E92 M3 buyers guide

[Bungle007]

You can identify upgraded audio if the car has tweeters mounted in the corner of the A pillars.
There are 3 levels of upgrade.
Hifi speaker system. About £400. Tweeters added. Good improvement on standard.
HK (Also called Logic 7) about £700. Tweeters with HK branding & more amplification. The sweet spot.
Individual audio. About £1,500. More speakers with silver trims around the grilles.

[Moycie]

I picked up an LE500 last August, in Santorini Blue. The DCT box is very good, sometimes lazy in D1/reverse when first starting at cold, but I find it very smooth when warmed up.

I would recommend the BMW Business loudspeaker system as a minimum upgrade on the stereo.

On top of the LE500 spec (19" 220M, in High-gloss black, Individual Colour & Interior, Dark Chrome exterior parts, Piano Black interior trim), I have the following options, all worthwhile except the Media pack (not linked that up yet, so clearly not used...)

•Seven-speed double clutch transmission.
•Electronic damper control (EDC).
•Adaptive headlights.
•Front and rear park distance control (PDC).
•Heated front seats.
•Electric folding exterior mirrors.
•Front armrest with sliding adjustment.
•Sun protection glass.
•BMW Business loudspeaker system.
•Media Package.
•BMW Service Inclusive Pack.

[Wills2]

Setest said:

Sorry for the thread resurrection guys..

Currently looking for an e92, interested in how people see the current market, 13 plates seem to holding their value reasonably well. 3 year cheap PCP deals were mentioned earlier in the thread, should I expect a flood of them hitting the used market soon?

I'd like to go for a comp spec car, mainly for the interior/frozen paint, however they seems to still carry a hefty premium, does this one seem about right?: http://usedcars.bmw.co.uk/M/4.0-M3-Frozen-Silver-D...

Looking at doing minimal miles in it as it's not a daily, so would like to try and mitigate the deprecation really.

They only produced 100 Frozen silver edition cars for the UK, so there will be no flood of those cars, I got 34,500 for it in July 2014 with 38k on the clock.

[Setest]

Wills2 said:

They only produced 100 Frozen silver edition cars for the UK, so there will be no flood of those cars, I got 34,500 for it in July 2014 with 38k on the clock.

Good point. Problem now is the Mrs kicking off about the frozen edition looking to 'rude' now looking at 10k~ milage examples with a more reserved exterior styling... no EDC though, which is a pain, never had that before so not sure if it's a must have on an M3, or more for the sake of residuals...

[Wills2]

I had a none EDC car as well, they're a good drive EDC is not essential IMHO. As for the frozen silver it's the best looking M3! And they are holding their money very well.

[Setest]

Frozen silver looked great to me, but combined with the matte black wheels, it was just a tad to much for the Mrs.

Anyway, picking up one in frozen white, 10k miles in Feb, can't wait

[Wills2]

Lovely! Congrats.

[jon-]

Can I ask what deal you ended up getting?

In the market for one of these (shame the price crash predicted back in April 2015 in this thread didn't happen) and am in two minds whether to spend around £23k private for a well looked after earlier car (around 2009), or push to around £30k and go for a later competition pack.

I really want manual.

[Setest]

Sure, I paid 32 with 2 knocked off list, it's also an AUC. Reasonable spec, auto/19's/HK audio etc, just missing EDC. I wasn't looking at manuals so can't comment on their current pricing / availability, but there seemed to be a few other examples like mine around at the time. It's a bit over my initial budget of 30, but I was in a bit of a rush and low mile AUC's were not hanging around for long it seemed.

[jon-]

That actually seems really sharp for a frozen white, they're holding their value very well.

As always, pics are needed