Anyone own a e46 m3?

turbotoaster said:
... if i spent £3000 on bmw servicing and parts(assuming through the years i own it) would i be able to put that amount on top of the value of the vehicle when i came to sell........i dont believe i can.
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No, obviously you can't simply stick the money spent on maintenance ontop of the vehicle's value, but it could make the difference between making the sale or not.

My M5 is currently up for sale. I'm not asking tens of thousands of pounds, but you can be sure that every one of the dozens of calls I had, each one has asked if it had a full BMW service. For most it was their first question. Do I think I could achieve the asking price without that? Not a chance in hell.
 
turbotoaster said:
I suppose reading this thread is actually quite interesting in regards of what servicing actually means to a potential buyer.

Im in the motor trade so picked up my E39 M5 as a bit of cheap fun and something to either use when i had to travel a long journey(200miles+) or to blast around track days and go the ring in.

ill do all my own servicing and replace whatever needs doing myself as for a 11yr old vehicle i feel its silly to pay BMW lots of money for something you can easily and cheaply do yourself.

Do i feel that it means the vehicle is going to be worth nothing, well not really as these are so cheap nowadays that if i spent £3000 on bmw servicing and parts(assuming through the years i own it) would i be able to put that amount on top of the value of the vehicle when i came to sell........i dont believe i can.

I suppose im in the same position as the OP really, I didnt lust and love an M Car before i bought this, just came across it in the trade and decided to try it out.

I wouldnt say its an amazing car, but its a nice car to drive and ill be able to fit a baby chair in the back come january etc.

maybe the OP is in the same position, by one cheap, look after it himself and enjoy it, I would treat is as any other car really, change the fluids every so often and dont abuse it when cold and im sure it will be good to you.

I think maybe because its an M Car it needs to be put on a pedestal and loved and cherished, but at the price they are now i dont think they warrant that, if it was a few years old maybe, but not a decade+
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I think you are right. I don't see why everyone thinks BMW can service a car better than a normal mechanic you could train a monkey to do a oil and filter change it's that easy. You are paying the extra money for them to put a bmw stamp in your book. As long as the car gets serviced when it should and isn't abused I don't see what the problem is
 
turbotoaster said:
Do i feel that it means the vehicle is going to be worth nothing, well not really as these are so cheap nowadays that if i spent £3000 on bmw servicing and parts(assuming through the years i own it) would i be able to put that amount on top of the value of the vehicle when i came to sell........i dont believe i can.
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Can't get the money back on the fuel burnt and insurance costs either. Not servicing properly because you won't get your money back is equally irrelevant.
 
garymcq23 said:
I think you are right. I don't see why everyone thinks BMW can service a car better than a normal mechanic you could train a monkey to do a oil and filter change it's that easy. You are paying the extra money for them to put a bmw stamp in your book. As long as the car gets serviced when it should and isn't abused I don't see what the problem is
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If I came to view an M3 and the guy said 'Yea mate I fit tyres, so I do the servicing myself' I'd thank him for his time and walk away to view the next one. You can argue until the cows come home as to how wrong I am to do this but the majority of people would do the same. It's better to have sold a car than still have it for sale whilst knowing everyone who comes to view it but walks off is wrong.

When you do it yourself there is no real useful proof it was ever done. Receipts are not good enough, they indicate parts purchased not neccesarily used or even for that car. If you are buying a cheap car to run until you throw it away then this doesn't matter. If you are buying a £10,000 high performance car then it absolutely does matter.

Service history is important for two reasons. Firstly obviously cars need to be serviced properly and its proof, well, as much as it can be (Before we get into the 'I once had a BMW dealer set fire to my wife instead of service my car' stories) that it was done. Secondly it helps you appraise how the car has been kept. Has the owner skimped and cut corners? Perhaps you'd expect to see that on a 10 year old Fiesta but not a BMW M3.

There are a huge number of these cars now firmly in the hands of those who can't really afford (or who can afford but simply cannot be bothered) to look after them properly. As the cars get older the ownership demographic changes - in 2002 the E46 M3 driver was a wealthy executive who could afford to throw whatever it took to kepe it nice. In 2012 the E46 M3 owner is often somebody who overstretched himself because an M3 costs the same as a used Focus these days and he wanted to tell his mates he had an 'Emm Free innit mate'. It's really important to avoid these cars and one of the easiest way to avoid these on the used market is simply to ignore cars with patchy service histories and Fullrun tyres. Few of the knuckle-dragger contingent will take an M3 to BMW and fit Pilot Sport tyres to it, so its usually a safe bet that cars for whom this has been done are the right ones to buy.

Obviously you get the odd car owned by a fastidious die-hard enthusiast who does everything himself - perfectly - becuase he enjoys it and doesn't trust anyone else. You may well miss these cars if you look for FBMWSH. But for every 1 good one you miss you'll dodge 10 nasty ones. And, on the same point, you'll get cars with premium tyres and FBMWSH that have been driven into curbs, scraped up walls and thrapped from cold but the same applies - these are the minority and become rarer the more comprehensive the history becomes. Plus you can spot them when viewing anyway.
 
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Trust me if something went wrong with your car after BMW done work on it they will try everything to make it look like it wasnt their fault you might win your case in the end or might not. As for not knowing if the car had cheap oil in it or not you would know by all my receipts I keep for any work done on my car small or big. Saying that I've been lucky in 7 years of driving nothing has went wrong on any of my cars parts from the normal wear and tear stuff :)
 
garymcq23 said:
Trust me if something went wrong with your car after BMW done work on it they will try everything to make it look like it wasnt their fault you might win your case in the end or might not. As for not knowing if the car had cheap oil in it or not you would know by all my receipts
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You won't convince most buyers though. They'll have skipped to the next car for sale before you even get onto the second sentance.
 
Also I know a guy in ford who would happily stamp my book for me and people would think it has all fsh when it doesn't. And most car dealers know someone in each main dealer that would do the same thing for them. I had a accord once that had all the Honda stamps for service history and I know for I fact that Honda didn't do the servicing. But I didn't mind cause I new it was a good car
 
I suspect a legitimate service history will include invoices. Also I am quite sure that a call to BMW or the dealer that it was serviced with can validate the service history. I don't think someone will fool anyone with a book full of stamps and an empty folder of receipts.
 
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[TW]Fox;22000267 said:
You won't convince most buyers though. They'll have skipped to the next car for sale before you even get onto the second sentance.
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I understand what you are saying people will think cause it has BMW history it is looked after better but that is not necessarily true. By the time I go to sell the car it will be worth £5000 in a few years time and most of the cars I'd say wont have full BMW history then I could be wrong but
 
Janesy B said:
I suspect a legitimate service history will include invoices. Also I am quite sure that a call to BMW or the dealer that it was serviced with can validate the service history. I don't think someone will fool anyone with a book full of stamps and an empty folder of receipts.
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Yes a call can but not very many people do that. Do you do that when buying a car?
 
garymcq23 said:
Yes a call can but not very many people do that. Do you do that when buying a car?
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Buying a car and buying an M3 are very different things to be honest. If I was on the hunt for one I would do all the checks possible to ensure I wasn't buying a snotter. So I most certainly would phone BMW to enquire about SH. When buying a cheap bucket like my Mondeo though I didn't bother because it is a cheap generic car.
 
garymcq23 said:
I understand what you are saying people will think cause it has BMW history it is looked after better but that is not necessarily true. By the time I go to sell the car it will be worth £5000 in a few years time and most of the cars I'd say wont have full BMW history then I could be wrong but
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No, by then pretty much every single one will be ruined and the ones that are genuinely good and well looked after will probably command a good premium over the usual ****.

garymcq23 said:
Yes a call can but not very many people do that. Do you do that when buying a car?
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I would if I was buying a performance car that had a book full of stamps and no other history with it.

garymcq23 said:
In fact I'm not to sure if a phone call can. does that not fall into the customer protection Act? I'm not sure but
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I assume you mean the data protection act? Well no, seeing as you're enquiring about the details on an inanimate object, not a person.
 
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Janesy B said:
No, by then pretty much every single one will be ruined and the ones that are genuinely good and well looked after will probably command a good premium over the usual ****.



I would if I was buying a performance car that had a book full of stamps and no other history with it.



I assume you mean the data protection act? Well no, seeing as you're enquiring about the details on an inanimate object, not a person.
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Fair enough if you would call but I really don't think most people would maybe I'm wrong but. Don't get me wrong I wouldn't get my book stamped and pretend it had fsh. I've always told the truth about my car because I know they have been well looked after and I have nothing to hide
 
NickXX said:
Slight clarification of this:

Corrosion warranty is 12 years on all cars registered on 01/01/2004 or after. It's 6 years on all cars registered before.

Subframe will generally be repaired for free on unmodified cars under 10 years old - although I don't think the 10yr old bit is a clear cut rule.

They supercharge very well. Very popular in the US.
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Good to know, thanks.
 
I think foxes ten to one ratio on good mechanics is very optimistic. Just look on here at how many posters can look after a car themselves and were car nuts
 
Matt82 said:
I think foxes ten to one ratio on good mechanics is very optimistic. Just look on here at how many posters can look after a car themselves and were car nuts
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Yeah I'm more than capable of looking after a car myself. I'm bit of a freak and won't let anyone else near my car lol. I really don't think it's a bad thing it means the car was loved and looked after. But I do see his point when someone comes to buy it. But I also think a well looked after car stands out when you go to view it even if it hasn't got the BMW history
 
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