Me Again...I Can't Decide on a Car..

[TW]Fox;21622934 said:
19k is too much to spend on something like that. Rather spend a little more and get an F10. It won't be a 535d or an M Sport but that's made up for by the fact it won't be a e60.
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Was hoping you'd say that. I think you're right about the F10, but I'll have to finance anymore than 19k.

rossk26 said:
Double the price of the 159 you were looking at...

Worth it?
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I told you I cant make my mind up.....
 
maccapacca said:
For the record the a5 idea was great
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I was thinking the same thing until I test drove one an hour ago. Never been so let down before. I think part of it was jumping straight from the M3 into it (A5 3.0 TDI Quattro manual) but it felt massive, driving position was way too high, the interior was very plastic-y and it didnt feel like 240bhp at all. The 2.7TDI A5 I drove felt much nicer with the multitronic gearbox.
 
[TW]Fox;21624493 said:
CIC Nav as well. I didnt like mine but it's basically like your M3 without the handling or the engine or the performance, so I guess if you like your M3 on a cruise you'll like that.

Problem is that on 20k a year by the time you come to renew the warranty it will be over 60k and therefore away from the £500 a year cover and into the £900 a year cover.
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Will go and have a look at it tomorrow. As long as its got more poke than the A5 3.0 TDI I'll be half pleased. I have to face facts that I'll never get another car like the M3 unless I stop doing moon miles.
 
[TW]Fox;21624493 said:
If you've decided you definately want an E60/E90 generation car what about this?

http://www.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/bmwauc/details/0,,1156___ask-15%40adm-xx,00.html?ch=_V0JBRUE3MjA1MENaNDMxMDM=
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Interesting, I never considered one of those before. Will look further into it. I would love an F10 more than any other car, but I think I'll wait until nice examples of the 530d are ~20k. My very random shortlist so far is:

BMW 535d
BMW 530d
BMW 335d
Audi 2.7 TDI multitronic
Cheap option - Alfa 159 Ti / Honda Civic CDTi Type S or EX.

I can stomach the other running costs like tyres, servicing etc because I know they'll be cheaper (not by much but still) than the M3 :p
 
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thewanted said:
Is doing 20k a year in the M3 so bad if it doesn't mean forking out £20k on a car you don't particularly want judging by the numerous threads you've started? I realise the depreciation on the M3 won't be good, but Housey did a lot of miles in his RS4 and didn't get 50p for it.

If you're selling the M3 then ignore me.
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I see your point and its a good one, but the M3 is drinking fuel at a high rate. I can only just squeeze 4 return trips out of it on a full tank. I'd rather buy a car that was designed specifically for cruising on the motorway than one thats suited to A/B road thrashing and the track.
 
[TW]Fox;21624626 said:
Do not forget that one thing you are going to do here is swap fuel consumption for depreciation - these cars will drop value quicker than the M3 would (Except the cheaper £10k options).

Make sure you are costing Total Cost of Ownership and not just MPG!
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Im going to sit down and write some numbers on paper tonight to work out which option will put me in a better financial position.
 
Well, sold the M3 tonight so the hunt is definitely on. Test driving the 335d tomorrow morning and then the Alfa 159. Will be an odd comparison but will see how it goes.
 
I predict a big drop in M3 prices in the later half this year. You can see on autotrader and PH how many have been up for sale for months at the same price. If private sellers have to drop their prices to get buyers, the dealers are going to have to follow eventually. The E9x is going to go the same way as the E46, which you can get for peanuts these days.
 
Kingy said:
Congrats / commiserations on the sale... :)

Did you get close to asking?
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I'll miss her, but as soon as I stop commuting so many miles I will buy another. Such a good car (except for commuting on your own money). I had her up for 22k, got hardly any calls except people offering 19k. So I dropped it to 21.5k and got 5 calls in a day; one guy came from Suffolk to see it and left me £200 deposit and will be returning today with the balance, I hope. Sold for 21k. Not bad at all considering the other stupid offers I was getting. BMW offered me 18k p/x.
 
Kingy said:
Definately congrats then, I'm genuinely suprised / pleased for you.

Not suprised about the £18-£19k offers, so I think you've done really well there... Fingers crossed it all goes through... :)
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Cheers. Well the guy phoned and get get down today as his bank cant authorise the payment due to it being bank hol weekend. I've still got his deposit though and he said he'll collect it as soon as the bank authorise it.

Just test drove the 335d. I know in the past people have managed to get 2 years warranty thrown in but the salesman said that they cant do it because of regulations with the FSA :confused:
I'm not sure its worth spending that much though, a 325d or 330d would do the job just as well.

http://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/showthread.php?t=50544

Just found that, expensive for an E46 but a very nice example. From my experience the E46 is better built than the E9x.
 
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SDK^ said:
Sure, but the OP just sold his interesting car because it was too expensive to run(?).
The petrol options suggested just seem more of the same.
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No I didnt sell it because it was too expensive to run. I can comfortably afford to run it, but it makes no sense when I'm not using it for what its intended for and what I originally had intended to use it for (social use only, sunday drives, weekends away etc). Its not a car to drive on the M3/M25 everyday.

Fox, I knew he was talking bull because I remember you got 2 years warranty on your deal.

I went to the Jag garage today. I could get an XF 3.0D Premium Luxury S on an 09 plate for the same price as the 335d, and its loaded with literally every single option. Very tempting.
Also took the 159 Ti for a drive and it was a lot nicer than I expected it to be, I actually enjoyed driving it because I set my expectations low and they were exceeded.

For reference, I cant get more than 25mpg from a full tank (calculated using FuelLog) and thats 85% motorway driving at 70mph.
Combined driving I average 21mpg to a tank.
 
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