Moving to NYC soon....Keep or sell the M3 ;)

[RuthlessE90]

Originally Posted by g0at23

Yep I learned it the hard way on Tuesday... I parked my car @ St Marks pl in Manhattan. Had dinner, a couple beers at a pub and car was towed 250$ and I + girl was soaked in the rain trying to get my car back.

that sucks

I live in queens its 19-21 mins on the LIRR to penn station and i have a yard and my own garage $500+ a month for parking is crazy lol

[crzy4bimmers]

Originally Posted by captainaudio

I have lived in Manhattan and parked a car in my building for many years.

1. I don't use the car to move around the city, That is what cabs and public transportaion is for. My car has only been parked in two places in Manhattan, my garage and BMW Manhattan.

2. My car has no dings and is in perfect condition. When I return to the garage if necessary I have the attendants wash it. I keep it covered and pay extra for a dedicated park and lock spot,

3. I will never be towed because I never park in the street. My car is a weekend car and is only used to go in and out of the city, The vast majority of miles on it are highway and rural miles.

4. I can't argue about the roads. They are worse than anyone who doesn't drive here can imagine and after this winters storms they were worse than ever, I had to get rid of the RFTs and install Koni FSD dampers to make the car driveable in NYC.

I couldn't agree more. People in Manhattan have cars not to get around Manhattan but to get out of Manhattan on the weekends. There's nothing like hitting the hamptons or upstate new york over the weekends and clear your mind before the grueling NYC work week begins.

If you can get a park and lock spot near your building in Manhattan, there's nothing quite like it. It gives you tremendous freedom, and, peace of mind.

[SP330]

Get a place in Brooklyn Heights or Long Island City. They're 1-2 short stops away from the city. After my Accord got towed, I purchased a spot in a secure (have my own garage control) park and lock garage for $200/month including tax in LIC.

Getting out of the city takes 15-25 min from either place using brooklyn bridge/queens midtown tunnel. Didn't have a car when I actually lived in Manhattan so can't tell you much there.

[Echo M3]

Originally Posted by dave70

Brooklyn is great (downtown, park slope, bay ridge etc) but this guy hates all of NYC, Brooklyn included. Translation...he cant afford it.

+1. This guy makes a mockery of Manhattan, but he doesn't even live here.

*Sigh*

I will once again vouch for what others have said. I too park in the city, and my vehicle is completely ding-free (aside from a tiny curb rash on the front left, which was my own doing). However, I have a reserved, underground parking spot.

19's are do-able, just don't drive them in the winter. 2 years so far, and I've accumulated one bent rim (was fixed) , one bubbled tire and one flat (was about to be replaced anyway). Winter tires and rims are highly recommended if you plan to drive in the snow - roads are particularly bad in the winter and spring.

[lve2xlr8]

Sell the m3. NYC is the worst place in the states for car enthusiasts unless you want to pay a fortune. It's funny how people here think if you hate NYC you can't afford it. Not always the case, you couldn't pay me enough to live there. Fun place to visit though

[BimmerM]

If you get towed or get a ticket in the city that means you did not pay attention to the signs and took a risk. Don't blame the city for doing their job. Do I think all the street signs are fair? NO. However it's your fault for getting a ticket or getting towed. Just like in Wash DC or any other city.

[Talk2meg00se]

I'll add the counterpoint to this notion that 1) if you are a weekend driver (like I am), 2) if you drive in and out of the city and avoid intra-city driving generally (like I do), and 3) if you pay top dollar at a restricted-access garage (which I do), you will avoid damage to the car. It has been my experience that this is simply not the case.

I take great pains to preserve the integrity of my car. I've been driving it for 11 months now in NYC and haven't had any issues related to the wheels being bent and / or tires being destroyed by the road quality. Generally, I've become pretty good with my Mario Andretti-esque pot-hole avoidance (haha). When it comes to washes, I use a hand wash only service. When the car is taken out on the weekends, I make sure that the car is parked in a secure area. You get the idea.

Despite this, and having only put 3,500 miles on the car since it arrived in May, the car has sustained the following damage:

1) 3 small dings in the rear bumper from the valets touch parking the car,
2) damage to all 4 wheels from the valets rubbing them against walls, curbs, etc.
3) fairly major damage of the left runner, see link for photos:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=515497

The shit I had to deal with today is a perfect example of how business is done in this city. I called the garage, which admitted fault and agreed to repair (only after threat of lawsuit, of course - wonderful!), this morning, telling them that I would deliver the car to the body shop for repair today. The instructed me that it was policy that a driver from the body shop must deliver the car; I was not allowed to ferry my car to the shop in the Bronx. Seriously, what the hell is this? Naturally, I threw a fit - excuse me for not being excited about some rando driving my E92 8 miles through the city to the shop. Anyway, it went on and on, managers were called, tempers were raised, but finally ... I was able to deliver my car (and the shop looked sketchy as all hell, of course - I sort of doubt that they have buckets of BMW Silverstone lying around). After awhile, you get sick of this stuff.

Needless to say, I have parked in nice garages. The first was the financial district, the 2nd was in midtown, and the 3rd is on the UWS. The posted rates for exotics at these garages have been 500 - 650. Still, garage, price, and location has nothing to do with the valets, which is the controlling factor. As the M guys from BMW Manhattan told me, it doesn't matter now nice you are to them, how much you tip them, how much you pay for you monthly rate, they simply don't care and they will fuck up your car. Unfortunately, that has been the case for me.

I'll quote from a prior post that really sort of sums up the garage situation here:

"Btw, I stopped by the BMW dealership to discuss and some of the M guys had some pretty hilarious (i.e. terrifying) stories about the valets here. For example, they see Ms with cracked carbon fiber roofs all of the time because the valets park the cars so close to one another that they then have to roll down the window, climb out, and walk across the roof of the car (which works for most, but not the M, which cracks). I was coached to look for seat damage, door damage at the window area, and, of course, boot prints on the roof. I'm not exaggerating, the BMW guys just went on and on with these stories.

Welcome to the jungle!"

Captainaudio and pman are lucky in that they both have self-parkers; I suspect, however, that Captainaudio pays close to a grand a month on parking alone and pman is, well ... lucky . There just aren't many self parking garages in the city. I'm envious of what they've done with their cars, but I wouldn't rely on their statements as necessarily "representative" of the garage situation for high-end auto in the city.

I will note, however, that the damage is extremely minor and is, of course, only cosmetic. I bitch and moan about the valets here, and the money pit that the car is, but, when on a Saturday or Sunday, I'm destroying the windy roads in the parks around the Skyline Drive area, all of that seems to fade away .

[PKL]

http://ifthiswasny.tumblr.com/

[Poppin Fresh]

If you can afford to live in Manhattan and pay for monthly parking, why not just get a place across the river like Edgewater? You get your own parking spot and peace of mind. The townhouses there look good.

[Bennettbrauer]

Originally Posted by Poppin Fresh

If you can afford to live in Manhattan and pay for monthly parking, why not just get a place across the river like Edgewater? You get your own parking spot and peace of mind. The townhouses there look good.

Better yet, join a racetrack club and park your car there. It's a weekend pony anyway, no need to keep it close.

[half man half amazin]

??

[captainaudio]

As several here have posted it is certainly possible to keep a car in Manhattan without having it get damaged. The point (at least for me) of my keeping a car in Manhattan is to have the freedom to get in and out of Manhattan and for a certain amount of convenience. Garaging the car a subway ride away from my home defeats the purpose of having the car. As I stated it is not used to commute to and from work, go to restauants in Manhattan, etc. We use it to go shopping but when we do that we drive out of the city. The lower prices that we get by going outside the city do not by any means offset the expense of the car but they are a substantial saving. Plus it is nice to be able to get out of the city on weekends even if it is only for a Costco or Stew Leonards run.

To answer the guy a few posts back, I have a race track membership (The Drivers Club at Lime Rock). Lime Rock is 90 miles from NYC and there is no public transportation there. I keep a track car there and use the BMW to get to and from the track.

CA

[Brandon26pdx]

Originally Posted by g0at23

Yep I learned it the hard way on Tuesday... I parked my car @ St Marks pl in Manhattan. Had dinner, a couple beers at a pub and car was towed 250$ and I + girl was soaked in the rain trying to get my car back.

Damn that sucks. I do love that street though.

[Mr. ///M3 RD]

Originally Posted by Bennettbrauer

Better yet, join a racetrack club and park your car there. It's a weekend pony anyway, no need to keep it close.

That is a great idea or find one of his friends at work that live outside the city park her there with good public transportation to the friends place. There must be plenty of opportunities to find such a possibility. Besides the money he saves on parking in the city he can here and then take his friend out for a nice evening dinner.

[Mr. ///M3 RD]

I do have to add this .... the OP types a subject line

Moving to NYC soon....Keep or sell the M3

and a


.

and everyone here gets excited about it ... I bet the OP is laughing like hell at us.

then the OP is never heard from again ... a true troll I say or some kind of a kid.

[g0at23]

Originally Posted by captainaudio

I have lived in Manhattan and parked a car in my building for many years.

1. I don't use the car to move around the city, That is what cabs and public transportaion is for. My car has only been parked in two places in Manhattan, my garage and BMW Manhattan.
2. My car has no dings and is in perfect condition. When I return to the garage if necessary I have the attendants wash it. I keep it covered and pay extra for a dedicated park and lock spot,
3. I will never be towed because I never park in the street. My car is a weekend car and is only used to go in and out of the city, The vast majority of miles on it are highway and rural miles.
4. I can't argue about the roads. They are worse than anyone who doesn't drive here can imagine and after this winters storms they were worse than ever, I had to get rid of the RFTs and install Koni FSD dampers to make the car driveable in NYC.

Congrads, your rich!! Everyone give this man a round . I was talking in terms of the average person who owns a M3. If I had the money to baby a car like the things you listed above. WHO WOULDN'T ? OP probably uses his car as a DD like many others.