 to the L98. What doesn this mean? The L76 in the VZ was DoD capable and was disconnected by GM Holden for various reason (even though pre release of VZ they leaked that it would be active, typical). However in the VE, the L98 is NOT DoD capable. Why did GM Holden do this? As usual they say one thing and do another. They love going forwards in some areas (chassis and suspension which is world class) and backwards in others (the drivetrain, how can anyone make a high tech V6 engine sound just as gruff and vibrate just as much as the old push rod buick that was fitted before it. It is one of the few multi-valve, quad cam V6s I know of that DOESN’T like to rev, WTF). Why they still use that old clunker of a 4sp auto in an otherwise refined package has got me. So much for “Holden meaning a great deal to Australia”…

By: Mike Francis

Mike Francis — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 01:25:20 +0000

Feel I must make some comment re claims above of reliability issues with Beemers. My experience with having owned 6 of them is so different that I am sure those claims are hearsay only.
Also as Alborz has said the service intervals now average around 25000 k’s.
The only warranty claim I have had was with an auto trans failure in my first X5 while towing. This was out of warranty period and completely replaced with a new one, no questions or quibbles as well as luxury hotel accomodation while it was being done.
Try that with your GM product!!

By: HFA

HFA — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 05:56:07 +0000

OttoAu said

March 23 2007 @ 9:05 pm

“1/The GENIV is happy to run on std 91 ULP, all BMW’s require min. 95 or HiPo versions 98 octane”

Wrong – 4 cylinder 320i will run on 91ULP.

“2/I still think the HSV GTS with 309kW wont be shamed to much by the new M3, for mine the series 2 GTS should have at least 330kW, its not high enough -v- a std. SS, great value all the same.”

Yep, great value, thanks to luxury car taxes and tariffs. Take protectionism away and bye bye GMH.

2a/HSV part owner TWR sells road legal hot up bits to tweak your HSV, spend say $30k and it will destroy the M3 and about any other car on the road

“Destroy”? Nonsense. Why aren’t these “hot up bits” standard? If I was paying a premium over a regular bombadore, I’d want a vast improvement in performance.

3/The only reason the M3 puts out so much power is it revs, kinda like a bigblock VTEC, i prefer cubes but thats just me

All Holden fans love cubes… kind of embarrassing really. What next, a 9.0L V8 to keep up with far technologically superior engines from Germany?

4/Ford will have a more competive V8 in the Barra [bout time, getting its ass kicked] and the supercharged homologated V8 [Super GT] is still in the pipe line

Unless Ford establishes an export program, they’re in deep trouble.

5/Finally:-), if i was buying one of these rip off German vehicles, it would be neither the M3 or RS4, i rather the BigBlock 6.2 C Class Benz by AMG

Rip off German vehicles? Like I said above, Holden only survives due to luxury car taxes and tariffs, not due to the quality of its vehicles. We’ll see what happens in 2010 when tariffs reduce to 5%… are Holden going to go cap in hand to the government?