2004 M3 High Kms Issues?

AmDaMan

AmDaMan

AmDaMan

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,023
Location
Wellington, NZ
Hi,

Been ages since i've posted in here but will keep it brief. I'm currently in NZ and will be here for the next 12-18 months. I've not had a car for 2 years since I left travelling and i'm getting itchy feet.

My basic requirements are;

- Fairly quick
- Fun to drive on an open road
- Around 20k NZD

That's it.

Cars is NZ are much more expensive than in the UK and I've been looking at another S2000.. It's GPW, 1999, JDM with 70,000kms on the clock. I know this will provide me with relatively few issues and attractive residuals when i come to sell next year. 20k.

Then someone pointed me to a 2004 E46 M3. I've done a bit of reading on here and i can handle the odd 1k bill but my issues are;

- it's SMG .. I know nothing about it.
- it has 200,000 kms
- it's that baby poo yellow colour

It's being offered at 21k. It's had all it's services done on time, one owner and nicely specc'd. What's the likelyhood of this chucking it's engine or GB? Are there any specific questions I should be asking or should I just avoid it? I can't imagine much more in the way of depreciation over 18 months and it appears to be the cheapest M3 in the NZ domestic market by 10k.

Any help appreciated, looking to buy one or the other by the end od next week.

links;

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=618435247 [m3]
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=621271604 [s2000]
 
Surely there must be a reason why this car is 30% cheaper than the next cheapest car in the entire country? It can't just be the mileage.

Plus whats going on with that S2000? If the S2000 price is right then the M3 is very weirdly suspiciously cheap. On no planet is a 1999 Honda S2000 worth the same as a 5 year newer M3.
 
I was hoping you'd step in.

I'm obviously not too clued up on the NZ used car market but from looking around it seems to be a combination of the mileage and private seller. Did you do a quick search? There's only a handful.

It's in Auckland so i'd have to fly up there to have a good look or I could get the AA to inspect it.
 
I don't know much about the NZ used market at all but what I do know about it would make me expect to pay a lot more for that car. It's not exactly THAT much more expensive than it would be over here and typically BMW's etc in Australia and New Zealand are CONSIDERABLY more money than they are over here.

200k is only 120k miles so its hardly massive mileage for a 9 year old car.
 
I can appreciate the dilemma. I was dead set on S2000 until I drove an E46 m3 last week.

I think if it was a situation like in the UK where a decent E46 costs the same as a decent S2000 then it would be a tough call, but it seems the pricing in your area of the world is going to be the ultimate decision maker. I would imagine that a JDM vehicle would cost less to maintain than a German sports coupe in your area if the world.
 
the NZ market is bizarre. 20k for a 1999 S2000 seems outrageous to me.. But then so does an M3 that's that cheap. The S2 will undoubtedly cheaper to maintain and run but this will be just a weekend car anyway. I might do 10k in my ownership or maybe 15k if i decide to go on a road trip.
 
I couldn't make head or tail of either the NZ or OZ car markets, there seems to be some very large regional variations as as you've seen, some cars that should be expensive are cheap and vise-versa.

Flipside of the high initial outlay is of course a decent resale value.
 
Yeah, ideally I need to ask him many more questions but that site doesn't allow contact once the auction has ended and I don't have his email address. It didn't sell with a start price of 22k so he's offered it to all the watchers of the auction at 21k but I still can't contact him.. So fustrating.
 
It's a lot of money for a car that'll have a decade of wear unless they're treated like real exotics rather that the chav chariots like you get here
 
Yeah, the S2000 always seems to demand a premium though. The lowest i've ever seen here is 17.5k and once went last week for 29k, a red MY00, that had very subtle mods. There seems to be a huge choice if you're after a battered old skyline, an evo or a scoob.

Still mega curious about that M3 though. It needs a service in 5,000kms which includes the rear tyres and the rear pads. Regularly serviced by BMW and owned since 7,000kms. That's all I got out of him before the auction closed.
 
I booked an aa inspection for the m3, will have to see what that comes back with. They do a compression check, check for wear and take it for a test drive etc. Not sure how credible they are but better than the inspection I would do.

He stated it would need two new rear tyres and rear pads and estimated the cost to be $1000 each for the tyres and $500 for the pads. I can only assume this is the BMW price and with whatever tyres they recommend. I've seen Bridgestone, Hankooks etc for $1000 the pair and they seem to have good reviews on the bmw M sport forums. Anyway I used the above info to offer him 20k and he accepted...

I spoke to him the other day and he's an old chap that owns a business out in the sticks hence the mileage. He said if he puts it through the WOF he'd just keep it. Anyhow will see what the report comes back with.
 
AmDaMan said:
I spoke to him the other day and he's an old chap that owns a business out in the sticks hence the mileage. He said if he puts it through the WOF he'd just keep it. Anyhow will see what the report comes back with.
Click to expand...

Sounds as if he goes on lots of long journeys in it then, the engine is probably in great condition.

WOF= Warrant of fitness i.e. MOT?
 
Yeah it's just their equivalent of an MOT.

The problem with this might be the resale value though, there seems to be the issue with 100k here too but it's kms so far less. Which means 200k+ could be a nightmare to sell next year.
 
The report came back, while it's not too bad it will probably cost $5knzd to get that lot sorted so it would end up costing about $25k.. while that still represents great value for the M3 out here it's over my budget at the moment for a weekend car.

Report if anyone is interested;

http://db.tt/e7C4J1sH
 
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