Anyone else who just can't get rid of their M3?

[Headhunter.M3]

I love my m3. I hope i never have to sell it. Only thing i have driven that comes close is a 911. I used to have a 997 carrera 4s and it was awesome but m3 is so much better imho.

[Headhunter.M3]

My father in law has a 2020 r8 Obviously its faster than the m3 but its so numb. Its like a video game. It feels like a camry in comfort mode.

[Headhunter.M3]

M3 for life

[94jedi]

Originally Posted by 14_deltaM3

COVID has me bored and I constantly look for the next thing, but when push comes to shove, nothing fits my lifestyle like the M3 unless I spend 3-4x more.

I missed this comment when I replied initially but this is so true. I'm sure most of us stopped commuting as soon as the covid lockdown hit and I was immediately on the search for something new. Other people take up new hobbies; baking bread, painting, reading...we buy more cars lol

[jellydoughnutt]

I have actually been working on those maintenance items that I had on the list for the future.

Just placed a nice order to fcpeuro to get water pump/thermostat, spark plugs, valve cover gaskets, fuel breather. Still debating replacing injectors while I'm in there. I spend a lot more time in my garage than previously and looking for things to work on.

[Sly_M3]

I have 177k on the odometer and still love this damn car ! Can't get enough of it and drive the piss out of it . Finally did the Apple car play in it and made my daily drive that much more enjoyable and in a way made it feel less out dated . Just keep loving it and drive it till it blows up

[Sly_M3]

I haven't really been driving it for the last two years but covid caused me to fall back in love with it and I've gotten so excited and re connected with the car working on it and modding it again. Put it back to stick a few years ago to sell and the buyer backed out. Kind of glad he did

[_X]

Originally Posted by 94jedi

Just to go faster or less to worry about while you drive? I'm getting into tracking my M3 shortly, it's a manual and I've always been a manual guy...besides the two things I mentioned above, what are your thoughts on why you'd go DCT?

Honestly just a bit of a different experience for the most part. I have always disliked DCT/paddle shift cars on the street as it is boring and not engaging. On track that changes. I did the BMW M performance school where I finally got some real time on track with paddle shift cars and really grew an appreciation for them.

As you start with your track driving the paddles let you focus on braking zones and turn in. It is a lot less challenging and is a different type of fun. I will say manual is more fun, but I think DCT will help you become a better driver in a shorter amount of time.

Originally Posted by Bartledoo

DCT on track is just one more thing to worry about keeping cool to function properly.

That is a good point. Last time at Summit a guy with a DCT approached me to ask how I was keeping the trans cool. I said I haven’t had that issue as it is a manual, but suggested the do88 I have seen discussed on the forums.

[Freiheit]

I would have a hard time letting go.

The day it showed up in the car transport - after 18 months of searching, shopping, and negotiating - is still fresh in my mind. When I brought it home for the first time, I dropped the hammer at the bottom of an onramp. It was an absolute blast...the S65 at full tilt, Remus sport exhaust roaring off the concrete embankments, the DCT chirped the first two shifts. Every hair on my body stood up.

Just weeks earlier, I'd gone up that very same ramp in a 2018 Coyote Mustang GT. The car hit 110 mph in the blink of an eye, and if I'd blinked a second time I'd have fallen asleep. It was the most soulless thing I'd driven in years. The interior was cheap, with a bulky, overstuffed look to it. Even the radio aggravated me. Beautiful exterior though. Too bad the rest of the car doesn't live up to it.
Nothing from any manufacturer over the previous two decades was this much of a disappointment to me.

My E92 is the exact opposite. The car has a wound-up, alive feeling to it, and every day I take it out for a drive its like a big cat loosed from a cage. The tach goes on forever, the exhaust howls, the scenery around me blurs. When I walk past my car I stare at the shell from every angle and I can't find one where the car looks average, never mind 'bad'. The interior is pleasing to look at and touch, the seats are the most comfortable I've ever sat in. The textures of the materials and even the smell of the leather says "quality". I enjoy the sound of the doors opening and closing, of the alarm chirp, and that startup chime everyone here seems to hate enough to get coded out.

There's all sorts of odd little details about the E92 that catch my eye. For instance, look at the odd joint where the A-pillar, fender, hood, and door gather together. It looks like a capital letter Z, right? It shouldn't work. On any other car from any other manufacturer we'd be laughing at it. But most people haven't noticed it. Why? And why was it done that way? Well, on a typical car the hood is narrower and the fenders crown in towards the center quite a bit more. On the E92, the fender crown lines up with the top edge of the doors, which ties the forward two thirds of the car together visually, and gives it a very dramatic line. But that meant the hood had to be quite a bit wider. To conceal this the designers put two creases running down the hood, which creates a "center-section" to the hood, visually evocative of old style bonnets on the V12 Packard and Duesenberg coupes. The odd "Z-joint" manages to blend all these elements together and helps to hide the wide hood. Upon realizing this I thought, "There was no other way to do it - yes, they got it right".

The line where the rocker molding meets the quarter panel - its a few inches higher than the bottom of each door, and the trailing edge of the door has a pleasing curve to it. A typical sport/GT would have the bottom molding line go straight across. But if BMW did that, there'd be no way to integrate that curved edge into the overall design. So, instead being like every staid manufacturer out there and putting a flat bottom line on the door with a ruler-straight rocker extension under it, once again, "Yes, they did that exactly right by curving the door and allowing the molding to follow the door line up a few inches".

The whole car is full of stuff like that. The attention to detail is amazing. Its obvious the BMW M engineers said "the owner will not just drive, they will look at their car, and we will make sure they appreciate it from the outside as much as from the driver's position". (Of course, it was said in German and probably sounded a lot more forceful and dramatic.)

In reality, we all have that threshold where we'd give up the M3: when someone wants your car so badly they'll pay an unrealistic amount of money for it. If someone came running up to me and said "your car is exactly what I want, I must have it, will you take $100,000 for it?" I'd probably say yes.

But then, I'd remember how I felt seeing it the first time, and driving it home, and I'd think "how could I replace it? What could replace it?" I've been shopping cars ever since I bought my M3, just because I'll never lose that bug. I've shopped Aston Martin, Audi R8, a few Ferraris, and so on. I came close a couple of times. Then I started thinking "that means I'd actually have to get rid of the M3. No."

So, I'll scratch the itch next year when I get new daily drivers for my wife and myself. But the M3 stays.

[Ajolives]

There was an '08 RS4 that popped up for sale in my area a month after I bought my E90...only time I've been tempted to get rid of it so far.

[kyrix1st]

I have to confess, I am generally sensible on the road but I find myself drive like an absolute dck when I am behind the wheel of my M3s. Something about them just urges you to drive like a dude with real anger issues.

[Eja144]

Originally Posted by kyrix1st

I have to confess, I am generally sensible on the road but I find myself drive like an absolute dck when I am behind the wheel of my M3s. Something about them just urges you to drive like a dude with real anger issues.

Yeah I feel that. I typically have two driving modes: grandpa and F1 driver. The M3 brings out the latter way too often. I try catch it early and tell myself not to drive like a jerk. I also just bought a GoPro 360 cam and window mount, which isn't helping the situation.

[GotV8?]

I love love love my Jerez E92 6MT competition which I daily and getting close to 100k...just got Rod Bearings Service this past October as a preventative and hoping to keep it till the wheels fall off....will most likely get an X5M soon as a stable mate so I can alternate as needed. As they say "She's a Keeper!!"

[G80indy]

Originally Posted by GotV8?

I love love love my Jerez E92 6MT competition which I daily and getting close to 100k...just got Rod Bearings Service this past October as a preventative and hoping to keep it till the wheels fall off....will most likely get an X5M soon as a stable mate so I can alternate as needed. As they say "She's a Keeper!!"

Where in Ohio did you have RB service?

[Oreo Cat]

Originally Posted by Sly_M3

I have 177k on the odometer and still love this damn car ! Can't get enough of it and drive the piss out of it . Finally did the Apple car play in it and made my daily drive that much more enjoyable and in a way made it feel less out dated . Just keep loving it and drive it till it blows up

Bought my m3 with 129k on it. Was at 145k when it was rear ended and totaled, I always took pride in the high miles, I daily drove it and was trying to make it be the highest mileage e9x m3 ever. It was an 08 with no navigation and a 6MT (original clutch) in sparkling graphite metallic with Bamboo interior.
I’m only saying this because keep on driving it, and never get rid of it. I might be drubk (I am) but I miss my old car more than my ex GF.

[pbonsalb]

I kept mine for 10 years, which was long enough for me. The replacement is much faster, more practical, bigger and more comfortable, gets better mpg, cost twice as much, but is much less special, has much less personality, and has much less feel (F90M5).

[414bhp]

I got rid of my M3 four times!

1) I replaced my E90 M3 with Focus RS...but gave the M3 to my wife as her commuter.


2) The Focus wore me out. I sold it and I purchased a CTS-V wagon instead. The V was the replacement to the replacement (Focus RS) of the M3. The V is a completely different beast from the M3, and equally excellent but in different areas. (At this point my wife was still commuting in the M3.)


3) Eventually, we decided to replace my wife's M3 commuter with a Tesla Model 3. The gas and maintenance on the M3 was killer, the Tesla costs pennies on the dollar to run. In came the Tesla...and I kept the M3 as a track car!


4) I got the itch for a 2-door coupe as a weekend whip and track car, so the M3 was finally sold...for real! It is replaced with an AMG GT S. The GT S is awesome in many ways...yet I still think fondly of the M3, and find its engine more special. Maybe I'll own another one someday!

[G80indy]

If you could….. would you……
Trade e92M straight up for a new G80 ?
(MT for a new MT)

Why or why not?

[kyrix1st]

Originally Posted by 330indy

If you could….. would you……
Trade e92M straight up for a new G80 ?
(MT for a new MT)

Why or why not?

If I needed a brand new car and it had to be a stick I would add one to the stable, but wouldn't trade E92M for it, especially because my Ms are generally used as weekend drives. But then again, I would just get a 718 GT4 over a G80 or get a super low mileage F80 and use the remaining 10~20K for track mods.

Might be odd but I find myself looking at E30 M3s because it is car from the era where there was no electronics bullshit; a pure homologation production car with clear design philosophy, not the confused mess of the latest gen. Similarly, Ferrari F40 is no longer the fastest car out there, but its character continues to warrant #1 car on my shortlist. S65 I feel is one of the greatest production racing engines of all time period.