Anyone get a M3 from hell?

[fongpi]

Has anyone had any experiences with used M3s where everything checks out, low miles, clean title, single owner, and STILL manage to have issues with it? What was the take home lesson learned and how would you have done things differently? Please share your pearls of wisdom!

[Xtopherus]

Originally Posted by fongpi

Has anyone had any experiences with used M3s where everything checks out, low miles, clean title, single owner, and STILL manage to have issues with it? What was the take home lesson learned and how would you have done things differently? Please share your pearls of wisdom!

I think in general, which doesn't apply to many of the people here, most people don't take good care of their vehicles, even the expensive ones like an M3. To most, it's just a fancy appliance that gets you from A to B in style. It's expensive and has a roundel on the hood. If you're the kind of person who likes to wash and wax their baby every few weeks and takes pride in keeping it in great condition, you're going to have some difficulty finding a used car that you can live with.

Depending on how much of a savings you're after or what price point you're trying to hit, the best advice I can give is that you're buying the previous owner as much (or more) than the car itself. How the previous owner treated the M3 during their ownership means a lot. Did it get regular maintenance? Has it seen a lot of time on the track? Is the owner the type to redline it right out of the garage in the morning? Was it damaged and repaired? If it was repaired, was it a quality repair or some cut-rate cheapo job? If it's coming from a dealer or used car lot, you probably won't have any knowledge of the prior owner and may not be able to get a complete history.

Personally, I'd rather have no M3 than an M3 with a questionable past. I don't mean to sound all negative because I'm sure there are really good ones out there. Make sure the one you ultimately choose is one of them, and take as long as necessary to do so.

[THE TECH]

In the end, there's no real way to know whether a car has been taken care of or beat on. Carfax and dealer records only tell you so much. There's no way to know if the car has been tracked its whole life or lived in a garage and never driven.

[Sean05]

buying use is like betting on black or red... so no way on knowing if issues will come up...

Also the 1st owner might have babied the car but problems sometimes occur maybe after. anything can happen.

I bought my car when i think it had 2400 miles very low miles and just lucky enough to not have any issues after 70k miles...


But if i were to buy a used which i did. I had BMW run a full test if it has been over revved or abused and do a full 100% check.. NOW if your buying it from a BMW dealer most likely they will not do this test or give you some BS results.

I will tell you this... if the person really took care of the car you will definately see it. my car has 73k miles and its in better condition than an 09-11 models that are on the street ive seen.

[M3Now!]

As others have stated, you can look for some telltale signs. I personally wouldn't buy an M3 (or most cars) with mods, especially performance mods. That can be a sign that someone was looking for, and consistently used, max performance...

Otherwise, look for little things. Is the interior scuffed up? Are there door dings / scratches etc. on the outside? That can give you an idea.

Otherwise though, I have a slightly different view on buying used, it's been positive for me. I bought the M used, the two cars before that were purchased new, the two before that used. All ran well and were great cars.

In the case of the M, bought it with 19k miles at about $30k below MSRP so someone else ate the major depreciation, and it was close to flawless. I would advise getting one that's certified, so it's under warranty to 100k miles.

Cheers

[DominionXX]

Originally Posted by THE TECH

In the end, there's no real way to know whether a car has been taken care of or beat on. Carfax and dealer records only tell you so much. There's no way to know if the car has been tracked its whole life or lived in a garage and never driven.

Can't you read log files off the ODB-II port? I doubt that a used car dealer would allow/help you get to that data though.

[cposk]

Originally Posted by THE TECH

In the end, there's no real way to know whether a car has been taken care of or beat on. Carfax and dealer records only tell you so much. There's no way to know if the car has been tracked its whole life or lived in a garage and never driven.

Getting to know the previous owner is the best bet. I picked up my car from a forum member, and it was very easy to tell how anal he was about keeping the car clean and maintained.

This is the downside of buying used from a dealer. You have no way of knowing who had the car before you and their goal is to make money...

[THE TECH]

Originally Posted by DominionXX

Can't you read log files off the ODB-II port? I doubt that a used car dealer would allow/help you get to that data though.

Yes, we can read a lot of data but that doesn't tell you if it was raced everyday or just once. It also doesn't tell you anything about maintenance or prior damage/repairs to the car.