Great cars. Just sold mine to my brother when i bought my 370z.
The SMG is great I originally looked for a manual but got swayed by the SMG. Super fast gear changes, Thats where it has the upper hand over the 370z as we discovered.
The exhaust rasp is like marmite love it or hate. I love it but it kinda sounds like a bag of broken spanners.
Mine averaged 21 to 24 mpg so much better than the 370z
Well ballanced good handling cars.
I had mine for 5 years and it was time for a change.
Bad points with them are where the subframe fixes to the shell cracks. There are kits to reinforce the area but you would be looking as the best part of a grand to have the work carried out.
To be honest i ran coilovers on mine for 4 years and when i got the subframes inspected prior to selling it all was fine.
They go through rear srpings and trailing arm bushes alot.
servicing can be a little dear but if you find a good indi specialist you'll be laughing.
I loved my one but the front of the sils and one of the rear quarters was beginning to break out in rust.
The rear Quarters have a good lip that dirt can sit in. I cleaned there fairly often but the tin worm still won in the end.
Any other quetions feel free to give me a shout. I've been heavy bmw forum user and run a local bmw forum for a good while now..
I never had an issue with the smg pump. To be honest i think it was more of an issue with SMG 1 (e36) than SMG 2 (e46). There is a relay that goes which will cost you £14 to replace
I have heard of folk having issues with coils. A set of front disk will cost you just over £300 for ATE's if you shop around. They are huge drilled and vented jobs. The standard brakes are fairly cr4p though. I stuck on some braided hoses, grippier pads and some 5.1 fluid which made all the difference.