m3 vs st vs evo vs 350z

get the EVO...everyone has a E46...get an evo,EVO,EVO

BMW has better handling than EVO..yea right...then you woke up right

Originally Posted by reRESERVEDFX

BMW End of story...

Oh wait, you want reasons why?

BMW is very fast
BMW handles like a dream
BMW looks beautiful
BMW is reliable
BMW is suitable for everyday use all year long
///M is The Most powerful letter in the world
///M also stands for mighty

You take a good care of M3, it will reward you with AT MOST $500 worth of repairs each year if you're DIY type of person. The only expenses that go beyond that would be clutch, brakes, cams etc.

And then even the clutch is cheap around $300.
Funny how the brakes are so expensive on a M3 but then again they stop you from dying in a very fast car so all in all I guess its worth it eh? lol.

Originally Posted by PMack325Xi

Mitsubishi motors are crap, and blow head gaskets like it's their real purpose.

Are your sure Mitsubishi motors are crap?
I've owned an evo IX for 2 years and been on evo forums just as long, and my experience says other wise.

4g63 is damn reliable engine if you stay below 450 WHP (Know a lot of people pushing 450+ WHP and no problems so far) .

If you find a low mileage evo then go for it. They are very reliable. Just as long as you don't launch to much.
You can't go wrong with any of those cars, except for the 350z(I personally hate them)

BTW If you decide to go with the evo Make sure its a IX.

Originally Posted by stack

BMW has better handling than EVO..yea right...then you woke up right

*ahem. Cough* No.

BMW= Pu...I mean Lovely young Females...

If you get the Bimmer you will be looking at higher maintaince costs than the others.
With the others lower maintance costs and well they all look cool and all but when it come to it I go for orginalty

here is my order.

1. BMW love the looks and german engineering, and they are built to handle
2. STI- Uhh world rally champs cant go wrong here
3. 350- so so, my whole family has/ had then so meh
4. EVO hate evos over hyped and a dime a dozen it seems to be

Have you thought about getting a older car (cheaper to buy, keep up, and buy preformance parts) I like a ol 325IX, or even better a 93-95 Mazda RX-7 R1(2)

i've heard the 03/ 04 g35/ 350z had brake problems. bad brambos i heard. i think they put nismo brakes on after those years or something but i could be wrong....

oh and btw my roommate has an 05 evo with catback + ECU flash and its at 45k mls. its starting to fall apart and he hasn't pinned it for two years. to shift it into gear while cold( otherwise 25 min warm up) it takes an unatural amount of force. which of course the mitsu stealership told him its just the cold weather. i dont believe that. also another guy mentioned all cars are reliable. which is def true. my mercedes was vastly more reliable that BOTH of my toyotas even after 100k. and 02 was one of the years chysler imposed quality control over at daimer-chrys....so theoretically that car should have died at 30k miles. every time you buy a car you roll the dice. some get lucky, others.....eh.... as goes life. c'est la vie?( ha i know, but thats the way planned obsolescence works in 2k9, thank G.M. for coming up with that trend!)

Go with the beamer bro otherwise youll regret it. cause at the end of the day youll be think,damn WHAT IF i had the m3. so to avoid that get the m3 like others stated before its all about how you drive the car and mantain it.

Listen to me, RUN don't walk away from the 350Z. I had two of them, a 2004 and a 2006 and they were both total crap.

The first one went through tires every 8K miles, the interior started falling apart and the clutch clunked something awful. I traded it in with 11K miles.

I figured the new '06 would be better. Hah!. Front tires wore out at 8800K, but it began burning oil after only 2800 miles and I was putting 2 quarts a month in it when I traded it for a 2002 330CI. And without going into details, the dealer's reaction was absolutely criminal!

Buying the 330 was the best move I ever made. The 330CI is a great car and I love it! I am now looking for a 2002-2006 M3 convertible. I am taking my time, but I cannot wait to join the "M" crowd.

Evo/STI are even more likely to have been in the hands of dumb kids than an M3 or 350z. Hence, their reliability used = nonexistent. Especially since you're in Cali, where few to no Evo/STI drivers have even reached the age of 21.

It also depends a lot on whether you're buying a first-owner or multi-owner car. For M3s, if it's had just one owner, the cost of entry new was most likely prohibitive for morons. Hence, more chance of it having been taken care of well.

Also, Evo/STI are next-to-worthless without mods, and won't live long enough to be your track car ten years from now if they have been modded.

Btw, if you really are interested in something tunable, why not a Nissan Silvia? Those things have been pushed to 1500 bhp before. Or have they never been sold in the US? I've hopped continents enough to have forgotten.

EVO ALL THE WAY..
you need the mitsubishi lancer evolution mr fq400...thts 400 horses from a 2.0 l

OP, have you driven all the cars you listed. I'm assuming so based on how you rated them, but if not go drive them. I've driven them all, but the '05 STI. I drove an '08 STI and it sucked!! I was not impressed at all. Based on my experience behind the wheel the M3 wins hands down. The EVO would be second. I drove an Evo X that belongs to a friend and it felt heavy and unrefined compared to the M. None of those vehicles engines compare to the S54. It's like nothing else. As far as tracking them my experience with M vehicles is that you can track them reliably more so than any of the other vehicles you mention. There are guys who own EVO's, STI's, and 350Z's and non of them hold up in stock form to HPDE's as well as the M.

It would definitely be best to drive all the cars you are considering before you buy anything. I like the E46 BMW way better than the EVO as it looks a lot better. The performance of the EVO is good and with some mods they are really fast, but I am not in love with the interior or exterior.

Go for the m3 if you have the money for sure put a HPF turbo kit in it if you want more power my dad and I raced a turbo 350z no problem for us in the M3

I came from a modded sti, my buddy has an evo x. IMO there is no comparison, the m3 is the better all around car out of the box.

crazy how I honestly had those 3 options this last month on my car shopping list and now I stumble apon this!!! lol I chose the M3 after driving them all and I'm a BMW fanatic haaving had the e90 M3. (I still need to post my "new car!!!" thread) but I say M3 for sure!

this is a bit like going on Fox and asking if you should vote for Obama or Palin and that old dude.

All the other cars look like crap compared to the M3 and as they age will only look more and more dated.

depends on how mature you are...
childish and immature, EVO
sort of on the line can't figure out if you wanna be an adult or not, STI
mature and responsible, M3

Or if your mature and responsible but like to tickle your immature develish side, like me, buy and E92 M3 but don't tell your wife your going strip it down remove her seat & track it the hell out of it.

Originally Posted by Armensti

ive always liked the subi but the m3 is just really really nice but a modded sti would eat a modded m3 unless u invest like 30k into it or more. like i stated before i dont need all the luxury items in the m3 and its heavy compared to the subi. overall i think the subi is better valued and a newer year and its less expensive to modify compared to the m3. if i get the m3 this is what im thinking. all the money that needs to be going into modifying the car would go into repairing the car. where in the sti all the money that needs to go to the mods WILL go to the mods. Im not gonna turn the sti into a ricer honda civic looking crap but i will give it class compared to the other ppl that tune it.

I really love the m3 and i would PICK the m3 if it didnt have problems but i wish the Germans put more resources into building it. i heard this crap about them not being able to use quality parts because of some environmental rule that they have. is that true? and is that the reason y the bmw's are not that reliable?

haha the bold made me lololol

i just hope you realize that your insurance payment will be about the same as your car payment.

bmw has better quality in assembly,,more luxury..

Originally Posted by MalibuMafiaV

I completly disagree with everything you just said.
But the main disagree is that you know what? All cars have problems all cars are reliable up until a certain point it really depends on how you drive the car and how well you maintain it in the end.
You could maintain a sti and bmw equally and the BMW would last longer.

Well, the BMW may last as long as a Subaru, but you'll definitely spend more along the way maintaining the BMW and fixing things along the way.

I sold my former 1998 Subaru Outback with 214k miles on it back in December (for $4k, not bad for a car with over 200k miles that stickered for $23k originally). It was on its 3rd clutch, but the water pump and cooling system were all original, and it had no electrical issues beyond one light being burned out in the climate control display. The AWD system was bulletproof with no issues.

Try that in an E46 with 214k miles. Granted the Subaru wasn't as fast as any 6-cylinder E46.

OK. The E46 is a money pit. I said it. But after all...it is an M. That is not the deciding factor in whether you buy a BMW or not and why you keep it once you get it. It is much more personal than that. Must I explain this? My motors are like women. And I treat them as such. Respect and TLC go a long way but in the end...some women are just more expensive to own. You can't justify an expensive woman. It is a luxury you desire. And once you have experienced it you live for that moment. It becomes your drive. And so the M3.

That said, the Z is a swell ride. The engine is lovely. I like it's music. But it is not a Chevy. And it has expensive maintenence considerations as well. Like replacing spark plugs...the intake and everything above it must be removed. A 5bill dealer service. So do your research before you start asking for advise on a forum.

In the end your decision will define who you are...or who you want to be. Good fortune in your journey!