Comple of questions from a soon to be new M3 owner,

[Evxn]

I am finally ready to start looking around and purchasing my M3. I have been calling referring to my car to be as my m3 for quite awhile, so it feels good. I am 21 years old, I have never bought a new or even relatively new car. I have a 1990 Skyline GTR but it is not suitable for daily use thus I have been using the family Accent for a long time. Unfortunately I also live in Montreal so the weather is unkind to cars.

I had a few questions regarding the purchase I was wondering if anyone would be able to answer.

Are the Cf mirrors, roof, lip and spoiler all factory options, and also available as the Competition Package? Is it worth the money, or would be able to replicate the OEM look for much cheaper?

I have been struggling with purchasing a new one or a slightly used certified model. Is there any area's for concern when buying a used M3? I am

completely a rookie in the new car field. Never had a german car either and I've heard horror stories from my mechanic buddies.

I'm very excited to be able to call myself an M3 owner without my friends laughing sometime soon. I found this forum a little while back and it felt like it was time to start getting accustom to the BMW community!

[Jive]

The CF roof is a no-cost factory option, available with and without the competition package.

The CF Mirrors, lip, and spoiler are all available as BMW Performance parts, however you cannot order them from the factory, they have be ordered separately. It would probably be cheaper going the OEM route with these parts however i have not seen prices to be 100% sure. Others can chime in with more expertise.

[e1000]

Originally Posted by Jive

The CF roof is a no-cost factory option, available with and without the competition package.

The CF Mirrors, lip, and spoiler are all available as BMW Performance parts, however you cannot order them from the factory, they have be ordered separately. It would probably be cheaper going the OEM route with these parts however i have not seen prices to be 100% sure. Others can chime in with more expertise.

Small correction. CF Roof is the standard roof of the coupe and the coupe only. You can opt to get a moon roof as a no-cost option, but the rest of the roof will then be steel.

The rest are BMW performance parts. They can be ordered with the car, or purchased separately through your dealer. If you order them with the car, they will be installed by the VPC or the dealership.

As with any performance car, you need to do your homework to make sure any used cars haven't been abused or suffer any other issues. Generally speaking, M3's are very reliable. The M3 specifically is the most reliable car in the BMW lineup and among one of the most reliable performance cars in production today (along with P-cars).

Good luck.

[S65V8]

Going through this process currently as well. Do the homework, shop around, and learn to walk-away from the "sweetest" and/or first deals you see in the beginning. Guaranteed, you'll find a better one, so just keep on collecting your options. Select only when you know the deal is too good to pass up.

Good luck!

[M3SQRD]

In addition to CF performance parts, if you are interested in the black OEM Comp wheels and want to order them, along with black kidney and side grilles, with the car your only option is the Individual program (also offers special paint colors, interior colors, trim colors, etc). However, this must be approved by BMW so it can be a long, painful process with no guarantee of getting it approved. There are a couple of guys on this forum that specialize in this so I'd recommend going thru them if you are interested in the Individual program (their names are David and Ryan - work for two different dealerships).

[Twinbo]

Good news on getting an M3. Others have covered the CF questions so I'll jump on the CPO question.
After recently searching all of Canada for the "right" used M3 I found that everyone said avoid cars in Quebec. People's reasoning varied from "Quebec uses ridiculous amounts of salt on the roads in the winter" to "dealerships have been known to roll back odometers in Quebec."
I fully understand the first point, but the second one seems pretty out there. It was much harder to find a CPO car in Quebec versus the other provinces although the prices were also 2.5-3.0% lower.
I would say do your homework, find the car you want and you can always ship or go pick up the car (shipping from Ontario to Caglary was ~$1000 for reference).
Goodluck and post some pictures.

[saeyedoc]

With the prices they are asking for used cars these days, I think it may be better to order one new if you can get pricing close to invoice. By the time you figure in the extra model year(s) depreciation, deduct for mileage and lack of warranty, to me it makes more sense to buy new.

[stefan]

Originally Posted by saeyedoc

With the prices they are asking for used cars these days, I think it may be better to order one new if you can get pricing close to invoice. By the time you figure in the extra model year(s) depreciation, deduct for mileage and lack of warranty, to me it makes more sense to buy new.

Yes. Especially if you want a fairly stripped model. It was significantly cheaper for me to get my 6sp with mdrive model than a decked out 2-3 year old model, with low finance rates as well.

[Evxn]

Originally Posted by Twinbo

Good news on getting an M3. Others have covered the CF questions so I'll jump on the CPO question.
After recently searching all of Canada for the "right" used M3 I found that everyone said avoid cars in Quebec. People's reasoning varied from "Quebec uses ridiculous amounts of salt on the roads in the winter" to "dealerships have been known to roll back odometers in Quebec."
I fully understand the first point, but the second one seems pretty out there. It was much harder to find a CPO car in Quebec versus the other provinces although the prices were also 2.5-3.0% lower.
I would say do your homework, find the car you want and you can always ship or go pick up the car (shipping from Ontario to Caglary was ~$1000 for reference).
Goodluck and post some pictures.

They do absolutely use ridiculous amounts of salt. I plan on buying a beater for the rough winter months. Have also heard from people in the business that rollbacks is standard procedure around here. Hadn't heard that it more apparent here than elsewhere but thanks for the info.

Thanks for all the quick replies. It seems as if I have come to the right place.
I will absolutely not be rushing this purchase. This is a lot of money for me at this age, and I want to take all the necessary precautions. I hadn't heard that the M3 was a reliable sports car. All I've heard from all my JDM friends is that Japanese cars are far more reliable and easy to work on, so that is good to hear. It may still be a little while before I make my purchase. Maybe as long as up to a year. But I've waited so long another year to make sure everything is good is nothing.

Lastly, I absolutely do want the black performance wheels. Along with the mirrors, roof, spoiler and lip. Black grills and kidney as well please. Other than that I'm hoping for some small mod's. Exhaust, intake and tune most likely. I had planned on stiffening the suspension but after doing some reading (here mostly) I have heard that people buying aftermarket suspensions are most likely worsening their cars rather than improving them so I decided to forget that for now.

[CMBeamerM5]

I purchased the wifes 2010 E92 M3 this past weekend after several YEARS researching. I was able to get the car as a CPO and maintenance include up to 100,000 miles.

So, like others have stated, don't jump on the first one....always be ready to walk away....and research, research, research.

Good luck with your search.

[Mr. ///M3 RD]

Originally Posted by Evxn

I am finally ready to start looking around and purchasing my M3. I have been calling referring to my car to be as my m3 for quite awhile, so it feels good. I am 21 years old, I have never bought a new or even relatively new car. I have a 1990 Skyline GTR but it is not suitable for daily use thus I have been using the family Accent for a long time. Unfortunately I also live in Montreal so the weather is unkind to cars.

I had a few questions regarding the purchase I was wondering if anyone would be able to answer.

Are the Cf mirrors, roof, lip and spoiler all factory options, and also available as the Competition Package? Is it worth the money, or would be able to replicate the OEM look for much cheaper?

I have been struggling with purchasing a new one or a slightly used certified model. Is there any area's for concern when buying a used M3? I am

completely a rookie in the new car field. Never had a german car either and I've heard horror stories from my mechanic buddies.

I'm very excited to be able to call myself an M3 owner without my friends laughing sometime soon. I found this forum a little while back and it felt like it was time to start getting accustom to the BMW community!

If indeed you are looking around and like to save some serious money you should have a peek (if you have not seen it) at the link below. There is money to be saved on this deal to be sure from a fellow Canadian member (on the east coast I believe) that has taken imaculate care of his car. He has added quite a few options, read all about it.

He is selling it since he changed, or is about to jobs (it is all explained in his thread). I just wanted to give you heads up about it ===>CLICK here to check it out

Whatever you do or find ... Good Luck! and Welcome to the Forum

[Z K]

Originally Posted by Evxn

Thanks for all the quick replies. It seems as if I have come to the right place.
I will absolutely not be rushing this purchase. This is a lot of money for me at this age, and I want to take all the necessary precautions. I hadn't heard that the M3 was a reliable sports car. All I've heard from all my JDM friends is that Japanese cars are far more reliable and easy to work on, so that is good to hear. It may still be a little while before I make my purchase. Maybe as long as up to a year. But I've waited so long another year to make sure everything is good is nothing.

Keep the GT-R! Those of us in the USA wish we could own such a car but laws forbid having such a great piece of performance car history.

The M3 is my first non-Japanese car after tuning and tracking a lot of JDM cars. Here's my observations.

- There are some things that just seem weird or way over engineered on the M3. As complex as they are are, I am wary of things breaking later. If you wrench on your own car, it makes things just that much harder because of the complexity.

- Also, there's sticker shock if you are looking at aftermarket items. Things are marked up a lot just because it's the M3. So the same exhaust from the same manufacturer will cost 2-3x than a regular 3 series - call it M3 tax.