2nd Hand 4200 GT or M3
Discussion
The mind does wonderful things....
No sooner have I thought about changing my current 530d (its just to uninspiring and competent) and decided that an nearly new M3 is the one to go for, do I realise that a 2nd hand Maserati is a possible alternative (at least in terms of upfront price). And as I pass a Ferrari garage every day, I just had to pop in.....
They certainly look great (one that caught my eye was mid-blue with cream interior
)and "should" go well too but the servicing and running costs are a great unknown ...... I can imagine that at £1k a service and 25000 miles a year its gonna get expensive, or is it more a case of just being good with oil and filters every 6k miles (I can do that meself no worries, and lot of the other non-engine "inspection" stuff too) so is this a realistic thing for me to expeect the car to be reliable enough to use every day, 365 days a year or am I living in cloud cuckoo land and just setting myself up for a fall?
Thoughts and generalisations gratefully accepted
No sooner have I thought about changing my current 530d (its just to uninspiring and competent) and decided that an nearly new M3 is the one to go for, do I realise that a 2nd hand Maserati is a possible alternative (at least in terms of upfront price). And as I pass a Ferrari garage every day, I just had to pop in.....
They certainly look great (one that caught my eye was mid-blue with cream interior
)and "should" go well too but the servicing and running costs are a great unknown ...... I can imagine that at £1k a service and 25000 miles a year its gonna get expensive, or is it more a case of just being good with oil and filters every 6k miles (I can do that meself no worries, and lot of the other non-engine "inspection" stuff too) so is this a realistic thing for me to expeect the car to be reliable enough to use every day, 365 days a year or am I living in cloud cuckoo land and just setting myself up for a fall? Thoughts and generalisations gratefully accepted
No contest. The 4200 is considerably faster, better looking and rarer. 
Neither will be particularly cheap to own and the kind of annual mileage you mention will put a dent in the resale value of either. But that is going to be true of any car of this ilk I guess.
Regrettably, doing some of the servicing yourself on either car would probably be a bad idea from a history/resale perspective.
I'd check out pricing of servicing in some detail too, as I know from a previous thread that 4200s take less hours per service than the 3200 does. And IIRC, E46 M3's still have bucket cam followers that need to be shimmed with the engine stone cold at a major service. This bumps up the cost significantly (and gives the dealer the change to foul it up completely - several times my old E36 M3Evo cam back from a service sounding worse that before it went it
) so the differential in servicing costs may not be as big as you'd expect.
Then, (and importantly given the amount of time you'll spend in it if you're doing 25k per year) there is the feelgood factor of the Maserati cabin compared with the clinical BMW interior.
There is only one answer - all IMHO of course!
Chris
Neither will be particularly cheap to own and the kind of annual mileage you mention will put a dent in the resale value of either. But that is going to be true of any car of this ilk I guess.
Regrettably, doing some of the servicing yourself on either car would probably be a bad idea from a history/resale perspective.
I'd check out pricing of servicing in some detail too, as I know from a previous thread that 4200s take less hours per service than the 3200 does. And IIRC, E46 M3's still have bucket cam followers that need to be shimmed with the engine stone cold at a major service. This bumps up the cost significantly (and gives the dealer the change to foul it up completely - several times my old E36 M3Evo cam back from a service sounding worse that before it went it
) so the differential in servicing costs may not be as big as you'd expect. Then, (and importantly given the amount of time you'll spend in it if you're doing 25k per year) there is the feelgood factor of the Maserati cabin compared with the clinical BMW interior.
There is only one answer - all IMHO of course!
Chris
michael gould said:
4200 only takes 3.5 hours to service compared with 8.5 for the 3200.
I have a 4200 spyder and it is to say the least a liitle heavy on fuel.....ie 14mpg with a light foot 10 mpg with a heavy foot.
Do you own a petrol station
No, but I might just buy one next year!
Anyway, I've booked one out for a 48 hr test this weekend, so I'll see how I get on with a couple of typical long drives
First impressions:
bugger me but its quick
Feels slightly lethargic below about 3krpm (this could be because I'm used to a modified dieseasl with plenty of low-down torque and haven't driven a decent petrol car for a long time), then it flies - and it makes a glorious sound. The throttle is very sensitive and the gear change (its a cambiocorsa) is a bit abrupt and takes what appears to be a long time. It "should" get better as I acclimatise to the paddle shift, but right now I think I'd prefer a manual, no matter what that did for the residuals.
Inside the cabin, to be honest, I think I'm sitting too high and the seats aren't that supportive - they certainly don't hug your body and at 6'2" I'm too far away from the controls on the centre consol - a remote for the sound system would be a good thing to have. For lefthand drive this wouldn't be an issue, as the console is curved and the main controls would be in the right position, but it doesn't work in righthand drive. The instrument cluster is OK, but the minor dials aren't all that clear. Oh, and don't get a wood-rimmed steering wheel - its pants.
You can hear the hydraulics for the clutch when the car is stationary (either that or some other fluid is circulating) but the ambience in the cabin is pretty good - you can tell its "hand built" - rough edges round the bonnet release and that sort of thing, but it still knocks the BMW cabin for six in terms of looks and tactility.
The ride is firm, but not a tooth-rattler, and until the gearbox is warm it seems to add a bit of harshness to the drivetrain. The brakes are fine - they stop the car very effectively without any rumble that I've noticed so far.
That'll do for now - I'll give more details on Monday after I've clocked up several hundred miles over a variety of roads and loads.
Heres to a fun weekend
bugger me but its quick
Feels slightly lethargic below about 3krpm (this could be because I'm used to a modified dieseasl with plenty of low-down torque and haven't driven a decent petrol car for a long time), then it flies - and it makes a glorious sound. The throttle is very sensitive and the gear change (its a cambiocorsa) is a bit abrupt and takes what appears to be a long time. It "should" get better as I acclimatise to the paddle shift, but right now I think I'd prefer a manual, no matter what that did for the residuals.
Inside the cabin, to be honest, I think I'm sitting too high and the seats aren't that supportive - they certainly don't hug your body and at 6'2" I'm too far away from the controls on the centre consol - a remote for the sound system would be a good thing to have. For lefthand drive this wouldn't be an issue, as the console is curved and the main controls would be in the right position, but it doesn't work in righthand drive. The instrument cluster is OK, but the minor dials aren't all that clear. Oh, and don't get a wood-rimmed steering wheel - its pants.
You can hear the hydraulics for the clutch when the car is stationary (either that or some other fluid is circulating) but the ambience in the cabin is pretty good - you can tell its "hand built" - rough edges round the bonnet release and that sort of thing, but it still knocks the BMW cabin for six in terms of looks and tactility.
The ride is firm, but not a tooth-rattler, and until the gearbox is warm it seems to add a bit of harshness to the drivetrain. The brakes are fine - they stop the car very effectively without any rumble that I've noticed so far.
That'll do for now - I'll give more details on Monday after I've clocked up several hundred miles over a variety of roads and loads.
Heres to a fun weekend
What a fun car that is!
My original comments still stand wrt the seating position, it really needed to be 2" lower for me and the dashboard 3-4" closer, and I'd add that the pedals are not best suited to heel n toe downchanges - the brake pedal in this car was very soggy so it sank too far below the throttle for me. The brakes, when the pedal is pumped up were superb, very capable of shedding speed at a fantastic rate, without grabbing or fading (in fast road use
). I did get sore ankles because of the seating position (during a 5 hour drive) and the seats could really do with better lateral support. The throotle seems to be ultra sensitive at low openings, but with a long travel - when you think you've used it all, there is still a bit more there to unleash even more horses. And I was glad of this in the wet, as it made controlling the engine very easy. The gearbox became very easy to use on the move, once into 3 and above, but changing from 1-2 and 2-3 were never that smooth. Downchanges were simple and effectively executed everytime, although it was easy to get into 1st when you really wanted 2nd when approaching roundabouts and the like (practise makes perfect I presume).
Over 650 miles of various roads - motorway, fast A road, town driving and twisty, bumpy B roads, I averaged 14 mpg, which is pretty good for a car with 400 horses available
And so to the driving experience itself ....
Key in, foot on the brake, turn, whirrrrrr ROAR as the engine starts, then it settles into a controlled throb at idle, tap back on the paddle change, a muted clunk as the gearbox selects first, lightly onto the throttle, a lurch as the clutch bites (its out of your control) and you're away, jerkily. Tap back on the paddle again, lift off the throttle a bit (you have to do this or the management will do it for you , and believe me, you can do it better than it can) and 2nd is selected. Nail the throttle and the engine just roars all the way from 1500 rpm round to the redline at 7500 rpm - its a beautiful sound that you want to experience again and again and again, making sliproads a joy. The car just rockets forward, the rear tyres providing plenty of grip (Michelin Pilot sports on this one) until you want the next gear, when there is a slight pause as the gearbox does its stuff, then wham, back in the seat you go as ridiculous speeds become easily acheivable ( I couldn't find a private road long enough to get much over 140, but it was still pulling like a train up til then; at times I felt as though I was hanging onto the steering wheel with a manic grin on my face as I nailed the throotle to the floor). There are no gaps in the power delivery, foot down at anything over 1500 rpm, the engine just goes, with a muting sucking noise until 3-4000 rpm, when it develops into the classic bellow of a V8 on full chat. There is very little mechanical noise in the cabin, and, disappointingly, no popping or banging on the overrun (this would've made it perfect in the aural stakes).
It just doesn't seem to run out of puff at all - I expected a tailing off of the power delivery before the redline, but I got caught out again and again by the rev-limiter, which, in sport mode, causes the management system to change up to the next gear for you, a nice touch.
For overtaking its best to get into a gear that gets you over 3500 rpm for instant power delivery, and with that accomplished you can take advantage of pretty much any opportunity that presents itself - just squeeze the throttle to the floor and you're past the traffic and back in the right lane before you know it.
So, I've pretty much established that this car can fly when provoked, but how does it handle? With "Skyhook" suspension fitted there is minimal body roll, but it is very firm. You can feel every small imperfection in the tarmac, every stone you go over is felt through your body, but after a while it becomes part of the experience, adding an extra dimension. The steering is fairly direct, rarely needing more than 3/4 turn in either direction once you're on the move and the feedback is pretty good - you can tell when the rears are going to break away and you know what the fronts are doing as well. I found that I had a tendancy to overturn into corners, which got better as I got used to the car, because it goes where you point it and seems to hold a chosen line very easily, even when upset by undulations/bumps in the road ( or a bit too much throttle
) All in all a pretty fantastic car, and one I found myself making excuses to go out in, just to hear that engine one more time.
Could I afford it - ummmm nope, not yet. With fuel, depreciation, servicing and insurance I reckon I'd be looking at the best part of £1700 a month to own it, and thats just a bit too rich for my wallet at the moment. But next year ............. bring it on, but as a manual, not the paddle change.
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