2008 BMW E93 M3 (~60k miles) - Purchase Guidance

[bsharin]

Hi all and thanks for the responses and advice in advance. Long time reader and long time fan of BMW. I owned a 2007 335 and a 2020 X3 and always had an extreme admiration for BMW vehicles. Finally took the plunge and am finalizing paperwork to purchase a used 2008 E93 M3 with about 60k miles on it. Great condition and seems to have been well taken care of; was used primarily as a vacation car, 2nd owner. It underwent standard maintenance and garaged. It was driven regularly while the owner was back home to not let it sit idle for long. I am super excited to potentially take ownership but do have a couple questions for the smarter more experienced audience of the forum.

I have schedule a pre purchase inspection at a well known independent BMW shop. I do not believe much preventative maintenance has been done on the car (i.e. rod bearings) outside of oil/fluid changes. I financed through PenFed that offered to add on a warranty (Route 66 Easy Street) for $2995 compiled in the monthly payments with a 60 day cancellation window. I know I am going to want to do the rod bearings but given the initial financial impact of buying a vehicle, I was hoping to wait a year or so before I do that so a warranty sounded like a decent option for the interim to mitigate catastrophic damage. The warranty topic has been talked about a lot and have read mixed opinions on the value. I feel like have most of my bases covered but looking for general guidance or advice from someone that has recently gone through this process.
Thanks!

[AdonM3]

I was recently in the same position. I purchased a 2009 e92 with 62k miles. Rod bearings were definitely a concern for me but I decided to go with a 3 year powertrain warranty to mitigate the risk of failure. It made sense for me because if anything does go wrong I am covered and the warranty covers all powertrain related issues as well. Not all rod bearings fail and not all rod bearings fail at a set mileage so I didn't want to have the car taken apart to change bearings that could last for another 40-50k. It all depends on your situation and budget though.

[tbuck]

First, congrats on the pending purchase! Welcome to the M3 family!

Secondly, I am in a somewhat different situation, since as a mechanic I would never purchase a third party warranty. I know how they work and would find that the cost of one would be better spent on maintenance going into the car than a large chunk of cash going to someone else and crossing my fingers. That having been said, if you do not work on your cars then I think it is likely money fairly well spent for those emergencies that do happen. Just don't let it make you complacent and forget to do all of the usual maintenance items required on M-cars.

Regardless of a warranty, you would be wise to change the bearings ASAP after getting the car. On an '08 car, even with low mileage and properly warmed and and cared for and such, those copper bearings are a ticking time bomb. Also, you had better be sure that somewhere in the fine print it states it will cover the engine replacement and that any deductible will not be more than the cost of a bearing replacement in the first place. Otherwise you would be throwing that money away. You can figure to replace the engine after a bearing failure would at best be between $10-15k for a shop to do it and sourcing a used engine. Maybe less if you strip the engine down and sell parts off it to recover some of the loss.

For me personally, I would replace the bearings regardless of year or mileage on a new-to-me E9x M3, unless there was documentation of them already being done by a reputable shop. The rest of this car is as near to bulletproof as BMW has ever made, not counting the wear items that degrade over time regardless, but those bearings are too big a risk for me personally. YMMV

Good luck and welcome!

[gfisher99]

Make sure you check the fine print on the warranty as well. Mine was very good and covered an AC evaporator replacement ($3300) but mine did have a limit on how much they'd pay out, lifetime, on the warranty which was equal to the amount I had financed. If yours is the same, and you didn't finance enough, they wouldn't cover an engine failure.

Not all warranties are the same, just want to make sure you really read everything before committing the money. In my case it worked out well as the warranty cost me $2100 and the evap replacement was $3300. I paid just the $50 deductible.

[CamasM3e93]

I bought a carmax warranty on my 2012 e93 m3 with 45k miles last year. I promptly voided it with the various modifications. In retrospect would have rather spent the funds on rod bearings and maybe the maintenance updates I did myself: coolant, transmission fluid, water pump, thermostat, spark plugs, brakes, SS brake lines.

Now looking back at my maintenance decisions and Having been in an e93 for 15 months, I would have skipped the water pump (this model is not like previous) and thermostat.