hey guys welcome back it's mark with exotic car play place today we're gonna
talk about hey it's a snow day out there but most importantly for those guys out
there that wonder what is the most reliable M car that you can get because
you don't want to wind up with a really high performance but unreliable racecar
that you have to spend all the time in the shop with and repair and replacing
parts constantly you want a car that is fun to drive looks great sounds great
it's part of the M brand of course of BMW but you don't want to worry about
fixing everything every last minute of the day so I'm gonna give you a top five
list of some good bet safe bets now understand all M cars are leaning a lot
more to the you know the performance side and kind of veering away from
reliability and economy but that being said it doesn't mean you have to have a
total piece of junk there are some great cars out there that I want to
highlight five of them that are actually safe bets if you do your checks if
you're satisfied with the service history and overall everything the
history and the background looks good on it that it's well maintained you can
have yourself a great super car every day supercar for relatively decent money
and not worry about it breaking your bank
so my first choice number one is the 2011 to 2016 BMW m5 that's the f10 that
comes with a 4.4 liter v8 engine that happens to be twin turbocharged
producing about 550 horsepower and about 502 pound-feet of torque it is an
awesome machine now there are some things of course some shortcomings with
it but the fact of the matter is it is extremely quick machined it comes
equipped with either a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission or a 6-speed
manual by the way I'd stay away from that manual gearbox in the f10
I love manual like everybody else but it's a nightmare it doesn't Drive well
it's not synchronized well to the powertrain
and so I would recommend for this car to go with the double clutch transmission
so these cars generally don't have a lot of chronic issues you know when I say
chronic I mean problems that are going to consistently be a problem you can
guarantee you know that there will be an issue with that car it's just a matter
of when not if these don't have a lot of those issues there have been problems
noted of course with brake squeal some of the early models with air
conditioning that doesn't put up properly and the occasional DTM issue so
that's drivetrain malfunction and those sometimes have evolved from maybe an
over rev condition you're getting a little frisky the car over revs maybe
hits the red line shuts down the power and then it spits out a code and that
usually means it's a lack of proper fueling so the engine goes a little lean
and what ends up happening is it farts out a code for you and you have to do a
reset in most cases the drivetrain malfunction is really just that it's
just a nuisance alarm but know this any car that you abuse it will take a toll
that being said that is my first choice the f10 m5 extremely fast pretty car and
is not that unreliable it's actually quite reliable - second choice for the
most reliable or some of the most reliable M car
goes to a 2002 to 2008 Z4 M coupe I love that car initially I never really
had a lot of love for those cars I thought they always looked a little bit
like a boot they sort of had an unusual look to them but in reality that's
starting to grow on me and as a matter of fact where I lived there's a guy
that's ripping up and down these freakin roads all the time by my place I don't
know if the car I think it was actually for sale for a short time but it's black
on black and he had the trimmed out just nice he had it murdered out with black
wheels and the whole nine matted that car ever looks Spanky so that combined
with the simple fact that it has a very simple drivetrain it shares the s54
that's the inline six-cylinder normally aspirated engine of 3.2 liter
displacement and that gets coupled to a six-speed manual gearbox it also has
about 330 horsepower and about 269 pound-feet of torque
now it's not the most powerful M car out there but it's also very light and very
small and you know in a world of all these cars modern cars doing very
similar things look at all these SUVs on the market for example you can't tell
sometimes the difference between a Ford and a key and a Hyundai and a Honda they
all look so much to save if I didn't know better I think they've
mass-produced them all on the same assembly line but in with this car
there's no doubt that it's unique and in a lot of cases because it shares the
same drivetrain as the e46 m3 you would expect it to be very similar in terms of
performance well in straight line performance yes it is but this is where
this car has the X Factor and it has the X Factor because it's a little bit jumpy
it's a little squirrely in the corners and it's a little light in the backend
because it has that heavy lump of an engine on the front end and so as a
result this car will give you a lot of those great tire squealing tire burnout
capabilities it's a high-revving engine that'll go up to 8,000 rpm sounds great
looks great and I love this car it is really really grown on me and the simple
fact is because it's a simple car there haven't been a lot of issues
the issues really very minor once for the most part there's been notes on you
know rear suspension Springs cracking and one very very common issue is oxygen
sensors have been known to fail in vast numbers now that's not generally a large
expense and in most cases relatively easy to change as a matter of fact a lot
of home do-it-yourselfer guys can do that so as a whole it's a very simple
car back down to grassroots of high revving engine naturally aspirated
performance and you couple out with a six-speed manual gearbox big front mount
and engine rear drive it's a hoot to drive and in my opinion highly highly
underrated as a matter of fact that versus an e46 m3 I think I would almost
take this if you didn't need the back seats that being said if you need back
seats for practicality sorry this isn't your car but it is a great car
nonetheless my next favorite goes to the 2007 to 2013 E90 or E92 M3 and that
is featuring the 414 horsepower v8 normally aspirated 4 liter engine and
you can couple that to either a 6-speed manual gearbox or a 7-speed dual-clutch
transmission and again it's one of these things I've driven both and honestly I
can't tell you which one I prefer they're both fascinating cars to drive
the manual is a lot of fun because I love driving manual cars but the DCT is
so much fun when you're pulling through the gears it's so fast that it's just so
exciting of a car to drive not to mention hey this is the biggest engine
that BMW has ever shoehorn in to a m3 car of course it's the 4 liter v8 and it
produces a lot of power it's a kind of power in fact that will allow you to
have a lot of fun with it works as a great drifting car for sure you can do
donuts but more importantly it handles really well if you're those guys that
consider the 335 better than the m3 of the e90 generation I would say straight
line performance the 335 has more capability but the m3 all day will have
the track covered in terms of handling and overall track prowess this is an
awesome machine and actually doubles very well as a
daily driver because of its you know a lot of its amenities that it comes
equipped with today so there's only really a few little problems that come
with the e90 e92 m3 s there is of course the naturally you've probably heard rod
bearings are a problem in some of the cars because that essentially is a
shaved off engine version of the e60 m5 which is the v10 motor that is
notoriously known for rod bearing issues well this has the same basic
infrastructure and it essentially is two cylinders less than v10 engine so it
does there have been numerous you know comments and quotes and experiences of
rod bearing failures on these cars but the big one that you really have to be
aware of are the throttle actuator z' now they're mounted under the you know
the whole intake manifold plenum there they're kind of tucked underneath there
they're a bit of a pain to get at and they're not inexpensive but outside of
that these cars are very very reliable and and in most cases more reliable than
even say the 335s of the same generation they're very great cars now
the only other thing you're going to struggle with is number one staying away
from the police and avoiding speeding tickets and number two keeping rear
rubber on the car because you're gonna have a lot of fun lighting it up and
you're honestly gonna eat rear tires galore on these cars or just way way too
much fun still a little pricey but that's why because there's such great
cars my next choice goes to the 2002 2006 e46 m3 and as mentioned before the
z4 M shares the same engine as this so this is also coupled with the inline six
that produces about 333 horsepower and uses that wonderful s 54 motor that just
screams to 8,000 rpm it's just a marvelous engine and a marvelous car all
together so well-balanced and as a matter of fact a lot of the purists
really didn't want to let go of that chassis when the e90 came along a lot of
people and purists were denying the e90 and saying we want more of the e46 just
because it was a perfect balance it was a smaller lighter engine
it had a lot of power it revved to the moon and it was just outright fun now
all that fun of course comes with a few little headaches along the way of course
there's been notes on issues related to vanos problems with these cars the other
thing I would say SMG pumps are common failures so if I were to advise you guys
stay away from the SMG cars unless you really need that automatic feature go
with their 6-speed manual because that's where all the fun's going to happen and
it's going to be a simpler car to maintain the only other big thing are
the rear subframe failures where you sometimes have to get reinforcements
welded in but you take care of that if you find a well sorted car it is going
to be a lot of fun a lot of fun for years to come
so you can't go wrong with the e46 m3 and lastly my last pick number five for
some of the most reliable M cars is the e36 m3 primarily because it has the
three litre normally aspirated inline six-cylinder engine made it to either a
5-speed manual or 6-speed manual 5-speed auto or the horrible SMG transmission
that came with it in those years so there's a few different generational
options depending on the year make and model and all that fun jazz but it's a
great engine it's normally aspirated and because it is the older generations it
is a simpler car to work on now it's of course not without its faults like a lot
of BMWs cooling system problems like you have thermostat cracks you have water
pump issues and right radiator issues so your cooling system is critical in these
cars to maintain them of course replace all those components and you're good to
go not only that is an issue of course
these cars were known for a bunch of electrical gremlins I've seen I had an
e30 six years ago rear suspension collapsed on me so I know that can be an
issue so you know we talked about bushings and suspension issues those
things can be a problem a lot of them are more related to just wear and tear
an age of the vehicle of course and as this car gets older it's not going to
get more reliable but just make sure some of those factors are looked after
now it's a simple car and honestly you know
if they're cheap to get into and it's a great way to experience the m-car
experience but again I can't extract I can't stress enough
get yourself a well sorted well-maintained car that has a great
service history associated with it other things of course you know rust but that
because of the age you're going to find more and more of this as a problem so
guys I really hope you enjoyed this video you know what that is my top 5
most reliable M cars if you want to get into an M car but you're really worried
about how reliable some of them are and how unreliable others are this is a
great place to start these are my picks for some cars that although they're not
perfect in terms of reliability they are very very well engineered and well
sorted cars and problems are much fewer and far between that being said again as
I can't stress enough reliability and performance generally don't go hand in
hand and so considering their performance car
you have to also expect some of the repairs and maintenance to go with that
so everybody I really hope you enjoyed the video you make sure as always give
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stick around love to see on the next one and I really want to hear from you guys
thoughts do you have bad experiences with any of these cars or do you have
other ones that you think are more reliable let me know in the comments
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little corner over there thanks again love to see you guys soon see you then
bye-bye