... a big suprise

[sim@ecuprogram]

Originally Posted by Sticky

Yep, if my parents showed up with an F430 when I was 16 I would have instantly been on my way to the Toyota dealership to trade it for a Prius.

i would trade for a yaris

[rcornelius]

Hey damn nice ride.... Do you think your dad would be interested in adopting a 50 year old. Smile.........

[Bimmer Nerd]

Originally Posted by rcornelius

Hey damn nice ride.... Do you think your dad would be interested in adopting a 50 year old. Smile.........

lol

[Bimmer Nerd]

Originally Posted by GTM

WOW! Congrat!!


I thought I got the whole world when my parents got me USED 90hp Golf III when I was 17. hehehe

damn i love those golf's they are sooo nice. 115hp is so crisp i love it

[RitiM_3]

Hey you weren't the only one who had a BMW at the age of 16, join the club! However mine was a 1983 320i ahahah

[gthirtyfizle]

Congrats buddy, enjoy the car. For those of you saying u wouldnt want a car like that at that age its complete bullshit.

[kranky]

This guy thought he was a responsible teenager at one point:



Congratulations on the car OP. Don't be a Hogan.

[Yoshii]

very nice...i wish i could afford such a car...be safe...

[Diamond Skyline]

i learned to drive on an Acura TL-S.. before i had my license i took the car out without telling my parents.. so clearly i was confident in my driving

at 16 i got a 1988 acura integra.. drove that thing to the ground.. had a few mishaps but no accidents.. really helped me learn the limits of an automobile (since there wasn't much to explore)

at 18 i got a 2004 infiniti g35 coupe.. a big step up and really helped me fall in love with RWD.. every day i owned that car i was grateful for having had a beater for my first two years of driving.. i was more careful with the G but still got in trouble.. speeding tickets.. close calls.. etc. but it helped me learn the physics of a RWD car.. esp through practice drifting

at 22 i got a 2008 E92 M3.. every single day i drive this car i am grateful for having had experienced a RWD with LESS HORSEPOWER and having PRACTICED drifting in a controlled environment.. so now when i take this car to its limits i am able to react more quickly to the unexpected as well as avoid any serious incidents.. THIS CAR WILL SURPRISE YOU and if you haven't had prior experience it WILL OWN YOU

i don't give a shit how "responsible" you are.. or how "good" your grades.. nothing makes up for experience.. if i had an M3 at 16.. i would be dead right now.. don't care who the f*ck it is.. experience is important

do yourself a favor.. sell the car.. get a used G35 coupe and have fun with it

i'm not trying to be rude or trying to make you feel like you don't deserve the car.. hell, at 18 i was driving a hott car.. and at 23 i drive a hott car.. so i'm fortunate myself but you will appreciate my advice

[BMW_TT]

Lucky bastard

[montreal red]

Originally Posted by Diamond Skyline

i learned to drive on an Acura TL-S.. before i had my license i took the car out without telling my parents.. so clearly i was confident in my driving

at 16 i got a 1988 acura integra.. drove that thing to the ground.. had a few mishaps but no accidents.. really helped me learn the limits of an automobile (since there wasn't much to explore)

at 18 i got a 2004 infiniti g35 coupe.. a big step up and really helped me fall in love with RWD.. every day i owned that car i was grateful for having had a beater for my first two years of driving.. i was more careful with the G but still got in trouble.. speeding tickets.. close calls.. etc. but it helped me learn the physics of a RWD car.. esp through practice drifting

at 22 i got a 2008 E92 M3.. every single day i drive this car i am grateful for having had experienced a RWD with LESS HORSEPOWER and having PRACTICED drifting in a controlled environment.. so now when i take this car to its limits i am able to react more quickly to the unexpected as well as avoid any serious incidents.. THIS CAR WILL SURPRISE YOU and if you haven't had prior experience it WILL OWN YOU

i don't give a shit how "responsible" you are.. or how "good" your grades.. nothing makes up for experience.. if i had an M3 at 16.. i would be dead right now.. don't care who the f*ck it is.. experience is important

do yourself a favor.. sell the car.. get a used G35 coupe and have fun with it

i'm not trying to be rude or trying to make you feel like you don't deserve the car.. hell, at 18 i was driving a hott car.. and at 23 i drive a hott car.. so i'm fortunate myself but you will appreciate my advice

i am also 22 and i drive an m3... i dont think being 22 qualifies you or me to say that we are "experienced" drivers... younger drivers always do more stupid things while being on the road. so we are pretty much on the same boat as him. and if he says that he is responsible, which means he knows when not to endanger himself and others then he could very well be less likely to get into any mishaps then you. just because youre 6 yrs older, it doesnt put you in a higher ground. it doesnt matter how much experience you have. you can the experience of an F1 driver for all i care but if you drift around the city streets all day scaring everyone around you, then you dont deserve the car!

[catch]

wow... thats awsome! im jelous! enjoy it!

[quackman]

You've got to be extremely careful.

I was also lucky enough to have a dad who loves cars and is able to buy me nice cars to enjoy as well.
I'm somewhat similar to Diamond Skyline a few posts up with my car history:
Age sixteen I was driving around in my grandfather's 1994 Mercedes-Benz E400, always with my parents as I had a permit. It was in awful condition and broke down often so...
a few months before I turned 17 my father got me a new 2003 BMW 325i. It was awesome, I thought it would be my car for years and years, and took care of it. My dad made sure to take me out into the snow and supervise my driving, especially once I started to enjoy driving more, to get me used to NOT making stupid mistakes out of ignorance. Experience is VERY important.
Then the summer before college I got a nice jump in power when my dad decided to buy me a 2006 E90 BMW 330i with the sport package. A very nice surprise and awesome car, ordered just the way I wanted it. Again, more power/sportier car... definitely takes more responsibility to drive safely and not like an idiot.

Sure everyone makes mistakes, but make sure they only come from gradual steps of enjoying your car and you don't try anything that is way out of your area of experience.

Then last summer my dad gave me the 2008 M3 he bought for himself with only a couple hundred miles on it, and its awesome. I can't say I'm a 100% perfect experienced driver, but after moving up and up through degrees of sportiness and power in my cars, I definitely appreciate and fear the immense power of this new beast. Give an ear to the advice in this thread: be VERY careful with DSC off and even M dynamic mode, don't even think about turning it off or exploring the limits of your car until you've gotten a lot of practice and experience, either through a driving school or supervision, starting out at low speeds.
Don't lose your head and get into wild street races with random spoiled idiots.

Like someone in the first few posts of this thread said, realize that having an M3 at your age is quite special indeed. Don't get carried away with your driving and don't carried away acting like a spoiled bitch with it.

[Diamond Skyline]

Originally Posted by montreal red

i am also 22 and i drive an m3... i dont think being 22 qualifies you or me to say that we are "experienced" drivers... younger drivers always do more stupid things while being on the road. so we are pretty much on the same boat as him. and if he says that he is responsible, which means he knows when not to endanger himself and others then he could very well be less likely to get into any mishaps then you. just because youre 6 yrs older, it doesnt put you in a higher ground. it doesnt matter how much experience you have. you can the experience of an F1 driver for all i care but if you drift around the city streets all day scaring everyone around you, then you dont deserve the car!

i've had experience with various types of cars.. which is experience nonetheless.. regardless of only being six years worth.. it is better than NOTHING.. experience comes in many forms.. it doesn't have to be length but also the type of experience.. someone who spends a year on a race track could be more experienced than someone who has been driving for 30 years

having driven a 997 S, 996 turbo, 360 CS, Gallardo LP-560, among many others (not trying to boast here, just stating the caliber of cars) my six years of experience is more than someone else driving a prius for six years

i'm not putting myself on a higher ground either.. simply stating it how it is

and i put emphasis on "practice" drifting because i don't go around city streets scaring people.. i use empty parking lots

people say a lot of things but it doesn't mean they are right.. i say i'm a good driver because many people have acknowledged that.. not because "i think" or "i feel" i am a good driver

you assume too much

[quackman]

Originally Posted by montreal red

i am also 22 and i drive an m3... i dont think being 22 qualifies you or me to say that we are "experienced" drivers... younger drivers always do more stupid things while being on the road. so we are pretty much on the same boat as him. and if he says that he is responsible, which means he knows when not to endanger himself and others then he could very well be less likely to get into any mishaps then you. just because youre 6 yrs older, it doesnt put you in a higher ground. it doesnt matter how much experience you have. you can the experience of an F1 driver for all i care but if you drift around the city streets all day scaring everyone around you, then you dont deserve the car!

I don't think we're exactly in the same boat as him.

I've had my fair share, a couple times, of a few mistakes so far in my driving career with the slower cars even.. the 8 second to 60mph auto 325i(i realize this is still a pretty quick car, especially for a driver with only a year under his belt).
The difference is, when I make a mistake with a slower car, it's not gonna be brutal. Since I've had a few problems in my driving over the years, I realize that they are possible and when things are probably going to go wrong. Especially with a nearly supercar-fast M3.
I know now to push this car to the limit or even what I think are my limits. I've already learned a few of my limits and some general car limits, and I think that if I had learned them in an M3 as my first car, I might have crashed it, or had even closer calls. I'm lucky that I'm naturally a pretty sedate driver compared to my friends and stories I heard about other teenagers' idiocies.
"With great power(an M3) comes great responsibility," you've got to keep that in mind no matter what, especially with an m3 at age 16.

[ALUFELGEN]

Nothing wrong about that at all. It is ok as long as you deserve it and know how to respect the car but it is not ok if you think "it is normal" to be given an M3 as your first car.

I owned my first BMW when I was 19 and I paid every penny of it myself (would've loved my parents to pay for it though!) while going to school as well. I was an A student, Honors and 3.9 GPA, with 4 scholarships. Very responsible kid and yet I used to do 155mph every Friday night on the turnpike after dropping off my girlfriend home. Now I don't go over 90mph anywhere. Every BMW would do +100mph so having an M3 or a 328 would make no difference. At least to me it didn't.

Responsibility is lost when you stop respecting the car. Respect the car and you won't kill yourself.

[12:03]

to the original poster:

I havent and wont take the time to read this entire debacle, but I will say congrats on the car! Its beautiful. Don't let any of the jealous haters get under your skin. My parents gave me a 12 year old Ford Ranger with 150k miles when I turned 16. I did have to work to buy my M3, but hell, I would have LOVED my parents to buy me one. Treat it good, respect its power, remember that YOU are NOT invincible, and you will be fine.

Congrats again.

1203

[tim3less]

Originally Posted by gthirtyfizle

Congrats buddy, enjoy the car. For those of you saying u wouldnt want a car like that at that age its complete bullshit.

truth.

[FrenchBoy]

I have mixed feeling about the whole story.

On the one hand, you seem like a nice kid whom your parents want to please. There is probably nothing wrong with that. If they can afford it, more power to them and you.

On the other hand, no matter how balanced and together a 16-year old kid you are, it is not a safe proposition to give a 400+HP car to such a young driver with no driving experience. The car is not just a nice poster on a wall, it is a monster with astonishing capabilities. Most can put any driver in trouble.
Additionally, and that's probably the most troubling part to me: I don't think you will truly appreciate the car (both for what it is and for how much it cost, i.e. the amount of work to be able to afford one) when you have nothing from your experience to compare it to.

In any case, you do sound like a nice kid, so best of luck to you with your new ride.

[12:03]

Originally Posted by FrenchBoy

On the other hand, no matter how balanced and together a 16-year old kid you are, it is not a safe proposition to give a 400+HP car to such a young driver with no driving experience. The car is not just a nice poster on a wall, it is a monster with astonishing capabilities. Most can put any driver in trouble.

True, but I got in trouble in my Ford Ranger, as well as my next car was an older Nissan Maxima. Boys will be boys.

[RCArce01]

Originally Posted by gthirtyfizle

Congrats buddy, enjoy the car. For those of you saying u wouldnt want a car like that at that age its complete bullshit.

Originally Posted by dpark22

truth.

I don't think anyone said they wouldn't want an M3... but rather at that age it would make WAY more sense to trade it for a 335i coupe or even a 328i. Virtually any new BMW is still very quick for an inexperience 16 year old and they'd probably still think that was plenty fast and honestly might not even be able to tell much of a difference in power. That way you can have plenty of fun and save the rest of the money for college or whatever. Because when you start off already up in M3 range its hard get any satisfaction unless your next car is even faster still.

My opinion is start off in the slower range and work your way up in order to get both the experience and appreciation for power/fun. It's just not very sensible in any aspect. You get much more satisfaction and respect for something that you slowly build up to, but anyways, i'll get off my soapbox now.

[HotLap]

Nice...congrats and enjoy it responsibly!! You are very lucky to have such understanding parents...be nice to them and show them that they can trust you with such a powerful car (for 16 year old) And be safe...I'm sure you have heard the stats that twice as many 16 year olds perish in auto accidents as 18+ year olds....make it to your 18th safely