One problem related to automatic transmission torque converter has been reported for the 1999 BMW 323. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
1999 BMW 323i (e46) I didn't know my german car came with a crappy transmission made by gm in france. It failed after 89,000 miles and required a total replacement because parts are unavailable. This costs $4500. This is unacceptable and I'm sure others have the same problem because I've been reading about them on various BMW message boards. This should be considered a known defect and BMW is responsible for fixing this. They haven't taken any action to rectify this.