Give your stories on how you found your M3

[DeafM5]

I am currently searching for an E90 M3 LCI and maybe I need some inspirations. I am currently struggling to find the one I like.

Like the title, how did you end up with your M3s? Hopefully everyone have good stories to share!

[Helmsman]

Nothing funny about it really but after driving previous E60 550i I wanted more of the same. No M history but thought an M3 Sedan should to do the job. Looked around a little, selected between a black stripper and my current white fully loaded. Didn't really understand what I wanted but preferred the white and though I give the "automatic" a try although I'm a manual guy. Eventually realized I loved the DCT and all other options, including comp pack which I hardly noticed when I took the plunge. A bit of luck sometimes never hurt.

[hungryhippo]

Got impatient and bought it on Ebay. If I would have waited another month, a bunch of them would have popped up locally. Would have saved money and stress of shipping across the country.

[M3_92101]

Lot of searching on autotrader and cargurus for the year range I was looking for and then always sorting with lowest milage first. I was doing nation wide searches and was ready to travel as far as needed if the right one popped up. And it did... an '08 with 3450 miles. I flew to the other coast earlier this month to see it after having multiple discussions with the seller and overnighting a $2K deposit check to hold it. It turned out to be as good as expected.

[Ngilbe36]

I'd been searching for the right M3 for about 4 months on and off before I found my car. I wanted a unique color with 4 doors and a manual. I was also hoping to find one from down south to ensure it had never seen salt.

Here is my story, copied from a previous thread:

I bought my car from AutoNation in Houston. On February 11th, 2017 Here is my experience. To answer the OPs question, just read #1.
I flew from Detroit down to Houston to pick up this car. I had been working with a sales rep for a few weeks to make sure everything was all set when I arrived. I had specifically asked about any imperfection with the car, not because I would be deterred, but because I felt it was a reasonable request considering I would be buying it by all intentions unless it had extreme problems. I was told there were no imperfections in or out (Problem 1). We also had discussed in MUCH detail the finacial work surrounding this and had an agreement which in which certain rates had been all but guaranteed, I understand this is up to the bank and not the dealer (Problem 2). I was also slightly worried about the out of state registration and titling process but was assured that they do it all the time and it would not be a problem (Problem 3).

#1 I got to Houston and got to see the car in person for the first time. Within a few minutes, I had found multiple undisclosed issues.
- The car had not been washed in what looked like weeks
- The front bumper had been repainted and it was close...but not a match.
- The felt front undertray was completely missing.
- There were minor scratches and one ding
- The AutoNation preformed service records showed it had been "filled" with 8 quarts of 5w-30 (As you may know, that's not enough...the oil light came on 40 miles outside of Houston)

Obviously all of these things can be fixed without too much trouble, but it was all time and money that I did not account for because I was informed otherwise. So basically to answer your question, I believe there inspection process is garbage.

#2 My APR was 4x higher than what we had discussed as late as Friday afternoon (I flew down Saturday). After arriving, I was told that they had my financial information available Wednesday and "should have" sent it to me before I got there. When I got back to Michigan I refinanced the M3 and got a rate 1/5th the percentage AutoNation had set up.

#3 This was the big one.
After a days of calling and being sent from the receptionist to a phone where I would leave a voicemail and never get a return call, I finally got someone to assist. My name is Nick, I have replaced the AutoNation employees name with "Fred". Note, "Fred" was not my salesperson. My salesperson "no longer worked there" when I started my inquiry. Fred was as helpful as he could be given the circumstances.
Here is the email chain.
______________________________________

Apr 25, 2017 at 9:23 AM, Nick wrote:
I purchased a 2011 BMW on 2/11/17. I was told I would receive the plate and title from 4-8 weeks. I still have not received anything and have not heard anything as to the progress of this. Please provide me with some answers/details as to:
Why this is taking so long?
What can I do to speed this along?
When should I be expecting to receive my plate?
This is getting ridiculous that no one can give me any information on this.
________________________________________

Apr 25, 2017, at 1:32 PM, Nick wrote:

I just called Michigan Secretary of State and they said they HAVE NOT received any documents pertaining to my VIN. Call me at (###)###-####immediately.

Thank you.
_________________________________________

Nick

I personally completed the reassignment of your title and all required documentation and sent it to our 3rd Party Titling Service.

I am not currently in the office, but will be glad to follow up with them as soon as I'm back tomorrow morning.

Your title documentation was sent to our titling service at the beginning of March. We had to wait on a duplicate title to be sent to us from the State of Texas, which caused a small delay on our side.

I will follow up with our titling service to get you a status. In the meantime, we will be happy to overnight an updated temporary tag to you if needed.

Thank you,
_________________________________________

On Apr 25, 2017, at 3:38 PM, Nick wrote:

Thank you Fred,

For the most part, this is all that I have been looking for. Someone to respond and confirm that indeed the process is underway. My current temp tags expire 5/13 if you do not believe that my official plates will arrive before then, then yes, please send me another set of temp tags.

Please keep me updated with any further information.

Thank you
____________________________________________

On Tue, Apr 25, 2017 at 4:44 PM, Fred wrote:
You are very welcome. I apologize for the lack of information. I've been offsite in training this week, so I apologize for not being able to respond sooner.

I do believe we will be able to have your plates completed by then, but I'm going to have my receptionist go ahead and overnight you another temp tag just in case, so there's no worry on your part.

I will also let you know tomorrow what I'm able to find out from our titling service about the status.

Again, I apologize for the delay. Have a great day.

Thank you,
Fred

Sent from my iPhone
___________________________________________
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2017 10:41 AM
Fred,
Has there been any update since last week?
What did you learn from your follow-up with the titling service?
Thanks
___________________________________________

Hi Nick,

I apologize, we are currently wrapped up in month end close.

I was able to find out that our titling service sent your paperwork to their representative in Mississippi by mistake (I can’t answer how that happened). They have received your paperwork back and it is being sent to their representative in Michigan, which will take the paperwork to the local tag office. I’ve asked them to give me an update once the paperwork is received and in process by Michigan. We also owed just a bit more money, so I cut that check on Friday and sent it off.

Did you receive your updated temporary tag? I had them extend it out to June just to be safe. I don’t anticipate any further delays with getting your plates to you.

Sorry for the delay, please let me know if you have any other questions.

Fred
_______________________________________

From: Nick
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2017 1:17 PM
To: Fred
Subject: Re: Plates for Vehicle purchased 2/11/17

Ha. That's funny. As long as the paperwork is accounted for. Yes temp tags arrived. Thank you for following up on this.
________________________________________

On Tue, May 9, 2017 at 10:01 AM, Fred wrote:
Good morning Nick,

Michigan has rejected the registration of your vehicle because we do not have the current insurance card. The card we have is for the 2016 Ford F150 that was provided in the deal. Michigan requires a copy of current Michigan insurance showing the BMW VIN number. Is there any way you can scan over a copy of the current insurance card to me? They said everything else looked ok to them to process.

Thank you for your help.
_____________________________________________

From: Nick
Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2017 9:05 AM
To: Fred
Subject: Re: Plates for Vehicle purchased 2/11/17

Insurance Card for the BMW is attached.
________________________________________________

On Tue, May 9, 2017 at 12:37 PM, Fred wrote:
Thank you so much. This is perfect.
________________________________________________

On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 11:02 AM, Nick wrote:
Is there any update on the progress of this issue?
We are now over 13 weeks since the purchase of this vehicle.

__________________________________________

May 17
Hi Nick,

I spoke with our title agency. They walked your paperwork into the Michigan DMV on 5/15 (Monday). They have stated that average turnaround time for Michigan is 10-14 business days, but often shorter than that in their own experience. The will be sending your plates and registration directly to you via overnight UPS once it’s completed.

They did confirm that all paperwork is in place and the fees are correct, so there should be no further hang ups.

Please let me know if you don’t receive the plates within the next week.

Thank you!
_____________________________________________

To Fred May 25
I have received my plate and registration.
Thank you for your assistance in this matter.
______________________________________________
______________________________________________

In the end, it took 14 weeks and 5 days to receive my title and registration and then immediately turned them back in to do the refinancing.

On a positive note, mechanically the car has had 0 issues in 9k (EDIT 12k now) miles since I picked it up.
And they lived happily ever after...

Sorry about the lengthy explanation, but I wanted you to see the whole picture.

[spiderspider]

I found a low-mileage single hump sedan on ebay and clicked "But It Now". I get a little impulsive.

[Montaver]

I found a small ad on the BMWCCA classifieds, with 4 grainy pictures and a 2 sentence description. Called up, had a very good feeling. Proper enthusiast who knew the car very well. I drove 3 hours to view. First owner from new, always garaged, serviced at BMW, low mileage, summer driven only, completely stock. Was very apparent it was the former owners pride and joy, car was minty fresh and had lived an easy life. Left 3 hours later having verbally agreed the deal, picked her up the following weekend.

Buy the seller would be my advice. I'm still in touch with the guy I bought mine from, he's now in a brand a new F80..

[LostPanda]

From my first forum post.

So long story short, I've been hunting for an E92 M3 for the past three years, during that time I've test driven just about everything under the sun from 911s to the AMG C 63 S, and refused to go out on weekend evenings. Just because I glowed green of envy from everyone else driving their cars. As the story goes, I found this specific E92 at a BMW stealership. At the time it was 4 years old (13'), 42000 mi., and pristine. They wouldn't sell it at my price and I told him this car will be on this lot or for sale until the day I own it. Afterwards, I've exhausted my choices, I put money down on the New M2 CS alllocation fearing I wouldnt find what I wanted. Eventually the gentleman I dealt with sold it to some young kid of whom trashed the bumper, underbelly, and wheels. Six months later and an additional 6000 mi, he then sold it to another location on the other side of town. Now two years have gone by, I randomly saw a red M3 for sale and went to look at it. Low and behold, it was the same damn car I tried to make a deal with at BMW. All trashed up, but in good working condition. So I beat the current dealer down and took the car home. The next day I took it back to the same BMW dealership to withdraw my deposit, they asked why. "Well... I got a new car. *Long Pause* The same salesman stood there, mouth gaping open. "Well, do you recognize it?" So we talked for a second and I asked " Remember what I told you two years ago?" He says "Kinda." So I reiterated the conversation. "Oh yea..." Then I leaned in and said "I told you so. Now give me my check."

[hotbmwfan]

Back in 2012 I had a black 2008 BMW 135. It was a decent car but kind of small, hard to keep clean and I was starting to get bored of it so I started looking for something a little bigger with more power and not black. I had considered an M3 but thought I couldn't afford one so I was looking at older used BMW's and Porsches. At the time BMW was running ads on TV for the new M5. The ads always featured a Monte Carlo Blue M5 and I thought that it was the most beautiful car that I had ever seen. But there was no way that I could afford a new M5. I can remember saying to myself "if only BMW made an M3 in Monte Carlo Blue, I would buy it on the spot no matter the price". I had never seen an M3 in MCB so knew that it would never happen. After 6 months of looking at several used cars that didn't live up to my expectations, I was getting frustrated. Then I saw an ad by a BMW dealer about a 2 hour drive from me that had a 1980's M6 with about 20,000 km on it for sale. It was pristine but black. But I always loved the look of the sharknose big coupes so one weekend went to have a look. As I walked into the dealer showroom I noticed a Monte Carlo Blue car at the back and thought "nice looking M5.....but wait how come it only has two doors!!!!!" It was my MCB M3, one of only 13 ever made for the Canadian market. I owned it within 20 minutes. Never did see the black M6.

[Richbot]

April, 2010 - searching for an E39M, can't find one anywhere at any price that's good enough, unless it's from EAG. Almost squeezed the trigger on a Le Mans Blue 03 they had with 20k miles on it for like $38,000, but wife asked what I would buy if budget wasn't an issue, answer was (and still would be to this day) E90M. So, went to dealer, that had used AW/black 3000 mile loaded 6MT, asking about $60k.

Sitting next to it was a car that wasn't on their website, listed as new. "What's the story with this one?" Long story short, it was allocated to them without much input on options, they got it in mid-summer of 2008 right as the Global Financial Cluster-F was beginning, stood firm on price and couldn't move it, because no nav, no sunroof, yada. Premium and cold weather and that's it. At some point somebody had taken the factory 220M's off and installed factory 219M's, which I wanted but nobody else seemed to want (remember when EVERY E9xM had 220M's on it?) in a swap to sell a different car, . it had 280 miles on it after my test drive. Sticker $62k including gas guzzler tax. They had punched the warranty and used it, briefly, as a demo to pump sales, so it only had 3.5 years left. We got it for $49,500.

It now has 108,000 miles on it and I'm never selling it. Whatever happened during those 272 miles before my test drive broke it in right.

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by hotbmwfan

Back in 2012 I had a black 2008 BMW 135. It was a decent car but kind of small, hard to keep clean and I was starting to get bored of it so I started looking for something a little bigger with more power and not black. I had considered an M3 but thought I couldn't afford one so I was looking at older used BMW's and Porsches. At the time BMW was running ads on TV for the new M5. The ads always featured a Monte Carlo Blue M5 and I thought that it was the most beautiful car that I had ever seen. But there was no way that I could afford a new M5. I can remember saying to myself "if only BMW made an M3 in Monte Carlo Blue, I would buy it on the spot no matter the price". I had never seen an M3 in MCB so knew that it would never happen. After 6 months of looking at several used cars that didn't live up to my expectations, I was getting frustrated. Then I saw an ad by a BMW dealer about a 2 hour drive from me that had a 1980's M6 with about 20,000 km on it for sale. It was pristine but black. But I always loved the look of the sharknose big coupes so one weekend went to have a look. As I walked into the dealer showroom I noticed a Monte Carlo Blue car at the back and thought "nice looking M5.....but wait how come it only has two doors!!!!!" It was my MCB M3, one of only 13 ever made for the Canadian market. I owned it within 20 minutes. Never did see the black M6.

Wow what a nice story - movie class!

[SkysTheLimit]

Check my build thread:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showpos...50&postcount=2

[sibhusz06]

Just bought an 11 E90 DCT with ZCP with 69k on it. I began searching on cargurus and cars.com and found so many that where either modified or had been in accidents. I didnt even want one with the black grill swap, just all original. Finally found one at a BMW dealer, that was a single owner and guy was in his late 50s, and had all dealer records. Negotiated as much as i could over the phone, and put a deposit to hold the car until i could fly from DC to Florida. On the way back had a low oil light came on, luckily it must not have been topped up on the oil change and just add to add .5 qt. Then hit a pot hole in Atlanta and had my ABS light and DSC message come on. Fortunately it was just a bad wheel sensor. Was worried about both of these items but then read these are common problems in these cars. Car has been good to me during the last few hundred miles though!

What i will say is from my experience, if you find a good one that meets your criteria, jump on it and dont price haggle too much. The good ones are getting taken quickly...

[Mr. BMW]

I spent a couple years casually looking. I wanted a coupe but might have gone for a sedan if I found one that I liked. It had to be blue with a black interior, had to be a manual and have low miles. I found a few but they were either out of my price range or too far away or both. I finally stumbled on one in the spring of 2015 but it was at a dealer in Maryland. I wasn't able to drive/fly down to check it out. I then learned that a buddy of mine (who is also a car guy, owned a BMW previously and was also looking for the same car a few years back) was in Maryland visiting family and happened to be only 10 minutes from the dealer. I had him go check the car out and drive it.
I then spent the next week+ trying to put together a deal, which included having the car CPO'ed. A week or so after that the car was delivered and I could not be happier!

[nchinn01]

In June of 2017, I contacted an older gentleman about purchasing his 2011 e92 with 22K miles. He said he had a buyer, but the buyer was away on a business trip. The gentleman said that he would contact me if the sale didn't happen. A week later, I called and he said the car sold. Apparently the buyer sent him $5k just to hold the car until he came back! The car was gone, so I resumed my search! Fast forward 10 months to May 2018 and a 2011 e92 with 28k miles pops up on craigslist. Turns out it was the exact car I tried to buy nearly a year ago! So I bought it. I am actually glad I bought it from the second owner because the car now has an xpel wrap and it came with a single letter 'M' vanity plate

[GotV8?]

I was on the fence between a C63AMG and a E9x M3, Test drove both, and realized that I wanted a Manual gearbox. The M was more engaging, both had their own amazing engine note.

[cjpavao]

back in 2010 I knew I had to own an e90 M someday. in 2013 I started working for a Mercedes-Benz dealership (still do currently) and fell in love with the c63 amg. I sold my e46 in November of 2017, and the chase was on for a c63. after serveral months of searching, putting one deposit on a car across country, I got sick of looking for “the one” and started throwing e90’s in the mix. this car popped up on cars.com at a dealer in CT which was a two hour drive from me. it was nice because I could see it in person vs shopping country-wide for the past seven months. I contemplated for a few days on the car but finally put a deposit on it and drove out to see it. once I drove it, I knew it was the one. jerez black e90 with 41k, with fox red extended that looks like it’s never been sat in. also had dinan exhaust and dinan cf intake. it’ll be a year since I’ve owned it on June 30th, and I couldn’t be happier.

[GVIFlyer]

I walked into the Motorwerks BMW dealership, filled out the order form (everything but the automatic high beams), negotiated the price, and four months later I had my M3.

[DeafM5]

Love the stories!

Somewhat unrelated but still an M. I was browsing craigslist on mother's day 2017 and I clicked the location I rarely look into part of CT. Behold 1 owner E39 M5 pops up for sale. I had a formal mother's dinner in maybe 3 hours. I still went to check out the M5. Within 5 minutes of arriving, I bought the M5. This was the fastest purchase I've made and I was lucky because the owner was getting calls nonstop about the M5 and I was the FIRST one to show up in person. I arrived to dinner 1 hr late but it was worth the trip.

[IB M]

New vs used story - In The summer of 2012 I went to buy a 2013 Boss302 Laguna Seca and the Ford Dealership wanted $10k over sticker and no test drive. I walked out and a few days later ordered a new 2013 ZCP to my specs and paid $5k under sticker plus got to do the PCD.

A couple of years ago I finally got to drive a Boss LS ... THANK YOU Ford for running me off with your crazy market adjustment price.

[zipper228]

like most everyone above, was looking for months for the right e93, had specific requirements for price, mileage, 6 speed, color, etc. Finally found the right one on the other coast (NY) that had been traded in to a Subaru dealership and made a trip to a dealership there to close the deal. Condition wasn't what I expected when I got there but I figured they would be thrilled to move a convertible at the end of December in NY.. I was wrong, we couldn't agree on the price, so I left disappointed.

Less than two weeks later, browsing craigslist, the exact car that I wanted shows up 45 mins away from me (turns out it was listed here on the forums too, but I wasn't on here at the time). Not only that, it had every mod that I had already planned to do in the future, down to the carbon fiber hood. Met the seller who is an awesome guy and gave me a really fair price.
Funny enough, the car I originally traveled to see in NY eventually got dropped down to the exact same price I had offered them 4 months earlier
Extremely happy that deal didn't work out in the end, wound up with the perfect car

[MaximusB]

Impulse buy.

My old daily (09 IS250 AWD) had a bunch of services due. The car itself was in great shape but it was starting to feel dated and it was only worth about $15k at the time. So it was either spend about $5k to refresh the car on things like change all the fluids, brakes, and refresh suspension, and drive it for another 5-6 years or get something else. So one day I decided to stop by a BMW dealer on my way home to see what options are out there.

Saw an 2011 E92 M3 at the dealer with all the options I wanted. White with red interior, CF roof, ZCP. Only flaw was it had an $8k damage from a previous accident. I had my buddy who own's a bodyshop pull the repair history (in BC we only have one insurance company and it is owned by the government, so any bodyshop can pull repair history as long as it is a BC registered car). Long story short, he saw photos of the damage and it was in his opinion that the damage should be more than $8k. So it lead him to believe it was a sub-par repair. Given the damage involved rear right quarter panel, trunk and rear bumper his concerns were mis alignment of the quarter panel and it may lead to future water leak. I took his advice and walked away from car.

2 weeks after that the dealer called and said they got a 2013 frozen white E92 on lease return, no accident, clean title...etc. I told them I'll swing by after work the same day to see the car, and was told they'll have the car ready for me to test drive. Showed up and found out the car haven't been inspected, papers weren't ready, not washed, and not ready for showing so no test drive. The Manager threw a fit at the sales guy for wasting my time. I didn't really cared at the time but I played along and pretended I was fucking pissed so I could get a better price. At the same time I was texting another friend who works for the same Auto Group that also owns this BMW dealer and he pulled the history on the car. Found out the previous owner had most of the car paid off. So my friend told me what I should/can offer on the car. All in all, got $8k off the asking price and they fixed and repaired all the imperfections, certified it as pre-owned and etc.