Struggling to find a nice E46 M3 Coupe Manual

[M3Maverick]

As above, had an SMG Coupe before which I loved and sold to buy a house. I now have £13k to get a nice one and can't find a single example worth buying - they all seem to be up at dealers for ridiculous money chancing it.

I'm after the following:

Facelift
Not Silver or Carbon Black
Not Grey Leather
Less than 80k
Excellent condition
Pref all the options

Any suggestions on where to look etc? Have alerts set up on PH, AT already

[SuperVM]

M3Maverick said:

As above, had an SMG Coupe before which I loved and sold to buy a house. I now have £13k to get a nice one and can't find a single example worth buying - they all seem to be up at dealers for ridiculous money chancing it.

I'm after the following:

Facelift
Not Silver or Carbon Black
Not Grey Leather
Less than 80k
Excellent condition
Pref all the options

Any suggestions on where to look etc? Have alerts set up on PH, AT already

M3Cutters forums?

[M3Maverick]

Already there and am a member from before, checking on the regular!

[SuperVM]

M3Maverick said:

Already there and am a member from before, checking on the regular!

Another place worth checking is the MLR forums, they have a separate section for non-Mitsubishi cars and some good cars turn up.

[Stone Cold]

Might be worth contacting Nick Johnson at Oxford to see if he can source one for you, I guess you will pay for it as his cars are on the pricey side but they always look like good clean examples and he has a good rep I believe

[Stone Cold]

http://www.nickjohnsonmotorco.co.uk/used-cars/bmw-...

[andyman_2006]

M3Maverick said:

As above, had an SMG Coupe before which I loved and sold to buy a house. I now have £13k to get a nice one and can't find a single example worth buying - they all seem to be up at dealers for ridiculous money chancing it.

I'm after the following:

Facelift
Not Silver or Carbon Black
Not Grey Leather
Less than 80k
Excellent condition
Pref all the options

Any suggestions on where to look etc? Have alerts set up on PH, AT already

---

I did predict this happening, I've also noticed supply of anything (facelift or not) under 100K, coupe, and manual getting thin on the ground, and i also suspect this is helping prices increase.

Its going to be tough, as you have ruled out about 60% of cars with not wanting black or silver, also factor in many blue ones were specc'd with grey leather, and you want 'All' options which very few had.

I would (just as you do a house) start to compile your compromise list, and see what you can live without?

For example, I'd forget Nav, and bluetooth (both now given age) are pretty useless....HK audio was never that great anyway.

The Basic spec on these is good, as you know from owning one previous, I'd start to buy on mainly condition and history, rather than spec and option bits (just a suggestion thats all)

The other option is to up the budget a little (if you can) to around £14K you'll get a nice one for that and under the 80K mileage you mention, although you'll still be limited by colour choices i suspect.

As a previous poster said, Nick Johnson has a good history of finding these but you'll pay for the privilege.

You could give Sj specialist cars a call, they have sourced a lot of these cars, not so many in stock now, but worth asking:

http://www.sjspecialistcars.co.uk/stock1.html

Have you also considered asking a local BMW dealers? they must take some in PX now and then, and would no longer retail these due to costs of warranty, and mileages. But they might be able to steer you towards where they are destined (auctions maybe) last time i was at my local stratstone they had taken in an 02 plate coupe, 66K, manual, in red, i clocked it and asked about it and sales said it was going to auction i think...:-(

You could register with BCA this is who BMW financial use for any cars send back, or repossessed, its possible the main dealers use them as well for trade ins, stratstone group use them.

http://www.british-car-auctions.co.uk/

I think sadly for anyone buying now, i cant see prices dropping, or supply of good cars increasing ever, much the same as E30, and E36, and recent Z3M coupe and roadsters - prices will creep upwards i imagine.

Its for this reason why I'm not selling mine, despite being asked by friends for the last 3 years on and off.

Good luck with your hunt.

Andy

[andyman_2006]

Not sure if you have seen this one yet:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Guess you have as your have alerts set, so assume its the colour thats put you off (i like it but then i would say that its same as mine! lol)

2003 - has all options looking at the console buttons on dash.

Not facelift - But its only the rear lights mainly that are different on earlier cars, if you were that bothered you can buy a retro fit LED rear light kit...?

Its cheap as well (So thorough checks needed ) but under 80K, and 1 owner.

Andy

[em177]

I'm thinking of selling my 2004 Facelift Silver Grey, Manual, Coupe M3, albeit with 106k miles if that of any intrest?

(Has Black Leather, Harmon Kardon, Pro Nav, 19's...)

[pidsy]

Stone Cold said:

Might be worth contacting Nick Johnson at Oxford to see if he can source one for you, I guess you will pay for it as his cars are on the pricey side but they always look like good clean examples and he has a good rep I believe

Got mine from Nick.

He's a character but his cars are spot on!

[M3Maverick]

Spoke to Nick and Simon already - great suggestions but they don't have anything suitable at the moment.

Have two cars that I've managed to find.

Car 1 - Silver Grey with Black Leather, all options, 03 plate, 95k and £10,000
Car 2 - Silver Grey with Black Leather, all options, 55 plate, 60k and £14,650 with new brakes and PSS all round

Just wish there was one in the middle, would be exactly what I'm after. Might sell the watch and stretch for the expensive one I think.

[M3Maverick]

The only other thing is when you get up to £14k you're very close to E60 M5s and that glorious V10 (plus V12 running costs)

Are there any other cars worth considering? There don't seem to be any decent AMGs available at that money and Audi S/RS seems to be between the heavy V8 S4/S5 and C5 RS6. Obviously you can go for an Evo X, WRX etc but not a fan of the interiors or image.

Edited by M3Maverick on Monday 30th May 19:25

[ftypical]

Given that you're looking at cars over a decade old, condition and history is everything.

Brakes and tyres are parts plus a day's labour - not £5k.

HTH

[slipstream 1985]

ftypical said:

Given that you're looking at cars over a decade old, condition and history is everything.

Brakes and tyres are parts plus a day's labour - not £5k.

HTH

Decent brakes and tyres are gonna be £1500 minimum to replace.

[ftypical]

Only if you're going aftermarket.

[andyman_2006]

slipstream 1985 said:

ecent brakes and tyres are gonna be £1500 minimum to replace.

---

Tyres are around £200 a corner, and rears no more expensive than the front these days (depending on brand) i still fit the continentals.

Front discs (standard are £375 from bmw) rears discs again standard around £250 a pair. Fitting is an hour a pair max.

Aftermarket brake kits are upwards of £1500 depending on make/size spec etc..plenty to choose (Brembo, AP, stoptech, Hispec, alcon etc..)

Andy

[48Valves]

andyman_2006 said:

---

You could give Sj specialist cars a call, they have sourced a lot of these cars, not so many in stock now, but worth asking:

http://www.sjspecialistcars.co.uk/stock1.html

Don't do this.

[andyman_2006]

48Valves said:

andyman_2006 said:

---

You could give Sj specialist cars a call, they have sourced a lot of these cars, not so many in stock now, but worth asking:

http://www.sjspecialistcars.co.uk/stock1.html

Don't do this.

---

Are they bad? or you had a bad experience?

Notice they are selling Ferraris and all sorts these days..

[48Valves]

andyman_2006 said:

48Valves said:

andyman_2006 said:

---

You could give Sj specialist cars a call, they have sourced a lot of these cars, not so many in stock now, but worth asking:

http://www.sjspecialistcars.co.uk/stock1.html

Don't do this.

---

Are they bad? or you had a bad experience?

Notice they are selling Ferraris and all sorts these days..

I had a bad experience. Luckily I got a refund, but still ended up a few hundred pounds out of pocket.


There are also reports over on M3cutters about being sold poor cars.

Poor cars are one thing, things with second hand cars go wrong. But the attitude from him when problems arose was disgraceful.

[andyman_2006]

48Valves said:

I had a bad experience. Luckily I got a refund, but still ended up a few hundred pounds out of pocket.


There are also reports over on M3cutters about being sold poor cars.

Poor cars are one thing, things with second hand cars go wrong. But the attitude from him when problems arose was disgraceful.

---

Its always very difficult when buying a used car of this age, but yes attitude and poor customer service is not great, although these cars are getting on and as such i suppose many things will be wrong or could go wrong, i would imagine its upto us as buyers to find them prior to money exchange or walk away easier said than done i guess.

Glad to hear you got your money back though.