I'm a former bimmer owner as well. The high points on 370z issues have been mentioned already, so I'll simply say that in my experience, the 370z is considerably cheaper to maintain, and so far hasn't had any of the electrical gremlins that seemed to crop up every 7k in my bimmer. As far as dealership work goes, the prices are similar, but thankfully my Z hasn't required a single trip to the dealership outside of standard maintenance in 3 years. You will miss the exhaust note in your bimmer though, the Z's is comparatively unfulfilling.

I have had my "Z" for 5 and half years. Have 29,000 miles on it. I had a MAF sensor go bad at about 1500 miles, it was fixed under warranty. Had the steering lock issue fixed under the factory recall. Was having issues with my MT, but Nissan replaced it last October under warranty. So far my "Z" has been a good reliable car.

That's funny cause I like the z exhaust note while not really a fan of the e46 m3.

http://www.the370z.com/intake-exhaus...exhaust-4.html

For $400 or less, you can have a really nice sounding Z.

In researching new M's, for better exhaust sound you're near $4k!

Wow, you guys really hit the nail on the head about the e46 m3 problems haha. Mine has 165,000 miles on it so you can only imagine the things i've gone through with that car...

Thanks for the replies and advice everyone! Good chance I'm going to sell my m3 pretty soon, excited to be in something different that won't swallow my wallet whole!

Good luck and yea I think you will probably be a convert. Maybe not but if your tired of issues then probably. There are still those that are BMW for life even after going through all the issues (2 friends are that way and one was even a dealer tech). Me as a tech I don't mind working on others cars but I hate when mine has issues and as a previous mb, vw/Audi tech and vw owner I will never ever own one again. The oil leaks never stop! That said my mom is on two BMW and both have been good overall and the BMW's I have seen when at an independent were much better than vw/Audi but still a far cry from Japanese. You'll see after 40k mi and your doing an oil change and the engine is as clean and shiny aluminum as the day you bought it you'll be going how is this possible.

I don't think most buyers fully understand that when you pay big bucks for a post-warranty-period Mercedes or BMW, that that money is just the "entry fee" and that the buyer is not buying reliability and low-maintenance. Ironically, most times it's the opposite and this is why owners like yourself are selling their "great" vehicles.

I can say all of this with some authority because my wife and I once bought a used, cosmetically perfect 1988 Mercedes 560SEL, so I speak from painful financial experience. OTOH, if you are a competent automotive DIYr, you can dramatically reduce the cost of maintaining such vehicles, but you'll be "paying" a significant amount of your precious spare time, especially early on in the learning curve, to lower that cost.

Knowing what will come, I will advise what follows only once and say no more. Get the trouble-free auto, especially if you won't go to the track much, or at all, but will commute in stop and go traffic. It's a great compromise for all conditions.

IMO, the OEM backup cam with curving guide lines as you rotate the steering wheel is an especially useful feature in the rear-visibility-limited Z.

Last, but certainly not least, the Z is one fantastically beautiful vehicle. I can't help but smile every time I look at it. I just wish I could stare at it from the outside as I drive it down the road!

Hence why I will never buy American and a bit hesitant about buying German. I made the mistake of buying Italian (2013 Fiat 500 Abarth), and will never do that again. The thing is designed in Italy, engineered in Detroit, and assembled in Mexico. Nope, never again.

Heck, I even had a Hyundai once, a 2002 Sonata 2.4L, 5-speed. Not a single issue with that car. I had a custom intake and full exhaust and hammered the crap out of that motor. Never an issue, and that's a Korean car!

I've had 3 Mazda's and now 3 Nissan's. Never ever an issue with any of them. The Z is my third Nissan. most likely won't be my last Nissan either.

Reliability is generally good on these cars given you maintain them. I drive mine HARD on the weekends and it's still going strong. I'm also meticulous about maintenance.

As mentioned, if you go 6MT, the CSC is the weak point on these trans, but there are solid aftermarket solutions to rectify the issue. Good luck with your decision!

BTW, any pics of the E46? That's my favorite M3. My brother in law just picked up an '05 last night, ironically enough.

I know the Z's exhaust note can be upgraded, but in my opinion no Z's exhaust can match the heavenly notes produced by an inline six.

OP, I'm in the same boat but my mind is set on getting rid of my weekend toy, a 2005 M3. I've had it for 3.5 years and during my ownership from 87K miles to 120K currently, I've had to do the following...

SMG pump failed--I could have spent $3K replacing the unit, or $4K converting it to a standard 6 speed, so I had it converted.

Control arms, Rear trailing arm bushings, Vanos rebuild, CPV valve, oil pan gasket, 3 ignition coils failed so I replaced all 6 and spark plugs, rear shock mounts broke (luckily the subframe has never had issues), so I replaced shocks and mounts in the rear. Power steering line leak, steering column collar replacement, Diff fluid replacement, thermostat and water pump overhaul. Blower motor resistor (also very common). I'm sure I've forgotten some stuff too..

Here I am 3.5 years later and have spent probably close to $8K in maintenance and repairs with me doing some of the labor. Now I'm struggling to get $11.5K for the car lol.

Also, I'm not a huge fan of the high pitch noise our exhausts produce, even with aftermarket exhausts. It just doesn't sound very aggressive. I get it's the inline 6, Formula 1 sounding tone--but meh, lol.

yeah, I'm selling this thing and never looking back. Fun car, but not worth the headache.

Oh you don't need to tell me man. Like I said I had the benefit to work on all of them and it is shameful how others compare to Japanese. I started as a die hard German fan and German is the only way to go, left the German dealer for independent German when the economy tanked, then left for Japanese for more pay and dealer gets to see more new technologies so I missed that. It was a total eye opener of oh so this is how it should be made. I mean not only are they more reliable but they also are much more planned out on repairs (in general). It's not often the make bolts in accessible without dissembling the entire car just to get to the one bolt you need access to in order to remove whatever failed part you need to replace which the German are notorious for which is truly funny because they are the ones that break at over two times the rate of Japanese. Left Japanese because got bored of service work and brake jobs so I went to USA to do diag and drivability specialist with garanteed hourly pay and no flat rape BS and really enjoyed it until the dealer sold to new owner and they tanked it, put managers with 0 Chevy experience in charge and ex Acura managers thinking it worked for us this way at acura so it will work here too and we don't need an on site warranty clerk will use an outside clerk. Yea genius how much warranty work did you have at acura, not much I know cause I worked for them too. After 1 month and over 2000 still open warranty RO that they didn't know how to close to collect billing, then no follow up calls to customers so there went CSI score went from #1 dealer in the state and like in top 10 in nation to not even being on the list of top 100 and all downhill from there. USA isn't really good either most of them are mix of parts made from all over the world and then thrown together with poor qc and then put out stupid bulletins like this much coolant weep from water pump is acceptable weepage with pictures to illustrate (yea Chevy Cruz looking at you) since when is it ok for a cooling system to leak ever? Only to have to come up with a new pump after enough complaints and people not accepting that answer and making yourself look bad for trying to pass one over, just embarrassing. Now out of the field, too bad cause I do like cars and the work but way too much incompetence in the industry and a terrible pay structure for techs.

But it's funny when you work for German or US and the techs that have only experienced those cars just come to think that is how they all are and its acceptable and when you tell them no man go work in a Japanese dealer for just a year and see how few issues you will see and that the Japanese really did earn their stereotype they just don't break or have electrical issues (again in general).

yeah.. the e46 m3 has a distinctive exhaust/engine sound at high rpm and it is better than the 370z, but I like the exhaust sound from the 350z or g37's more.

Pretty funny reading all these newb posts like they've owned the car for 7 yrs or something.