At last I managed to see the M3 of £20,850 at the BMW dealer today. Just thought to share my thoughts and ask what you think. I am not a car mecanic...but I can say I was hugely disappointed. Reasons? Please take a seat and carry on reading... The car is a 3-owner car, with the first 2 essentially BMW and staff. So 2 actual owners. The last owner acquired the car in 2008. At the sale in 2012, there was outstanding finance, which has been cleared, but there was a tiny (printing?) mistake at the dates (year 2009 instead of 2008) First service 1,200 OK in 2006. Next service at 10,000 miles (BMW dealer) in 2008 and next in 2009 with 30,000 miles ( by a garage...not even independent). The last service in February 2012 at 38,000 miles by the selling BMW dealer. So far NOT GOOD. To me, the car has a patchy service history, there are no further receipts available to support any maintenance work... Only 2 MOTs available. I'd have expected 3! NOT GOOD Visual inspection of the car: - Small stone chip at lower zone of windscreen at the RH side rectified - The base of the LH wing mirror had been resprayed or somehow painted (BADLY) as this was clearly visible whilst sitting at the passanger's side. My guess the LH mirror must have been previously damaged. On top of that, the mirrors are not electric and were quite hard to fold up (for a moment I thought they may break) - TYRES: Front were Kumho 225/40 19 93Y and rear were Avon 255/35 19 96Y, if I remember correctly. Not the greatest brands (am I correct?!?) for a 6-year old high performance car asking to fetch nearly £21k... I am not sure about the weights indices of only 93 front.... Tread left about 5mm; again I'd expect 7-8mm for the same reason. - BRAKE PADS: looking from outside the wheels I could see the pads from outside; front looked 9-10mm (confirmed by the selling dealer, as they had replaced them with the discs) and rear about 5mm thick. Discs were rusty though. - TEST DRIVE: This is an M3! I'd expect the thing to "fly"... But no... 30-50 with 3rd gear not impressive and same for 50-70 with 6th. On downshifting, I could hear the sound, but it was kind of metallic noise. Mind you, I have never driven an M3 before, so I don't know how it should sound. To me, I was tempted to ask the dealer but I did not(!), it was as if it was running on less than 6 cylinders... Maybe it was the short test drive route... I don't know... The car was quiet with the roof on. - Finally, I asked about the checks that the service department did... this 120-point inspection and report, as I obviously wanted to see it! The reply was that whatever the car needed doing, it was done and I was shown two pages with work that indeed had been done. I also saw somewhere "inv oil leak" and the...assumption was that this was sorted out... That's it! That was my first M3 E46 convertible experience. To you now for your thoughts
------------- Citizen of the Earth
Explorer of Life
Marie-Noëlle or nick name MNL. NOT Marie or Noëlle ALONE!
Alpina D3 2007 E36 316 1998
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