The disappointment of expectation. Which cars actually feel special to you.

I'm also a BMW guy through and through (at least up through the E9x-series), and I will always have a special place in my heart for the E46 platform above the rest. Apart from the many objective arguments for its superiority, I worked multiple jobs while in high school to be able to buy a '00 328Ci my senior year when the car was only 5 years old. Fully spec'd Topaz Blau with a 5MT (ZSP, ZPP, ZCW, HIDs, and HK) and 54k miles. That car sparked a passion that is still alive to this day. I started learning to work on them and modify them as I got into autocross and HPDE/track days. I've had a number of E46's, including M3's, and many other generations of bimmers too. They really are as special as they are made out to be, but the newest one out there is almost 20 years old at this point and so many of the ones out there are neglected and or abused that it takes a lot of patience to find one that's properly sorted. And even then, neglect can be unintentional: bushings and mounts and bearings all wear, rot, and break, and when it's the suspension and drivetrain components we're talking about, they take the "magic" with them when they die. Combine that with the subframe issues (which my first 328Ci suffered from, and which was amazingly fixed and paid for by BMW NA, for a 17 year old high school kid who bought the car used, out of warranty, and from a private seller), and I recommend anyone who buys one to do what I do: Get the car up on a lift, and drop *everything*: suspension, subframe, brakes, everything. Clean and inspect everything, especially the chassis subframe mounting points. Weld up the Turner Motorsports reinforcement kit. Then replace every single bushing, bearing, mount, and worn item with upgraded items. Same for drivetrain mounts. Short of a full refurbish and upgrade like that, you'll always be chasing down something. It's either spend a lot on parts money up front while condensing the labor into a single big project, or you can piecemeal it parts-wise but either spend a ton of your own time or a lot of your money for someone else to disassemble and reassemble everything over and over. I recommend the former, because you also get peace of mind.