NakiTouring

Yeah, nice summary. I guess I only owned mine for a very short time. Enjoyed it while I had it and deferred those pending expenses to future owners. You'll see a lot out there that have had a few owners over the years, probably for the same reasons. It doesn't take long for the potential repair costs to become a large percentage of the car's value, which of course puts people off and is then exacerbated by the rapid depreciation as a result.

Pussy. Haha, just kidding! I do hope I haven't put you off though. Sounds like my father...he gave me the BMW bug and has been watching 335s and M3s for many years on TM etc but always manages to talk himself out of it. I can't understand it personally...if there are cars on my watch list and I'm asking sellers questions, then there is definite intent, for better or worse!

Well not quite, this was the line the BMW dealer gave me when he came to buy my car...you know, the usual tactics to beat the price down. That's the first I heard my brakes were apparently getting down, and I was about to let it go, so didn't bother to investigate. Trust me, I've spent plenty with FCP and ECS in the past (f'ing 335i) and would definitely have done the research before going down that road. Good heads up for others though that there are cheaper alternatives.

Yeah, if it was going to be a long term love affair, I would have closed my eyes and shelled out for new bearing shells. I don't know what sort of money you'd pay for that job in NZ...no doubt double what it would be in the US or UK as that is how the Euro Garages seem to operate here unfortunately. I used to warm it up for a good while before heading down the road. They have an 8 litre sump which doesn't help. This is one of the reasons why it wouldn't be much use to me as a daily (work is 5kms away). You're right about not knowing how previous owners have treated them. My boss has a lovely new RS4 which he jumps in and thrashes straight from the get go, no warm up. He's not mechanically minded at all and at the end of the day, he'll be in the next new car before the factory warranty runs out. I just shudder and cringe every time he does it and just pray that the M3 didn't have an owner like that.

Righto, so just about a year since I posted above, and I'm sorry to say it, but sold the M3 a couple of months ago ? I loved the car but for the following reasons I sold it: I wasn't using it enough. Bought it mainly as a weekend car/one for the longer trips, but unfortunately the ladies in the house didn't like doing the big trips in it...they preferred going in the Odyssey ? Even when I had the odd big trip by myself, I often took my stage 2 Polo GTI instead as it would use 60% of the gas, was just as much fun in its own right, and I didn't have to worry about clocking up miles and wear and tear on the special Bavarian. I ran out of garage space, so the M3 was parked outside, which I was none too comfortable with. Didn't want to build another garage at that stage. I like to work on my own cars, but as this one was NZ new with only 70 something thousand on the clock with full service history, I felt compelled to have to stick with dealer services (I sold it before it was due a service). For the above reason, I never took it to the track. Constant unease about the rod bearings and too tight to drop the coin into replacing them...read above re preferring to do my own mechanical work. Apparently my front disks were getting down and a BMW dealer told me it would be thousands to replace them...WTF?? I struggle with that. It was some freaky blue/black and just never looked clean (read lack of garage space not helping). They really are an awesome car on the right roads, like through the twisty stuff heading north from here on number 3, through the gorge and up Mt Messenger...I have never driven anything that makes you turn so evil, but of course we are talking some pretty antisocial driving and you're only going to get away with that for so long. Would I own one again? Probably, but only once the arse has dropped out of them (during the recession?) and I find one I like that I'm happy to tinker with and take to that track, which is really where it needs to be to get the most out of it. So qube, just buy one already ? Bucket list and all...

Have a look at https://www.mdecoder.com/

Cool. I was interested in that one myself and exchanged a few texts with the dealer, but ended up going NZ new, lower kms, service history etc. I have a bit of a reputation for owning white cars, so I kinda had to get one in a different colour! I did like the look of the wheels on that one though and it's lower than mine. Is it a competition pack, or has someone made those touches to it? Had an interesting intake too, right? And it's LCI ?

Nice. Is that the one that eurosport were selling earlier in the year?

Yep and yep. There are plenty of peeps, relative petrol heads even, that think a 3 series M-sport is an M3. Funny thing is, I don't own an E90 M3 for how it looks, or what other people might think, but for the driving experience...something that's clearly lost on the owner of this thing ?

Haha, you just never know. I was really unlucky with mine, to have the crank bolt come loose, effectively killing the engine. Plus the auto was slipping. $10k in parts alone. But the mileage was almost 170k. The turbos were still fine, but I replaced them while engine and box were out. On the other hand, plenty of peeps out there just clock up the miles without issues. But I maintain that off you want a performance BMW, you either need deep pockets, or be fairly proficient with spanners...or both!

So picked the M3 up from welly in the weekend, love it. Got a bit to learn in terms getting a feel for it and setting it up the way I like, with various adjustments available around the dct, throttle response and edc etc. One thing for sure, it doesn't give the thump in the back the way a tuned 335i does. No doubt she goes hard when the revs are up, but you can understand why BMW may have deliberately kept the boost pretty low on the n54, so as not to sabotage the s65. Re gas mileage, here is what it looked like about 260kms into my trip from BP Mana, near Porirua, to New Plymouth. I haven't been able to verify this with a refill, but even if it's 20 or 30% optimistic, I'm more than happy with it. It crept up to 10.1 litres per 100kms by the time I got home, as the roads got more entertaining and I took a wee detour through some twisty bits ?

Indeed, but not always with a happy ending...

$6k on a 335i would just be the entrance price...trust me ?

You don't mention what year and if M-sport or otherwise, but I reckon at those sort of KMs, you wouldn't want to be paying more than 5k. Plenty of things other than just the engine wear with distance.

That's pretty respectable, my 335i was definitely worse than that. Well, I've taken the plunge and just bought an E90 M3, see I'll find out for myself soon enough ? Not a big issue for me as I'll be averaging down with the Polo daily.

Strewth, thats probably up there my old 335i e91...but at least there was plenty of entertainment to be had. I'd recommend getting an LCI facelift one, which came out late 08...much better iDrive etc.

So the 335i has gone to one happy camper ? I wonder what will fill the void...

Haha, very good ? Unfortunately I've owned more French cars (2) than Hondas (1). And the 156 GTA I had was one special stroppy Italian. Living in the UK for several years opened my eyes up to the euro's (I had the tatts lasered off while there). But those two motor companies, HMC and BMW, represent what I like most about the auto industry...beautifully engineered atmo engines. Unfortunately in this turbo age, it's all too easy.

Ok, agree with you on the CRX. But the ITR...umm, err, inspired by the engine doner car, maybe? Most Honda fanboys (me included) would rather poke their eyes out with blunt sticks than draw inspiration from frog shite. Now if only Red Bull could get the car to work as well as their new engine... I vaguely recall reading a Wheels magazine about 30 years ago, when the Japanese where getting right into their tech (4 wheel steering and the like), and some high up BMW boffin saying stuff like they'd never build a front wheel drive car. I thought that was a bold statement at the time. But then they had just swallowed Rover (and Mini), so maybe that was the out clause.

I believe they are the 260M wheels, which were painted silver from September 2010 onwards.

Somehow they've taken a handsome car and made it look like a riced out RX8.

Damn, just as well I don't have any spare garage space...

Yep, that one is etched into my mind forever, was very sad.

The crank bolt came loose, which resulted in valve hitting piston ? Pretty rare for that to happen, but not unheard of. The gearbox was slipping on the change from 4th to 5th. Probably could have been repaired, but given the mileage, it made sense to swap while the engine was out. I found a box with about 65k on it for a "reasonable" price. The genuine BMW gearbox oil is bloody expensive, but in my research I didn't find an alternative that I could trust, especially as I wanted to up the boost a little - its not worth the risk for the sake of saving 2 or 3 hundred bucks. Replaced the oil pan / filter and associated bolts as well. Likewise with all the engine seals, gaskets, one tIme use bolts etc - I did it all properly with OEM quality and correct torque specs throughout.

Anyway, my 335i is now on Trademe, so we'll see what happens. If anyone is interested in trading it towards their unwanted and horribly thirsty E9x M3, sing out! https://www.trademe.co.nz/2039326019