BMW 3 Series Convertible, E93

8 variants from the facelift on, carrying a real market premium of roughly 9% over an otherwise identical pre-facelift car. Variants appearing in both tables were sold either side of the changeover, the build month decides which one you're looking at, not the model year.

Market availability varied by country; check the engine code stamped on the block rather than the badge on the boot. · Compare every engine side by side →

BMW M cars share a bodyshell with the range they come from and almost nothing else that matters: different engine, different cooling, different running costs, and a different buyer. They're listed separately because putting an M3 in the same table as a 320d makes both harder to read.

Prices above are for M cars only and aren't included in the range figures quoted elsewhere on this page.

● full year · ◐ arrives or leaves mid-generation. Years from 2010 in the accent colour are facelift (LCI) cars. Verify the engine code, not the model year.

Every standard engine in the chassis, plotted at its good-buy price against its risk level. Cheap and low-risk is the top-left; expensive and fragile is the bottom-right. M cars are excluded, they would stretch the price axis and tell you nothing about the rest.

Every standard engine on one euro axis: the bar spans the 10th to 90th percentile of asking prices, the tick is the median and the green marker is the good-buy figure. M cars are excluded; they sit an order of magnitude above the rest.

Written once against the chassis and shown on every variant page below, so nothing here is repeated 11 times: M cars included, since the bodyshell and electronics are shared.

Best value: 330d. The extra weight makes torque worth more here than anywhere else in the range, and the M57 and N57 both deliver it. Best long-term petrol: 325i or 328i N52, for the same reasons as every other body. Avoid: 320d N47. The chain, again, on a heavy car that works the engine harder. The trap specific to this body. The roof. A folding hardtop with tired hydraulics or blocked drains turns a cheap convertible into a €2,000 repair and a wet interior. Then cycle the roof twice. Check the boot and rear footwells for damp, and treat a seller who won't demonstrate it as having answered the question. E93 M3 cars are the cheapest way into an S65, for exactly these reasons.