What on earth possessed them?...

What on earth possessed them?...

Author
Discussion

MitchT

Original Poster:

16,234 posts

216 months

Sunday 9th September 2007
quotequote all
Lovely E36 M3 for sale, very low miles... http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/158922.htm

But what on earth posessed the original buyer to delete the air-con?

cluelesscarnut

116 posts

208 months

Sunday 9th September 2007
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how do you fully delete a sunroof???

deleting the aircon give's you more power by getting rid of the parasitic loss it causes even when not being used(rotating pulleys off the crank ect)also some people(me included) dont like aircon because it gives you a dry throat and also freon gas isnt very nice to you

oola

2,554 posts

230 months

Sunday 9th September 2007
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MitchT said:
Lovely E36 M3 for sale, very low miles... http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/158922.htm

But what on earth posessed the original buyer to delete the air-con?
I think 'deleted' is the wrong word. It was more like 'not selected' on the options list ...

MitchT

Original Poster:

16,234 posts

216 months

Sunday 9th September 2007
quotequote all
cluelesscarnut said:
how do you fully delete a sunroof???
I guess by using the 'delete' option when ordering the car new.

cluelesscarnut said:
deleting the aircon give's you more power by getting rid of the parasitic loss it causes even when not being used(rotating pulleys off the crank ect)also some people(me included) dont like aircon because it gives you a dry throat and also freon gas isnt very nice to you
I see your point but personally I think you're gonna screw your chances of being able to sell the car later if you delete the air-con. Most people expect air-con on cars like this, regardless of any disadvantages it may bring.

oola said:
I think 'deleted' is the wrong word. It was more like 'not selected' on the options list ...
M3s of this age had air-con as standard, but a number of features had a 'delete' option so you could specify the car without them, so in that respect 'deleted' is the right term. Looking through some old BMW brochues I notice that they don't seem to reduce the price when an item that's an expensive option on lesser models is deleted from a model on which the item is standard!

Ravell

1,181 posts

219 months

Sunday 9th September 2007
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Although I think they meant they didn't select it on the option list, but to delete a sunroof on a car that already has one you could replace the roof skin. Although the car would need to be resprayed.

sjp63

1,996 posts

279 months

Sunday 9th September 2007
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bargain for someone if its genuine

sjp63

1,996 posts

279 months

Sunday 9th September 2007
quotequote all
bargain for someone if its genuine

Dave Dax builder

662 posts

266 months

Sunday 9th September 2007
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I Hve had a sleep since those days but I thought you could have either sunroof or A/C included as std, and to have both was an option.

Schnell

26,140 posts

221 months

Monday 10th September 2007
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I very nearly bought this car and I have to admit I'm surprised to see it still for sale as it's surely beeen on the market for three months now.

While the price the vendor was asking wasn't too extortionate, I was put off by the fact that, for the mileage, I felt it was in less than perfect condition.

Also, I think many will be put off by the fact that the car has done little but sit rotting for 8/9 years.

Deutscher

1,430 posts

226 months

Monday 10th September 2007
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In the mid-90s on 3-Series you could delete aircon and have a sunroof instead.

RichBurley

2,432 posts

260 months

Monday 10th September 2007
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It's not worth £12995 by any stretch though; it's more than 10 years old now. You could no dobut find a better, newer M3 Evo for less money.

Schnell

26,140 posts

221 months

Monday 10th September 2007
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RichBurley said:
It's not worth £12995 by any stretch though; it's more than 10 years old now. You could no dobut find a better, newer M3 Evo for less money.
Whilst I am perhaps slightly biased, I paid more than that for a 30k mile example 2 months ago. After much scouring, it seems that the really mint low-milage examples demand mega-money.

steve996

1,240 posts

222 months

Monday 10th September 2007
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Schnell said:
RichBurley said:
It's not worth £12995 by any stretch though; it's more than 10 years old now. You could no dobut find a better, newer M3 Evo for less money.
Whilst I am perhaps slightly biased, I paid more than that for a 30k mile example 2 months ago. After much scouring, it seems that the really mint low-milage examples demand mega-money.
Likwise, I wanted a low miles cab a couple of months ago and ended up with a 97 38K mile one. I rejected ones 2 years younger that were nothing like as clean and higher miles for the same money or a wee bit more. In the end I paid 9 1/2 for mine.

If you wanted a cracking E36 Evo with stupidly low miles to complete a collection then 12-13K isn't that daft - we live in the age where old 2002's are making 5K plus, and decent E30 325 sports are strengthening towards 5K.

derin100

5,215 posts

250 months

Monday 10th September 2007
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I entirely agree with everything already said here...

Odd spec...neither A/C nor sunroof...on a road car?

But leaving those inescapable facts aside for a moment...


IMHO that particular car now lies in a 'difficult' situation:

Whilst the car does still retain very low mileage its inherent potential value, over and above other examples, is based SOLELY upon this mileage. It's excess value lies in a potential collector-buyer purchasing it to "put away"...any normal useage will destroy that potential value. Thus, the car can (and should) be driven (and have been) only rarely driven to retain that value.

As Schnell describes (he having actually viewed the car) I'm not entirely surprised by the less than perfect condition he found....looking at the photos and description one gets a "sixth sense"?

Above all though...the most foolhardy thing to have done was for the current owner to have TRIPLED its previous 8 years worth of mileage within the space of one year!

Even though the mileage remains extra-ordinarily low that smacks of:

"Well, I've had my fun and extensively enjoyed the car for a year...after someone else kept it in cotton wool for 8 years...now you can buy from me at a premium price".

That, I think, is why no one has bought it.

A pity really...as I'm sure it wasn't really necessary to do those 4000 miles in it in a year? I've done less than 400 miles this year in my 840Ci Sport...In other words, it would take 10 years at that rate to 'enjoy' what this guy has done in this M3.

I wonder and it will be interesting to see what happens...


m3evo2

2,064 posts

215 months

Monday 10th September 2007
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I'd have it wink

ETA - No matter how low mileage a car has, age/time is still a problem, especially when the car has hardly turned a wheel.

Edited by m3evo2 on Monday 10th September 21:51

MitchT

Original Poster:

16,234 posts

216 months

Monday 10th September 2007
quotequote all
steve996 said:
decent E30 325 sports are strengthening towards 5K.
Yeah, I keep looking at them. The first car I drove after passing my test was an E30 325i Sport in Dolphin Grey. It was already one of my dream cars and to end up working for someone who owned one and get to drive it, at 20 years of age, was amazing! I was following an immaculate silver G-reg example from Shipley to Cottingley earlier this evening and got that feeling again. I really am tempted!

m3evo2

2,064 posts

215 months

Monday 10th September 2007
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I know the feeling, a nice sport would be a treat, they look good. A friend sold an 89 (G) with 50K for 7K

french

520 posts

207 months

Tuesday 11th September 2007
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I have a 98 m3 when I bought it a few months back it had 28,987 miles all warranted & checked etc before I bought the car,the reason for such low miles was the preveious owner was a university lecturer who also lectures & lives in USA & he had the car from new.

Its now just clicked over to 30,000 miles & i must admit it did hurt LOL, no I have bought the car for fun & to enjoy I obviously do not want to throw money away .

1st of all I am going to enjoy the car & I'm not thinking of selling in the next few years so I am not going tom worry to much ,if I did whats the point of owning it ??

If I wanted to invest in something it would be in paintings or wine,M3's are there to enjoy,not go to work ,not for shopping for trolleys to hit ,but to go out & drive !

pat_y

1,029 posts

208 months

Tuesday 11th September 2007
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Interesting topic, when i was looking for an E36 M3 i budgeted 10K for a really good low miles car (circa 60/70k) but found most of the ones in this range were either SMG or soft tops.
I found it really quite difficult to find an Evo coupe/manual/top condition in this price/spec bracket. In the end i thought "Sod it" and spent nearly 4k less on a higher mileage (105k) car that had all the right attributes.
After owning the car for 7 months i'm so glad i went for the higher miles option as it's been a pleasure to own so far, i can understand why lower miles is an attractive proposition but i don't believe for a second that super low miles is worth the premiums people are trying to achieve with these cars. They are VERY well engineered and will do big miles.
Just my 2 penneth..

MitchT

Original Poster:

16,234 posts

216 months

Tuesday 11th September 2007
quotequote all
pat_y said:
Interesting topic, when i was looking for an E36 M3 i budgeted 10K for a really good low miles car (circa 60/70k) but found most of the ones in this range were either SMG or soft tops.
Tell me about it. I saw a stunning M3 coupé for sale the other day. 59k miles, Atlantis blue, black interior with contrasting Lotus White leather, less than £10k... exactly what I want. I was all set to pick up the phone when I noticed it was an SMG. I'm sure SMG is fine if you're into that kind of thing but to me more technology basically translates to more expense if something goes wrong, and besides I like manuals 'cause I possess testosterone. All the 'individual' ones I have seen are SMGs. It's doing my head in!

Edited by MitchT on Tuesday 11th September 18:21