Finally. I bought an ///M3.

[Davis]

Stunning colour! Big soft spot for these.

 

[Addicted]

Lovely! I'd also be interested in the running costs to be honest

 

[Herr Flick]

they are no worse financially to run than any other car in the same marque.
i still managed upto 25mpg in mine which is impressive tbh. (for my driving)
servicing is £600 for the biggest service
can buy warranty for it for peanuts.
tyres and other consumables are no different for what it is.

i never understand why people need telling this 100 times over. (not directed at anyone on here)

 

[Stefan.]

very nice and the colour is nice to see to the normal m3s.

 

[Ian_182]

Great looking car and colour.

Worth the wait i'd say...

 

[Sir_Dave]

You do a lot of miles don't you Dave? Is the idea to run it into the ground as such? With your 30k+ iirc miles a year in two years it will be very hard to shift. with 150K+ on it.

I'm doing about 25k a year now, mostly driving back & forth to work. Living with Sarah now means that driving at the weekend is now quite limited. Re: how long i intend to keep it, no idea, depends on quite a few factors really, although im not a fan of loosing a great deal on depreciation ...

Not keen on BMW as a car manufacturer generally, I'd much rather own something Japanese myself.

Not overly bothered about who makes it tbh, could have a Ford badge on the front for all i care. Have always loved the look of the car, the drive & the way it flips from comfy motorway barge to performance car, whilst giving enough space & practicality to carry 4 people & their luggage. Great allrounder imho, & certainly an itch that needed scratching.

Azrael - nice courtesy car whats up with the CSL by the way? 3 months is a loooong time.
rich89 - as you say, warranty is very important to have on these, headgaskets are a worry at over 80k as well (cost about £1k to rectify), so will be getting a compression test done when the subframe is checked over!! Essentially have 3 months to find all the faults with the car lol ...

 

[Chili Red]

Nice car. What's the retail on one of those?

 

[alex-avfc]

Well done Dave. I think you'll finally be happy with this from what I've read - seemed like you were on a hiding to nothing in previous attempts to resist buying one!

I haven't read the thread so may have missed details but will you be keeping the Trophy too?

Talking of rare colours, ny neighbour had one with a wierd combo which I really liked - silver, 19" wheels and...Laguna Seca blue interior!!

 

[chriscummins7]

I have literally lost count of the amount of new car threads of yours I've read recently.

However, f**king brilliant choice sir.

 

[Ollie82.]

Dave took Budgie, Nick and myself out for a 'cruise' in this t'other evening......and obviously with those tints and '4 up' it looked like we were 'sup to no goood bluud' but it pulls like a train even fully laden (there was a rival dealer bound and gagged in the boot) so i can imagine it goes like stink one up.

I now want a CSL. Lots.

 

[chris_p]

Dave took Budgie, Nick and myself out for a 'cruise' in this t'other evening......and obviously with those tints and '4 up' it looked like we were 'sup to no goood bluud' but it pulls like a train even fully laden (there was a rival dealer bound and gagged in the boot) so i can imagine it goes like stink one up.

I now want a CSL. Lots.

I must admit I always found this too, even full to the brim of immigrants the car still pulls lovely!

You have to remember these are heavy cars standard, I´ve always thought as standard the M3 is a brilliant car, with 200kg lost it would be epic. I think next time I´m in the market for a proper performance car I´ll have to check out the Csl, from what I´ve heard it´s a completely different animal.

 

[Stefan.]

Nice car. What's the retail on one of those?

More than you can afford pal, BMW i had to say it

 

[Sir_Dave]

warranty is very important to have on these, headgaskets are a worry at over 80k as well (cost about £1k to rectify), so will be getting a compression test done when the subframe is checked over!!

Well, thought i'd add a little update now i've owned the car for a couple of weeks .... Now, at this point, i'd love to discuss the huge amounts of pleasure i've had driving around, enjoying the power & handling of the car i've dreamed about for years. Unfortunately i cant lol, i only drove it for the 1st four days of buying it :dapprove:

Basically i noticed that at motorway speeds, in 5th/6th (& more noticeably uphill), it seemed to be 'pinking' between 2.5k and 3.5k rpm. Still pulled hard & drove perfectly normally, so didnt notice it on the 30 minute test drive, but in my daily commute, on the traffic ridden M3, where part throttle is the norm, it was a noticeable noise. So last Monday, after a week of owning the car, & only 4 days/400 miles of use, i did a compression test with Sarah's dad where it unfortunately showed low psi in cylinders 5 & 6 - the 2 at the back, that generally get the hottest apparently.

Obviously i wasnt best pleased, so got straight back in touch with the supplying dealer & stopped using the car. Fast forwards to last Saturday and it was leakdown tested by the dealer, where unsurprisingly, it failed spectactularly. Its now (hopefully) in bits being fixed; new HG, skimmed head, all seals, new coolant & oil change, etc so hopefully it'll be like a new car Fingers crossed lol.

So anyways, thought i would just put this as a little warning that no matter how much checking you do beforehand, M3's (as with any car really, just more £££'s) can still bite you in the ar5e. Before i had even looked at the car i had phoned BMW Customer Services to check the history, specification & recalls, then phoned all the garages that serviced it to see what they did (barring one, but nevermind, being sorted now), downloaded the cars MOT history online (shows all the advisories) & obviously Hpi checked it. I then went on a 30 minute test drive, & did all the usual checks.

BUT, without doing a compression/leakdown test on the test drive, a failing HG is very difficult to spot - they go between the cylinders so no coolant loss - so if you do buy one, either make sure you have warranty, or keep £1500 back in case it fails. More & more common on them these days, & history/mileage/condition of the car seems to have no bearing on the failures either.

For those that are interested, there is nore info on the M3 HGF problems here: http://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8868

In addition, doing 100 miles a day in a Trophy with buckets seats & a BTB exhaust is quite frankly, tiring.


PS. Big big thanks to Jamesstone for coming with Sarah & I for the leakdown test, much appreciated xx

 

[LIL B]

Unfortunate, but being sorted.

Who is actually doing the work? BMW Dealer?

 

[Goodj]

M3 man buys M-heap.

 

[Sir_Dave]

Unfoutunate, but being sorted.

Who is actually doing the work? BMW Dealer?

Nah, a BMW/Porsche/VAG specialist based close to the dealer. He's worked on a few M3's on the forums & spends all day putting loads of boost through things, so fingers crossed it'll be ok. Its not a cheap job (about 15 hours iirc), so i cant imagine the warranty company would have paid BMW £130 an hour to do it ...

 

[roland rat]

Sad to hear this mate but at least you managed to diagnose it while still under the warrenty.the HG problem almost sounds as commom as on the 306's :rofl

 

[roland rat]

Sad to hear this mate but at least you managed to diagnose it while still under the warrenty.the HG problem almost sounds as commom as on the 306's :rofl:

 

[Englebert]

I just wouldn't have a car like this without a warranty. Bear in mind they have over 100bhp/litre, do people really expect them to be fine over 100k miles surviving on oil changes? People need to get real...

When buying the latest NSX with 88k the engine was fcuked inside. Yes, it worked, and appeared to work fine, but in reality it was a ticking time bomb! Unfortunately, the masses don't go beyond routine maintenance and then moan when it all goes tits up.

 

[Goodj]

Wasn't the engine designed during the Rover / BMW days.

It would explain a lot

 

[Djw John]

Wasn't the engine designed during the Rover / BMW days.

It would explain a lot

H'actual lol!

Glad you caught it in time Dave

 

[Craigus]

I just wouldn't have a car like this without a warranty. Bear in mind they have over 100bhp/litre, do people really expect them to be fine over 100k miles surviving on oil changes? People need to get real...

When buying the latest NSX with 88k the engine was fcuked inside. Yes, it worked, and appeared to work fine, but in reality it was a ticking time bomb! Unfortunately, the masses don't go beyond routine maintenance and then moan when it all goes tits up.

Tis true. What is more annoying is when people hardly ever service them and expect them to be fine.

When my brother was looking for an M3, we went to see one at a dealer's that was a MY04 and had 76,000 miles on it. It had three stamps in the book, last serviced 3 years ago on 43,000 and it was a minor one.

I gave the bloke so much stick he asked me to leave

 

[chris_p]

And people wonder why there's lots of cheap ones about these days lol

Unlucky Dave, lets hope they do a good job with the repair, and lets hope it's done before it gets too wet! Awesome grip in the dry.

 

[Goodj]

At least we can all be reassured that when the chavs migrate from CLio / VTS to M3, they'll soon be pulled over at the side of the road with a crippled engine.

Helping to keep values somewhere near stable

 

[Sir_Dave]

And people wonder why there's lots of cheap ones about these days lol

Too true, and i didnt exactly scrape the barrell either. Getting a facelift, with nav, heated seats, <100k miles & FSH isnt the cheapest route into M3 ownership, could have done it for considerably less lol. Ah well, fingers crossed ill get it back soon, & as you say, at least drive it in the daylight for a little bit - 7am/6pm drive to/from work in the dark is most gay.

At least we can all be reassured that when the chavs migrate from CLio / VTS to M3, they'll soon be pulled over at the side of the road with a crippled engine.

Helping to keep values somewhere near stable

Well quite, its not like a 1*2 where you can buy another engine for 300 quid

 

[Goodj]

Hope it works out for you fella.

Bit hey, at the end of it, you'll have a minter..... fingers crossed

 

[Herr Flick]

Sorry to hear that dave. James kept that quiet

 

[Ray Gin]

I had the chance to have a spin in one of these last week but had to stay in to wait for a f**king parcel that didn't arrive

The roar out of these is amazing, deffo next on my list, a couple of years down the line.

Sorry to hear about the hassle, hope you get it sorted.

 

[matty w]

Like you say theres only so many checks you can do before buying one after that who knows,I wanted an e46 m3 last year and the one's I looked at hadnt been maintained properly at all plus all the owners of the ones I looked at where dicks.I lost heart in the end but still have A hanckering for one

 

[Brett]

Bullet dodged Dave. At least now you have a fresh HG, which if anything will add value to the car and its cost you nothing.

 

[Silent_Scone]

Unlucky Dave, theres only so much checking you can do on a test drive/overlook, one of those things. Least the dealer appears to be understanding

 

[Christopher]

I'd actually be happy with that outcome. Win/win!

 

[Herr Flick]

I was stuck in traffic and I saw an M3 driving towards me and I was thinking it looked lovely and I sort of miss mine. Gets abit closer and it my old one lol.

 

[Daniel]

Dave did you get my last return pm??

 

[Sir_Dave]

Dave did you get my last return pm??

Nope

 

[Dunn]

Its a good result tbh as its becoming very common now and it isnt costing you anything

 

[hughesclio]

i had this problem with my m3 just after a year of ownership, i lent it out to a friend for the night and next day when i picked it up i could here a light pinking noise so phones the bloke i had lent it to to see what fuel he had put in as i thought he might of stuck in regular unleaded. he replied with nope v power so i knew there was an issue.
did a bit of searching on m3 cutters and got wind of the HG faliures on them so did a compression test to find the same as you 5-6 cylinders were down on compresion
there car drove without fault but just made the noise so i drove it down to birmigham to a m3 cutter who's friend had a bmw specialist garage and had done 4or 5 cars on the forum and they did the full job for me for £960. dropped it off monday lunch and got it back friday lunch and was like a different car.
dave, you will love the car even more once its fixed and dont let it phase you it will be fine

 

[Daniel]

Nope

Well it was about a mile long so i'm not typing it again.

LEts all just be glad you got the problem sorted! lol.

 

[Sir_Dave]

there car drove without fault but just made the noise so i drove it down to birmigham to a m3 cutter who's friend had a bmw specialist garage and had done 4or 5 cars on the forum and they did the full job for me for £960. dropped it off monday lunch and got it back friday lunch and was like a different car.

dave, you will love the car even more once its fixed and dont let it phase you it will be fine

I bet that was via m_thriller? He gave me loads of help & advice about the whole issue as well! Fingers crossed mine will be the same, hell it felt quick running on 4 cylinders, god knows what it'll be like on 6 lol ...

Update on the car's engine: Garage are taking the head off this morning, hoping to get it back to me by the weekend. Will be putting some shiny new NGK spark plugs in it for me as well. Whoop, whoop.

In addition, as the eagle eyed may have noticed, my satnav sceen had a big splodge of dead pixels on the bottom right hand corner (someone obviously thought it was touch screen lol) so i've managed to get another screen for it for a couple hundred quid. Also, the front tyres, whilst pretty much brand new, are some shonky Primewell things, which is not cool when approaching winter!! As the wheels are also in need of a refurb (they're been powdercoated at some point, but its flaking off), i've made an offer on a recently re-diamond cut set, with Conti/Dunlop tyres all round ...

 

[Scoot]

I got some bits of M_thriller top bloke, fitted them for me for nothing whilst I wandered around generally getting in the way. And ended up giving me a multipack of Mcoys for some reason :\