bmw m3

Author
Discussion

morse

Original Poster:

24 posts

216 months

Friday 16th March 2007
quotequote all
my wife wants to buy an m3 convertible she is prepared to spend about 35k on one. she test drove one and loved it,but did not buy it as she had a bad experience with the salesman at the bmw dealership .Since then i have heard that the engines sometimes blow ,can any one tell me any thing more about this ,or any other problems to look out for,also is it better go for the latest reg she can afford or spend less on a slightly older model as i am thinking about devaluation due to the new model coming out soonish.

Rochester BMW

3,313 posts

213 months

Friday 16th March 2007
quotequote all
women arnt allowed to own / drive / look at M3's.

Point her in the direction of a Ford KA.

sarcasm over.

never heard of engines blowing... so id say get the newest you can afford.. personally i'd look into how the residuals are going to be effected the E46 M3 when the E90 M3 comes out.... might not be a good time to buy one... especially at that amount of money.

M5Dave

829 posts

216 months

Friday 16th March 2007
quotequote all
Pre 2003 cars had a problem with the bearing shells on the bottom of the engine, there was a recall to deal with the problem and most cars should have been rectified. A check of the reg no/chassis no at a BMW dealer will let you know if the work was done.

plowy

262 posts

213 months

Friday 16th March 2007
quotequote all
Simple one this, the more you spend on an E46 M3 the more you will loose, not difficult to understand I know but spending 35K on one it has an absolute fortune to drop, so the thing is to look at the market with a view to not loosing big bucks obviously, I would say that 25-27K is a good area to spend as you will end up with a nice car and not have too much to loose as the cheapest ones on the market worth having start at around 20/21K with 25-27K in one you don't stand to loose that much compared to if you had 35K in one.

rumbletumble

199 posts

249 months

Friday 16th March 2007
quotequote all
Take a look at the forums on www.bm3w.co.uk - there is an E46 M3 forum there. Folks on there should be able to help out with your buying quetions.

Important to make sure the recalls have been done, and also make sure that the 1200 mile running in service has been done on time otherwise I believe that it invalidates the warranty.

morse

Original Poster:

24 posts

216 months

Saturday 17th March 2007
quotequote all
thanks all for the help ,i'lltake your advice i'll also spend alot less money. cheers, that's been really helpfull.

morse

Original Poster:

24 posts

216 months

Tuesday 20th March 2007
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hi rumtumble,i tried your idea of going to bmw .co.uk but what a hastle, i had to register three times because each time i tried to log in i was told i either had the wrong username or the wrong password or even the email address of which none were wrong thats for sure,even told me once that 2007 was the wrong year,great stuff.since then i have emailed them three times but have never heard a thing.must be easier getting in to fort knox than the bmw 3 forum but cheers any way,i have not got the patience to do it all again although it looked really interesting ,but i;ve taken every thing you guys have said on board

drgav2005

968 posts

226 months

Wednesday 21st March 2007
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Hi Morse,

Like you, I've been trying to register with www.bm3w.co.uk but with no success. It seems they are having major difficulties with their Internet Service Provider and are now looking to change. I gather once this has been done (maybe end of this month?) normal service will be resumed! Hope this helps

rumbletumble

199 posts

249 months

Thursday 22nd March 2007
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As previous poster mentioned they are moving their site to a new host, so try after the weekend.
Definitely worth checking it out as lots of info on there.

Main points I have picked up - as already mentioned - make sure all the recalls have been done on the engine, and make sure that the 1200 mile service was done on time.

Personally I would buy one that’s around mid 20s - as previous posters have said they will drop in value, not just because of new M3 but also the new 335i which gives near current M3 performance and is available now.

morse

Original Poster:

24 posts

216 months

Thursday 22nd March 2007
quotequote all
hi,i was surprised yesterday,just for the hell of it i tried to log in and it was accepted.Guess what to-day i tried and it was rejected again aaaaarrrrggh someones messing with my mind.Igot to thinking that maybe the tvr owners are taking over the forum,and are going to mess up the minds of bmw owners,or maybe i'm going to far.Anyway i'm of to Blackpool to see if they left any clues behind.