RE: Driven (briefly): BMW M3 CRT

[martin mrt]

Eventually a special model based on the best looking model of the recent M3

I love it

[chappardababbar]

M666 EVO said:

4 doors?

Yours. No bid.

You work in the City right?

[LotusOmega375D]

CRT? I thought it was going to be one of those Continually Variable Transmission cars which rear their heads and disappear without trace every couple of decades or so.

[Mermaid]

JohnGoodridge said:

...The GTS/CRT though are destined to be curios rotating between wealthy marque enthusiasts' colletions.

This ^. With say 500 produced and a sensible price, owners would be less precious.

Though the Porsche 4.0RS proves that few are used as intended - most stored away, both cars very special and marking end of an era.

The low volume GTS (probably the lowest volume car from BMW (before the CRT) was not an easy car to sell, and so BMW make half as many and sell all. Not sure that is a positive.

And if the car was about 1300kgs, so much more desirable.

[Dagnut]

Guvernator said:

They are already sold out and due to the very limited numbers they'll probably end up sitting in air conditioned showrooms which is a shame. They should have made more of them and just called them the new CSL, going off the reputation of the previous CSL, they would have sold loads I reckon.

In this months EVO they had one out on the roads near the ring..and bumped into another owner out in his so you might be surprised

[WCZ]

£109,000 - m3 CRT

£58,000 - m3 with BMW Individual stereo, the BMW Professional nav and 7 speed DCT 'box (as per the crt)

how much of a superior car than this could you make yourself with the £51,000 difference?

[Oddball RS]

WCZ said:

£109,000 - m3 CRT

£58,000 - m3 with BMW Individual stereo, the BMW Professional nav and 7 speed DCT 'box (as per the crt)

how much of a superior car than this could you make yourself with the £51,000 difference?

Ahhh WCZ you forget that £48k of the difference is towards the owners Ego upgrade!

[nonuts]

Oddball RS said:

WCZ said:

£109,000 - m3 CRT

£58,000 - m3 with BMW Individual stereo, the BMW Professional nav and 7 speed DCT 'box (as per the crt)

how much of a superior car than this could you make yourself with the £51,000 difference?

Ahhh WCZ you forget that £48k of the difference is towards the owners Ego upgrade!

And how much more will the CRT be worth in 10 years time MORE than your modified normal M3. It's never as simple as you're making out with small run cars.

[Mermaid]

nonuts said:

And how much more will the CRT be worth in 10 years time MORE than your modified normal M3. It's never as simple as you're making out with small run cars.

That's a good point. BUT even if the CRT is worth the same in 10 years time, what is the cumulative holding cost at 5% pa + maintenance costs.

Really this car is great for a collector/speculator.

[chris333]

Clearly the prime reason for BMW building this car is to gain experience of the manufacturing, assembly (and probably repair!) techniques for the new technology in a low volume, low risk environment prior to their introduction in more mainstream cars in the near future.

The fact that the price is £50k more than a standard M3 is neither here nor there. The total additional revenue the 67 cars has brought in is only £3.5m , which is a drop in the ocean on BMW overall finances.

It would be interesting to hear the views of someone with experience of how manufacturers set the quantities and prices for these special editions. Is it related to recovering some or all of the development costs, or more related to what the market will stand?

[Dagnut]

WCZ said:

£109,000 - m3 CRT

£58,000 - m3 with BMW Individual stereo, the BMW Professional nav and 7 speed DCT 'box (as per the crt)

how much of a superior car than this could you make yourself with the £51,000 difference?

Thorney do 4.4 litre stroker kits...parts alone would run you 10k....how much for labour? POA i'd imagine...and what type of warranty would they offer on that.

You could probably remap the standard car to 440bhp with exhaust etc but a proper M sport built 4.4 would run you big bucks

[BBS-LM]

Nice car, but £130K for a slightly lighter M3, are BMW losing it.

Edited by BBS-LM on Monday 21st January 18:43

[Hellbound]

This will be pretty much forgotten when the new M2, M3 and M4 models are kicking about.

No doubt it'll get a mention 15 years from now in a PH Carpool write-up, or maybe the subject of a 'Tell Me I'm Wrong'.

[BBS-LM]

The trouble is I just don't put BMW in the supercar club, and asking £130K for a car which uses the same Frame as a Rep BMW 3 series, all be it upgraded frame is partly the problem. The car was never designed to be a supercar, and never will be, but BMW are asking super car price for it.

[HighwayStar]

BBS-LM said:

The trouble is I just don't put BMW in the supercar club, and asking £130K for a car which uses the same Frame as a Rep BMW 3 series, all be it upgraded frame is partly the problem. The car was never designed to be a supercar, and never will be, but BMW are asking super car price for it.

Again development costs, man hours, short, no minuscule production run... Amazes me how people just say it should be this price or that price... with no reason backing it up than it's what they think. BMW have said it's a supercar. They've built it, put it out there and people why know what they are getting have snapped it up. Others have said they will end up in air-coned garages... Evo a write up on the CRT in this months issue. While out they came across another CRT, it's owner driving the thing, actually on the road! They'll always be those whole buy and enjoy, even if it's not their daily driver.

[Mermaid]

HighwayStar said:

Again development costs, man hours, short, no minuscule production run... Amazes me how people just say it should be this price or that price... with no reason backing it up than it's what they think.

Have BMW explained why they built only 67 cars, and not 100, or 135 (twice as many as the CRT) as with the GTS.

Could it be they have built 200 engines etc + 50 spares?

[Cheib]

Makes you realise just how cheap the CSL was......even though it seemed totally the wrong price at the time.

[sc4589]

BBS-LM said:

Nice car, but £130K for a slightly lighter M3, are BMW losing it.

Edited by BBS-LM on Monday 21st January 18:43

Clearly not as they're all sold. They know their market, they're not stupid.

Sidenote- what does CRT stand for? Does it have a really old-skool sat-nav screen, as opposed to an LCD or LED..?

[HighwayStar]

BBS-LM said:

The trouble is I just don't put BMW in the supercar club, and asking £130K for a car which uses the same Frame as a Rep BMW 3 series, all be it upgraded frame is partly the problem. The car was never designed to be a supercar, and never will be, but BMW are asking super car price for it.

Also, read the thing properly... It's not £130K! It's €130k, that's £109k... complicated stuff this money lark eh

[PiB]

I'm not pleased with this vehicle as much as I would like. The CSL and GTS seem like better motor head cars. A test bed for all these new technologies and it's mileage is worse than a MP4-12c. The brakes and wheel hub look rather interesting