I found my unicorn... I hope you do too

[Freiheit]

I really wore myself out shopping for the right car, and probably wore out a few other folks on the forum. I had been looking for a Competition Coupe, DCT, CF roof, Individual Audio, heated seats. My first choice was Space Gray on a black interior. My target was a car under 30k miles. I kept finding cars with almost my spec, but nothing that matched perfectly.

After 14 mind-wearing months searching, the right car showed up. The exact spec I had been dreaming about. I found it in a 2011 E92 Competition, purchased for $37,500 with 19k miles, from a BMW dealer.

Sweet mods too:


Dinan Stage 2 Suspension (Springs + Ride Quality kit)
Remus Race Exhaust W/ Connecting Pipes
Gintani Front Carbon Diffuser - Rear Carbon Fiber Skirts
Vorsteiner Rear Carbon Fiber Diffuser Type II
Mode Carbon GTS rocker extensions
BMW Performance Carbon Fiber Spoiler - Mirror Caps - Kidney Grilles - Fender Grilles
LUX Angel Eyes
Body-color Reflectors
AA Drop-In Air Filter
ZCP wheels powder coated gunmetal grey

At least $8000 worth of stuff - I may not have found everything yet - and the dealer had no idea about most of it. At one point the salesman I dealt with proudly told me the car had an "Emu" exhaust on it, because he didn't realize "Remus" was the name wrapped around the exhaust tips and all he saw was the middle 3 letters. I've heard that when a car comes in with more than a little modification top tier dealers look at it as "body damage" and they're just glad someone buys the car.

I had planned on getting the paint corrected and the whole car ceramic coated, but when it rolled out of the shipping container I found that it was already completely covered in 3M film, another thing the dealer didn't know about. The previous owner had the car wrapped as well, so between the wrap and the pp film, the paint is just flawless.

Before I bought the car I showed the ad to BOOF-M3, and he thought there was something crooked going on since the interior was so perfect it looked like the pics were cribbed from the original BMW marketing materials. I'm happy to say the pics were accurate. There is absolutely no way anyone could tell this car from new, inside or out, under the hood or inside the trunk.

This car is flawless, and its everything I've been hoping for. I get to have the "new M3 experience", for half the price.

I've driven plenty of M cars - including a fully outfitted F82 Dinan S3 - and owned three of my own before this one. Even when my previous E36 and E46 M3s were brand new none of them handled like this car does. With the EDC on full the car can take a flat apex offramp with a 100 degree radius at 70mph, zero body roll, and the tires don't even protest. This car's limits probably exceed mine, I'm happy to say.

I still need to install the Alpine tune, pick my coding, get an alignment and balance the front wheels. I'm probably going to get a trunk mat and... I think thats it. Maybe play around a bit with different exhausts, which is what I did with all my E46 M3's. Back then I always had a couple on the shelf I could swap out at will.

Everyone out there who is still looking : Make full use of Autotempest, Hiddenrides, and the BMW Pre Owned site. Spend the time searching, DO NOT COMPROMISE ON WHAT YOU WANT!

I'd also like to use this post to thank BOOF-M3 for helping with my shopping the entire way, offering advice, acting as a dartboard for my ideas and my offers, and generally being the kind of owner that we should all be glad to know. He also helped me with getting the car shipped here.