Running in service at 2400miles

[JMBMWM5]

Give it a MISS.

[SebringMan]

Patrick Bateman said:

What a bks. I've driven an hour and a half before to meet an M5 with 'no rust' that had rust everywhere and that was infuriating. 3 hours on public transport though? Ugh.

Been there, done that.

I thought £7k would have got me a good E46 M3. After all, it's what the forums have you believe.

The first car was a 2003 Manual Pre-LCI in Silver/Black. It was on 128k but I was told by the garage it was in good condition with no rust. The photos suggested as much. When I took a look:

-Discs would need changing ASAP
-Interior was scratched in quite a few ramdom places, including the silver trim on the dash!
-Rust on 3 of the wheelarches with evidence of a repair on one arch
-Dash looked like an Xmas tree with all of its warnings
-Bumper looked like it had seen a shotblaster and simply thrown back on the car any old how
-Bonnet and wing alignment were really iffy and they were rubbing. The car was HPI clear.
-TBH it looked like the car had stood there for a while.

But it did have tons of paperwork and history. Being on Goodyear Eagle F1s it wasn't all bad either I guess.

Second was an SMG Blue/Grey 2004 car ; despite the haters I quite liked the combo of colours. It was more at £8.5k than the above with less miles. The owner described it as having the odd scratch but very tidy and accident free. What he didn't mention was:
-The bolster had collapsed on the driver's seat right at the top
-Discs were as bad as the first car
-The bumper had been repaired before from a knock and TBH I could have done a better job blindfolded ; it was that bad a repair!
-History had gone missing!
-Every single panel had a scratch as if it had someone having their jeans all over the car!
-This is really picky I admit, and if I didn't see the silver car I would never have noticed. The wings were just starting pit by the arches but only slightly.

While it looked good when I first saw it it didn't look that much better all things considered for the money it was up for!

Third was Silver Manual. I got the bloke to WhatsApp me picutes. It had the lowest mileage at 88k and was £9k. But:
-The interior was not much better than the first car ; it was worn quite a bit!
-I asked him about taking shots of the brakes and if they were good. He avoided this question and said "it's passed an MOT" and never sent the shots.

4th was a Laguna Seca car which was not much better than the above, but it was Laguna Seca. It was also in Northern Ireland; From saying he wouldn't take a penny less it dropped to £7.5k in a week. He was iffy about taking shots but that also had a bit of tinworm on the wings, but not alot. But it did have a new exhaust, discs and tyres, albeit Zeta tyres....

Which is why I bought the car I did in the end. It looked miles better than the rest, had tons of history, new brakes, good tyres and a good all round car.

Maybe I was a timewaster but I am aware that a bad M can be a royal moneypit on consumables like the brakes and tyres. That and is it that hard to be honest with an advert?

[Rick101]

Had mine up for 12500 iirc and only had about 3 email enquiries, 1 actual viewing. Just couldn't get the interest in it.

Shame as it was genuinely immaculate, a very clean car with a unbeatable history and near mint condition. I do miss that car, she was a corker.