Can anyone tell me what type of mileage you would expect from a E36 M3. Was contemplating on changing to a M but it solely depends on the fuel return. I travel 45 miles a day so trying to put realistic running costs together.

Thanks  

Eamo wrote: I was getting 250 miles to €60 in my old e36 m3

B0LL0x I only get 260mls in town for €70 in my 525i. I new I should have got an M5...

Mick

@BM Fan, what made you give up the M3 for a 520? How many miles did you do between services? And would you reccomend one?

By the way I'm dying to get one. There's one in Leixlip that I see all the time. A '98 in Estoril Blue with Silver Leather. Yummy.

m3 kid wrote: hey les, got mine sorted this evening. so will keep an eye on the fuel consumption over the next few days and let ya know since i know your anxious to buy it......

   keep her out of those pot holes i'll be watchen, next time your out and about give us a call so i can droulllllllll

@ BigPhil at best i get 300 to 315 miles for €60 not much in it 

I know service tax insurance are the big ones but wtf

I've a 10 mile commute to work that takes around 15-20 mins. So day-to-day with that driving and giving it a tickle every now & again, I get around 24-26mpg average running Eagle F1s. Long journeys will see it doing around 30mpg. My best was 32.49mpg, worst 20.42mpg, and the average over the 4,882 miles I've had it is 25.2mpg. However, I've done very little miles compared to normal due to work being predominantly office based so far this year. More open road driving will bump the average up. Mine is a 3.0 with the 5 speed box, and the 6th cog would deffo bump comsumption to 31-32mpg on long journeys.

For comparision, my 328i averaged 29.55mpg over 26,437 miles. However, that involved more open road driving, and a change of tyres to a sticky & wider set near the end dropped the consumption by 1 mpg on average. the best i got from the 328 was 33.74mpg.

So in my opinion, if you're not doing big miles then the extra you'll be paying on fuel will be negligible compared to the general additional running costs the M3 brings. And if you are doing bigger miles, it stands comparision with other large-engined 3 series. Hope that helps.

T.J. wrote: So in my opinion, if you're not doing big miles then the extra you'll be paying on fuel will be negligible compared to the general additional running costs the M3 brings. And if you are doing bigger miles, it stands comparision with other large-engined 3 series. Hope that helps.

What would you consider to be big miles, i do 45 miles round trip per day from house to work and home again not to mention social driving. I would say 300 to 350 min.

Hey,

My daily commute is about 45-46 miles and costs me  on average €10 per day. Includes motorway driving, b road and about 10 mins is stop start traffic. Plus a couple of miles at lunch time.

I honestly can't complain about the mpg, herself has a 316 (1.9) and mine is not much dearer to run at all.... eats back tyres though!

@UJM3 would say daily commute the same distance takes me about 45 mins to 1 hour city centre traffic then trying to get up the Navan road and Blanch bypass and then when the bypass closes down to one lane just after Clone another big tailback but when schools open that journey can take upto 2 hours (the odd time 2.5) a lot of start stop and a lot of engine time. At the mo it costs me around €10 per day, so kind of reckon a M3 up to about €12 do these figures sound reasonable.

flyingalexf68 wrote: By the way I'm dying to get one. There's one in Leixlip that I see all the time. A '98 in Estoril Blue with Silver Leather. Yummy.

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=460868 - http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car& carID=460868

There are some nice ones about. This one is in Lucan going to view it tonight.

What about something like that...

Nice and the 01's now can be got for mid to late 40's....cheap enough.

http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=452138 - http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car& carID=452138

BigPhil wrote: What about something like that... Nice and the 01's now can be got for mid to late 40's....cheap enough. http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car& carID=452138 - http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car& carID=452138

About €30,000 out of my price bracket.

BigPhil wrote: Nice and the 01's now can be got for mid to late 40's....cheap enough.

Cheap enough .........he says, a bit out of my league anyway if i arrived home in that after paying 40k for a car my life wouldnt be worth living    but wait darling its a M

lesurely wrote: @UJM3 would say daily commute the same distance takes me about 45 mins to 1 hour city centre traffic then trying to get up the Navan road and Blanch bypass and then when the bypass closes down to one lane just after Clone another big tailback but when schools open that journey can take upto 2 hours (the odd time 2.5) a lot of start stop and a lot of engine time. At the mo it costs me around €10 per day, so kind of reckon a M3 up to about €12 do these figures sound reasonable.

Im working out in Blanch too, coming from Balbriggan (about 50 mins in the morning). Company used to be in the city centre, had a lot of stop start driving then, But i never found the fuel consumption then to be anything bad, have driven a lot of performance cars into work (celica gt4 porsche 944 turbo) and they were a nightmare on petrol. M3's really are a lot more econimcal than you'd think, providing your not driving hard even then its ok, lots of low down torque helps as you don't have to rev it in normal driving. 

Ok here's the latest, had a look at this yesterday evening http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=460868 - http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car& carID=460868  and she seems to be a fine car. Checked everything arches, seems, body work, electrics, doors you get the picture. Left the engine running for ages and she ticked over very smoothly. Went for a spin very straight and solid. It has a full service history, vanos was done at 67k good alloys and tyres, seats in perfect condition the only faults i could find was a tiny blister on one of the wheel arches, the clutch was stiff compared to mine and what felt like a few mils of the floor when she engaged, though you would have to ease the clutch a bit more if felt like my foot was still very close to the floor when she took of (this could be normal, dont know), the air con needs regassing.

So ,,,, going to get a mechanic to check it out.

,,,,,, I think i could haggle over the price.

,,,,,,, Am a little concerned if it fails the NCT what comeback do i have, insurance company would only quote me from now till end of policy 06/11 €93, would not give me an est quote for next year, could that mean that the insurance might go up by almost that amount per 1/4. Any comments or advice

If the car is on UK or norn iron plates then it should have a current (and ideally recently issued MOT).  If it passes an MOT it should be fairly OK for the NCT.  If i doesn't have a current MOT then ask the vendor to have it done.  If he won't, draw your own conclusions and vote with your feet.  As said previously, this isn't particularly cheap when VRT has to be added. 

As an example, on the UK autotrader site there is a one owner '95 3.0 M3 with 39k miles and full history asking £7995.  That is absolutely the top end of 3.0 M3 money but the ownership and service history mark it out as different.  With mild haggling you'd have that on the road here for €14k.  No vanos worries, no clutch worries, etc. 

Only potential downsides are that it is alpine white and the spec is only moderate.  Provenance, condition and mileage will get you more of your money back when it comes time to sell than the one you have highlighted.  At the age you are considering, condition is way more important than a year younger or newer.

The current MOT expires Jan 07.

Some good points Dergside, i was looking on ebay and could pick one up from 4k to 8k depending. I would prefer to try and pick one up here first. With the vanos done at 67k i would hope theres a few years left before it would need to be done again. The body work is in great condition no scratches or marks a slight blister on the wheel arch inexpensive fix. No rust under the window seals, front, sides or rear (i lifted them to check). The price needs to be worked on. Regassing needs to be done would €200 cover it.

Eamo wrote: just cos vanos is done doesnt mean it wont go again - many reports on the m forum of guys getting vanos units replaced more than once!!

I was told there is a way to clean and maintain the Vanos so its less likely to go. The boys on the M power forum will tell you.

Hey lesurely, have you seen this one? It's at the bottom of the page. '98 M3 GT

http://atsearch.autotrader.co.uk/WWW/cars_search.asp?page=15&modelexact=1&lid=search_used_cars_full&make=BMW&model=M3&variant=&keywords=&min_pr=75&max_pr=14000&mileage=&agerange=3&postcode=mk18+2jr&miles=1500&max_records=200&source=0&photo=1&sort=3&ukcarsearch_full=SEARCH - http://atsearch.autotrader.co.uk/WWW/cars_search.asp?page=15 &modelexact=1&lid=search_used_cars_full&make=BMW &model=M3&variant=&keywords=&min_pr=75&m ax_pr=14000&mileage=&agerange=3&postcode=mk18+2j r&miles=1500&max_records=200&source=0&photo= 1&sort=3&ukcarsearch_full=SEARCH

Thats good lesurely. Your welcome to give me a go in it.