After 18 months of E46 ownership, it was time to move on. The car had been fantastic in my ownership and had provided many memorable moments, I was truly sad to see it go.
So naturally, the replacement had to fill a similar space in my heart. I had been pining after a V8 for a while, wanted to switch back to a manual transmission, and wanted to own an E39 at some point before they all were either ruined, or had appreciated beyond the point of what was reasonable, and I also wanted to stay away from finance options if possible. Everything was pointing towards an E39 M5, however with very few cars available from £5k-£15k and none of them screaming "buy me", it was time to look elsewhere. Enter stage right, the E92 M3.
A 335i had been an option a while ago, but it just wasn't special enough to warrant changing from the E46 for. I'd still get a warm feeling inside whenever I saw a well spec'd E92 around, for me the design isn't quite as timeless as the E46, but it was still spot on. Add on the additions for the M3 (bulge, side vents etc) and BMW have struck gold with a roadcar that has presence, but isn't in your face too much (ok I'll admit the red kind of makes that a moot point).
So collection day came around and I was excited (I swear the week between placing a deposit and collecting the car were the longest days of my life), and keen to experience everything the M3 had to offer.
I was finally on my way with the car around 4PM looking forward to the prospect of using the Dartford crossing at peak time. There's only so many times you can leave a huge gap in front of you in traffic and accelerate quickly before those around you start to get annoyed, so I had to grow up and keep it sensible on the way home. Sparing you my life story as to what happened in between, I collected some friends and went for a drive later that evening in order to share the epicness of the car. A quick "New car!!" snap was taken for Facebook so loose acquaintances I haven't spoken to in years can watch me brag about how I'm better than all of them and know that they should feel bad about their crappy little lives. I phoned to order a pizza from a local takeaway to collect on my way home.
So time for some rough details about the car:
- 2012 E92 M3
- DCT gearbox
- Competition Pack (lower ride height, style 359 wheels)
- Individual "Electric Red" paint
- Individual extended black novillo leather with red stitching
- Harmon Kardon stereo
- Electronic Damper Control
- Adaptive bi-xenon headlights
- Heated seats
- 27,000 miles
- Service pack until 2018
Going in to the purchase I had a few things on my "must have" list; DCT, EDC, heated seats, and a decent colour combination that ideally wasn't white. This proved much more troublesome than thought. I had expected to have easy pickings of various cars all within my £30k budget, but as is always the case the ones that were screaming "buy me" were all nudging the £35k mark.
This example came up for sale at a decent price and was quite local, so it was viewed and a deposit placed.
Initially I had planned to immediately refurbish the wheels to be silver, however the black matches the high gloss shadowline trim quite nicely and has been growing on me every day. Not needing to be cleaned as thoroughly as silver wheels is a big plus point too, so for now they will be staying black.
Now I've had a chance to properly drive it I'm even more smitten than I expected. As I said earlier in this essay my initial requirements featured a manual gearbox so I could enjoy the technicalities of operating a clutch again, but I had wanted DCT with the E92. With such a good gearbox on offer it would be foolish not to take it. The shifts are lightning quick when changing at full throttle with the shift lights flashing at you, and the rev matching on the downshifts will leave even grown men giggling like a schoolgirl. The car is addictive to drive and will hit silly speeds in no time at all, have had a £50 bet with my father as to whether or not I'll still have a clean license after my ownership has ended and somehow I think I'm going to lose that bet.
As far as bad points go, I'll agree with Fox with regards to the interior. The car was used for a 100 mile motorway jaunt yesterday and I emerged feeling refreshed. Bringing the side bolsters in on the seat to hug me, setting the heated seat on low to comfort my back, and streaming Spotify from my phone over the stereo meant the journey was set to be a nice one. Except for that rattle. That single, high pitched, rattle. That rattle that's so high pitched no one over the age of 25 can hear it due to presbycusis, but it bugs me to no end.
There's a minor scuff on the front bumper that I need to get sorted (dealer wanted to do a £40 smart repair, no way in hell was that happening), and a stone chip on the bonnet bulge that could do with sorting, but I'm in no massive rush to do either.
The original 3 year warranty runs out at the end of this month and it's booked in for it's first MOT on Tuesday. An extended warranty will be bought for peace of mind, and depending on what they say about how it would affect things in the event of a claim then the 2 pipe OEM exhaust mod may get done. Other than that, I plan to simply enjoy driving the car as it was intended to be driven and keep things standard.
That was a much longer essay than I had intended to write, and probably much more than people will ever read, but there are plenty of pretty pictures supplied to keep everyone entertained
tl:dr - Bought an M3. Crashed it, repaired it, drove it, loved it
So naturally, the replacement had to fill a similar space in my heart. I had been pining after a V8 for a while, wanted to switch back to a manual transmission, and wanted to own an E39 at some point before they all were either ruined, or had appreciated beyond the point of what was reasonable, and I also wanted to stay away from finance options if possible. Everything was pointing towards an E39 M5, however with very few cars available from £5k-£15k and none of them screaming "buy me", it was time to look elsewhere. Enter stage right, the E92 M3.
A 335i had been an option a while ago, but it just wasn't special enough to warrant changing from the E46 for. I'd still get a warm feeling inside whenever I saw a well spec'd E92 around, for me the design isn't quite as timeless as the E46, but it was still spot on. Add on the additions for the M3 (bulge, side vents etc) and BMW have struck gold with a roadcar that has presence, but isn't in your face too much (ok I'll admit the red kind of makes that a moot point).
So collection day came around and I was excited (I swear the week between placing a deposit and collecting the car were the longest days of my life), and keen to experience everything the M3 had to offer.
I was finally on my way with the car around 4PM looking forward to the prospect of using the Dartford crossing at peak time. There's only so many times you can leave a huge gap in front of you in traffic and accelerate quickly before those around you start to get annoyed, so I had to grow up and keep it sensible on the way home. Sparing you my life story as to what happened in between, I collected some friends and went for a drive later that evening in order to share the epicness of the car. A quick "New car!!" snap was taken for Facebook so loose acquaintances I haven't spoken to in years can watch me brag about how I'm better than all of them and know that they should feel bad about their crappy little lives. I phoned to order a pizza from a local takeaway to collect on my way home.
So time for some rough details about the car:
- 2012 E92 M3
- DCT gearbox
- Competition Pack (lower ride height, style 359 wheels)
- Individual "Electric Red" paint
- Individual extended black novillo leather with red stitching
- Harmon Kardon stereo
- Electronic Damper Control
- Adaptive bi-xenon headlights
- Heated seats
- 27,000 miles
- Service pack until 2018
Going in to the purchase I had a few things on my "must have" list; DCT, EDC, heated seats, and a decent colour combination that ideally wasn't white. This proved much more troublesome than thought. I had expected to have easy pickings of various cars all within my £30k budget, but as is always the case the ones that were screaming "buy me" were all nudging the £35k mark.
This example came up for sale at a decent price and was quite local, so it was viewed and a deposit placed.
Initially I had planned to immediately refurbish the wheels to be silver, however the black matches the high gloss shadowline trim quite nicely and has been growing on me every day. Not needing to be cleaned as thoroughly as silver wheels is a big plus point too, so for now they will be staying black.
Now I've had a chance to properly drive it I'm even more smitten than I expected. As I said earlier in this essay my initial requirements featured a manual gearbox so I could enjoy the technicalities of operating a clutch again, but I had wanted DCT with the E92. With such a good gearbox on offer it would be foolish not to take it. The shifts are lightning quick when changing at full throttle with the shift lights flashing at you, and the rev matching on the downshifts will leave even grown men giggling like a schoolgirl. The car is addictive to drive and will hit silly speeds in no time at all, have had a £50 bet with my father as to whether or not I'll still have a clean license after my ownership has ended and somehow I think I'm going to lose that bet.
As far as bad points go, I'll agree with Fox with regards to the interior. The car was used for a 100 mile motorway jaunt yesterday and I emerged feeling refreshed. Bringing the side bolsters in on the seat to hug me, setting the heated seat on low to comfort my back, and streaming Spotify from my phone over the stereo meant the journey was set to be a nice one. Except for that rattle. That single, high pitched, rattle. That rattle that's so high pitched no one over the age of 25 can hear it due to presbycusis, but it bugs me to no end.
There's a minor scuff on the front bumper that I need to get sorted (dealer wanted to do a £40 smart repair, no way in hell was that happening), and a stone chip on the bonnet bulge that could do with sorting, but I'm in no massive rush to do either.
The original 3 year warranty runs out at the end of this month and it's booked in for it's first MOT on Tuesday. An extended warranty will be bought for peace of mind, and depending on what they say about how it would affect things in the event of a claim then the 2 pipe OEM exhaust mod may get done. Other than that, I plan to simply enjoy driving the car as it was intended to be driven and keep things standard.
That was a much longer essay than I had intended to write, and probably much more than people will ever read, but there are plenty of pretty pictures supplied to keep everyone entertained
tl:dr - Bought an M3. Crashed it, repaired it, drove it, loved it
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