any thoughts about this car?

[canadian stig]

http://www.legendarymotorcar.com/sit...7_2008_BMW_M3\

Thinking about buying this car. What do you guys think? It's very low mileage (is that good or bad?) It's a US car, not a Canadian one. Is the price good?

[Puckmaster]

If you are looking for a White M3 coupe, I might be selling mine. Contact me.

[Simma]

17,200 miles = 27 680 kilometres roughly.

There is nothing too special about the price. $48K for an American car with about 27,000KM is good but not good enough. Be patient, the right car will come in sooner or later. Looks like your set on this car because your not left with many options on autotrader when compared to the price and KM of this particular M3. Do remember its an American car. When you want to sell the car after your done with it, atleast half the potential buyers will stay away the minute they find out its an American car. There is nothing wrong with American cars infact I heard cars from the Southern States are better since their is not much contact with the vehicle and harsh winter road conditions. Warranty is also voided! Personally I need warranty on a $50K + purchase.

[Vancouver_M440]

I disagree and think that it's a decent deal if you can get the price down another $2000 or so. It's comparable to a same mileage US M3. I just imported my M3 at the end of September and it's a great deal to get it from there but the price difference in this case is marginal. Don't forget that if you brought it in yourself, you might have to pay for transport if the car is not close you, and you still need to pay for RIV fees, and provincial and federal inspections which adds another few hundred bucks, not to mention time spent. That said if you look hard you can probably find one in the States with more features such as NAV for the same price or less. I'm so glad I got iDrive because you can control so many of the car features from it, especially if you have the M drive button.

As far as warranty, US cars have warranty in Canada, they just don't have free service. You will need to go to a US dealer for that. However, as it's a 2008 model, the warranty and service agreement will run out shortly anyways. So that really isn't an issue. Just keep in mind that an oil change that you need to do once a year or so will cost you around $200-275 from a decent shop and almost $350 from a dealership. Mainly because the synthetic oil is rare and costs about $20 a liter and you need about 8.5L per change. You can buy this oil from the US as well but not many places stock it. It's an exclusive oil they use for all M cars and it's essentially a race quality oil.

A US car will be worth less than a Canadian car but you paid less to start with so it's not too bad. I've seen a similar vintage Canadian M3 sedan listed for $59,000 in Vancouver. I rather pay $48K for a US car. The only difference is the speedometer anyway. Looking at car in question the only major features it's missing is the NAV/iDrive, the upgraded stereo which someone people don't like anyways, and potentially the M button, though I'm not sure how often you would use it.

Should go and negotiate and see if you can get the price down.

[canadian stig]

Puckmaster, how much and what's the mileage on yours? Yours is DCT, right? I prefer a basic proper manual gearbox.

Simma, warranty is NOT void for a US car driven in Canada. I checked. The so-called "free" maintentance is however. But for a 2008, there is very little left of either one anyway. As for the pricing, I am basing my info on the autotrader along with kijiji and craigslist ads. There doesn't seem to be any cars cheaper than that, except for a handfew of them (mostly sedans), with considerably more mileage. That's why it seems to me like a decent deal.

Vancouver M3, I know I can probably get it a bit cheaper from the US, but after import duties and shipping fees and the like, the savings will not be that much. Maybe 3k or so, not to mention the hassle of going through all the procedure of importing, and in addition buying a car that I haven't even seen except in a few pics which are possibly photoshopped and edited.

What do M drive button and iDrive do? If my knowledge is correct, M drive stores driver settings for throttle response, EDC, traction control, and steering power assistance. Do those setting revert to default everytime you restart the car? If not, then I can just set it and forget it. No need for the M button. As for the iDrive, what does it do? Can't you program all those performance settings without iDrive?

Re: oil change. Not sure how hands on BMW owners typically are, but I don't wanna be stereotyped like the average luxury german car owner. I won't be running to the stealership everytime i need to top off my windshield wiper fluid or forget to close the gas cap. I actually love spinning wrenches and getting my hands dirty. So I'll be doing almost all the maintenance myself. So I'm not too worried about labour. I'm a bit more worried about reliability (i.e. engine grenading itself or gearbox melting down, etc) but from my research the M3 seems to be very reliable and well built to high standards.

I'm actually surprised that there's oil out there at $20/litre. And here I thought Nissan was ripping us off with their $15/litre ester oil for the 370 z Pretty sure BMW's magical oil made of unicorn sweat is well worth it's value Anyway, regardless of its cost, i'll definitely change my oil a lot more often than bmw's crap maintenance schedule. Whatever car I get, M3 or something else, will be driven hard. In the winter, it'll do cold starts everyday from sub zero temperatures. And in the summer, it'll do several track days. So I don't care how much unicorn sweat BMW stuffed into their exotic oil, there's no way I'll believe it will last a whole year and 20000 km of driving or so.

[Vancouver_M440]

Yeah. Like I said the price difference is marginal between this car's price and a US one. Though I found at least one that's cheaper and had DCT and Navi in the same color with similar miles. If you buy from a brand name dealer and not a used car lot, the chances you'll get a quality used car is much higher. Ultimately if you want to do the work you can find a better deal in the states. If you want to do the work that is.

As for the M button, it is just a preset for all the parameters that you mentioned. This is saved so that u can use them at a moments notice by hitting the M button. This is different and separate from the car's default start up state. Using iDrive I can easily set both but i believe u can set it via the control stalks also. Just more cumbersome to do so.

[canadian stig]

Originally Posted by Vancouver_M3

Yeah. Like I said the price difference is marginal between this car's price and a US one. Though I found at least one that's cheaper and had DCT and Navi in the same color with similar miles. If you buy from a brand name dealer and not a used car lot, the chances you'll get a quality used car is much higher. Ultimately if you want to do the work you can find a better deal in the states. If you want to do the work that is.

As for the M button, it is just a preset for all the parameters that you mentioned. This is saved so that u can use them at a moments notice by hitting the M button. This is different and separate from the car's default start up state. Using iDrive I can easily set both but i believe u can set it via the control stalks also. Just more cumbersome to do so.

So basically you don't really gain any more adjustability from idrive or m button, correct? It's just easier and more convenient to adjust the parameters, that's it. But that relates to my question. Does the car remember the set up and go into it automatically by itself, or does it default to a preprogrammed set up when restarting the car? If it does default to its own set up then I can see the benefit of idrive and the m button. If it does remember its latest set up, then the idrive and m button are just a marketing gimmick. You just program your preferred set up once and leave it at that.

[stefan]

To me, if the driver has done his oil changes at consistent and frequent intervals, I wouldn't bother. Anyone who is dumb enough to let their oil changes go till the computer says so doesn't care enough about their vehicle. I think this would be my first pass. On a 30,000km car I expect to see 6 oil changes not including their first breakin service (which - and double check - should have included gearbox oil and diff oil).

As for the options, I have mdrive. It's useless. I have to say I like the nav, I like the way you can adjust options, and if you're buying a new car I say GET IT. But don't let the lack of mdrive stop you from buying that perfect used M3.

[Giccy]

Originally Posted by canadian stig

Vancouver M3, I know I can probably get it a bit cheaper from the US, but after import duties and shipping fees and the like, the savings will not be that much. Maybe 3k or so, not to mention the hassle of going through all the procedure of importing, and in addition buying a car that I haven't even seen except in a few pics which are possibly photoshopped and edited.

+1

I think most people forget to add, at least in Ontario, the extra 19.5% in duties in taxes, plus additional registration and paperwork fees, to the cost of the car.

IMO, that combined with the additional headache, tends to make the price differential negligible.

Throw in the resale value issue and I find it hard to justify importing - but I know others feel differently, just my two cents.

I think patience is key. Wait for the right car, trust me it will show up.

[airwave808]

We had some amazing cars for sale in Canada late last year. I hope they were picked up by fellow members as oppose to dealer trade-ins.

[Lay-Z M3]

AW with Bamboo - hmm not for me!

[Vancouver_M440]

Wow 19.5% in Ontario? That's nuts. We only pay 6.1% import duty for non-NA built vehicles and then 12% HST here in BC. Unless you're combining the two numbers which isn't quite accurate either cause you pay HST on the value of the car plus the 6.1% import duty. I still did pretty good with my import and came out quite a bit ahead. Definitely was a bit of a concern getting the car sight unseen but the dealer was reputable and the Carfax looked good. You can get an independent inspector for about $150USD to give you a report. Some of them even take the car for a test drive to ensure nothing is out of ordinary.

iDrive is not a deal breaker and I thought I'd be okay with it before I got my car but now I'm glad I have it. The car just feels more complete. But it doesn't affect the actual driving experience I suppose. The M button again is a nice to have. I use it firm up my shocks, set the steering effort to sport, change throttle mapping, and shift speed whenever I know there is a nice set of curves to tackle. Setting all of those on the fly would be hard since you'd have to take your eyes off the road. As for the start up defaults, yes it does load a set of defaults but those are completely separate from the M preset. Also the start up defaults don't include certain things like steering weight, just the three main buttons next to the shifter. It does remember your last used shift speed but only for D mode. S mode always defaults to 3 bars. These startup defaults can be loaded by using the control stalks I believe.

To reiterate I don't think the OP has found a bad car. It's not the best deal he could find in the US but I think it's still quite a bit cheaper than the comparable used Canadian car. The plus as other's have mentioned is that he gets to test drive it and check it out in person.

[Vancouver_M440]

I forgot to mention CanadianStig, that I only drive about 10000 km a year. So for me that would be about a year between oil changes. This schedule is not uncommon for cars with synthetic. Heck, my mom's Acura was about 12,000 km for it's first service post break-in service. I think the service light will come on sooner for you if u are doing more miles. Cold starts, short trips and high rpm track driving are accounted for I believe and that would trigger a sooner service too. The auto systems seemed to have worked well over the years so I trust it. You gotta figure too that they would want you go more frequently. But if the sensors say hat oil is good, it's kind of a waste of perfectly good oil. I've kept two cars now for about 9-10 years each and both seemed fine just following the manufacturer guidelines and ran perfectly. Granted they weren't super high output engines like this car.

[Twinbo]

This is just an okay car. I wouldn't be concerned with Nav/iDrive as the 08's have the old system which isn't even close to the new one.
I think you can get a dealer CPO'd 08 e92 for low 50's (based on what I bought in September). It's the dead of winter so check to find a dealer who has had an M3 sitting on lot for a couple of months - then negotiate. If it is listed on bmw.ca's used inventory at $59,900 you can get it for $55,000 out the door in most cases (again based on my buying experience). If the car is CPO'd this will cover you for the "grenading engine or transmission" comment you made.
To summarize - if you love the one at Legendary, buy it. If it's not everything you want compile the list of 08 M3s from bmw.ca and start making phone calls/dealer visits.
Your negotiating ammo is:
1. January is the worst month for car sales
2. It's f"n freezing and an M3 is a tough sell in the winter
3. New F30 is coming
4. You have already found one for <$50K at a dealer (not private seller)
5. You aren't bound by geography - shipping a car is only $1,000 cross country

Good luck and post some pics when you find one

[Twinbo]

Found this one:

Rare colour, great options and lower mileage.

Check it!
http://www.bmw.ca/ca/en/usedvehicles...ry_search.html
Damn, you have to enter the search criteria. Just search 2008-2011 M Coupes and unselect M6 and Z4. It's the silver on Fox Red one

[m3cragg]

not a fan of buying american cars, if your going to keep it long term 3-4 years it will be very difficult to sell in my opinion.
come spring you should be able to pick up a decent low km canadian car for around the same price. hold tight.