Do I need to go Alpine?

[carreauchompeur]

Folks,

As is my way with cars, having spent the last 18 months getting my E36 M3 pretty much spot on, I've started to get wandering eyes/itchy feet towards the next automotive step.

I've thought for a long while that Alpinas are lovely, unfortunately a friend of mine e-mailed me this link:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...

It's just been bought by a friend of his. Asking price was just under eight grand.

I think that car, in that colour combo, is pretty much my ideal car, and seems bonkers VFM for such a beautiful motor.

Performance doesn't look wildly different to an E46 M3, but am I missing something?

What's that gearbox like? I could live with a decent tiptronic.

Is there an Alp tax, much like the ///M tax, or are the part prices broadly comparable?

I bet I'd never find one in that exact colour/spec combo, which is a shame...

[ady702]

This may help, although from 09

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=770...

[MarkwG]

carreauchompeur said:

Folks,

As is my way with cars, having spent the last 18 months getting my E36 M3 pretty much spot on, I've started to get wandering eyes/itchy feet towards the next automotive step.

I've thought for a long while that Alpinas are lovely, unfortunately a friend of mine e-mailed me this link:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...

It's just been bought by a friend of his. Asking price was just under eight grand.

I think that car, in that colour combo, is pretty much my ideal car, and seems bonkers VFM for such a beautiful motor.

Performance doesn't look wildly different to an E46 M3, but am I missing something?

What's that gearbox like? I could live with a decent tiptronic.

Is there an Alp tax, much like the ///M tax, or are the part prices broadly comparable?

I bet I'd never find one in that exact colour/spec combo, which is a shame...

(Alpine ? Lovely for a ski trip...or are you after a radio/cd/mp3 etc thingy...?)

Seriously, Alpina's of the e46 generation are "different" to the Motorsport cars: they're targeted at a different audience, speed with comfort, rather than speed on it's own.

Yep, that's a lovely combination & you'll be very lucky to find an exact spec: most are built to the original owners taste, some have some, some not...

I have a V8, & having driven quite a few autos over the years, this is the best by far. The buttons are fine, the gearbox does what I want, it's awesome. No doubt the latest versions are even better, but they're not the same price...

Alpina tax is charged on things like Alpina badged items, the gearbox, the engine & sometimes brakes, depends on the model. The e46s have a couple of "watch outs", best place to go info hunting is www.thealpinaregister.com & also www.alpina-archive.com : although mine's about to punch me int he wallet for some tyres I can't imagine life without it.

[carreauchompeur]

Interesting, the thread title was actually intended as a mild pun rather than a typo but it doesn't really scan

B3S is definitely where I'd sit. Interesting about the servicing costs being more pegged to 330 than M3...

[Leins]

Older Alpinas are very different in nature to their //M equivalent - a bit more exclusive, relaxing, and they don't really "insist" on you driving the nuts off them, more that there's plenty of performance available when required if that makes sense. If you're going for just one car to live with, you need to decide what you want out of it. Despite the appeal of //M-cars, for many I suspect an Alpina is a better bet most of the time

As already said, the Alpina should be cheaper to run overall, but you can get badly stung for some specific parts

Just for the record, I don't favour one over the other, I love them both

[MarkwG]

carreauchompeur said:

Interesting, the thread title was actually intended as a mild pun rather than a typo but it doesn't really scan

ah, I did wonder tbh, serves me right for being a