M3 virgin wants low mileage minter, anyor

I bought my old one from Holland from a very nice garage with lots of interesting cars, will try and find out what it's called. When he found out I would be taking it home he knocked off the £1k's worth of warranty as it wouldn't be relevant - worth remembering. Plus he sorted out getting transfer plates organised - top chap by all accounts.

There are some dogs in Holland though, mainly those brought over from Germany, don't forget that the Germans are coming over here to buy the good ones back. Mine was a genuine Dutch car and as such was in the same league as the gooduns over here. Worth asking the question I would have thought.

I'd say a good place to look would the back of the BMW mags, reckon £7.5k should get a fair one with maybe 75k miles, the 50k mile ones will be atrracting closer to 10k as they still have 50k to go beforeany sizeable bills will make their presence known.

Apparently anything down towards £3.5 and less are bought by specialists for breaking! Mainly for gearboxes was the story I heard.

FWIW I've just picked up a 50k miles Sport Evo for £12.5k from Moseley Motors and I believe he has others (Evo or otherwise) kicking about the place, good bloke to speak to anyway for general advice - Nigel on 01952 503992. I saw another Sport Evo at the Independant Car Co for £13k with 57k miles if that's any use!?

PS Munich Legends are quite expensive but good for advice too.

Where are you  based in the UK?, there are various specialist dealers around(I would not trust a non-specialist). If you can track a member's car down off the Internet thats good, but otherwise I would be very wary of private sale cars, especially as their prices are over inflated. I constantly see private prices exceeding specialist dealers!

It is a completely buyers market out there, prices have dropped and will keep doing so. So don't junp for the first thing and junt around for exactly what you want - if you hunt it out, you will get it. Don't comprimise. It may take a few weeks, becuase although it is a buyers market, you have to search out the really good condition machines, amoung the shagged.

There are some basics you need to know - but I don't know which model you are after? - but there is a lot of info on the net to help you through a quite easy minefield.

Personally, I would go find a specialist you are happy with and give him your specifications and order and he will source one for you. You will pay a bit more, but it will be worth it. Offical dealers are not hanging on to M3s, they are putting them very quickly out to trade, mainly these specialists.

There has also been some good buying stats/ideas on www.bm3w.com - do a search on "stats". Some sad g*t has been analysing prices on Evos over the last few months.

As aI said, it is a buyers market, so hold out, don't comprimise and you will get a real peach.

- nigel.

Buyers market in a way but it`s very hard to find a good one though so it`s more of a car "car condition driven market" if that makes sense :). if you want to pry a good one away from it`s owner you have to be prepared to pay for it. It not like the difference between a good ford escort and a bad one being just 500 quid.

I nearly sold mine back in October due to personal reasons (well, struggling with finding a decent paying job in IT). One of the viewers said that the previous 12 or so he had viewed they were all  sheds. Not long after hearing that I decided I would hang onto mine.  Pretty much had two probable buyers for it before I pulled out. Didn`t mess them about though IMO although one was a bit pissed.Had either of made an offer on the day they came I would of had to let it go. Instead they wanted to think it over first and I did warn them I could change my mind, in fact warned them before they even came to see it too.

Might consider selling it later for an Evo Sport. But is it worth selling something I know well and have put money into for an Evo Sport? Not sure about that, and I`m not sure if the extra premium for a Sport is worth it either although it would be the ultimate :).