Im thinking about selling my car to get a 96-97 BMW M3, just wondering if there are any m3 owners who could give me some insight on maintenance, repair costs, and opinions about the car. any info is appreciated/

 

talk to Trip.

 

pm hendrickedition(sp?) I think he should know

 

I want a e46 M3 SMG
but I don't have enough money

 

1) Get a 5 speed. If you get an automatic you are defeating the purpose of that car (for 36's)

2) If at all possible, get the car covered under BMW's CPO warranty.

Are you buying it from a BMW dealership?

As far as maintainance and all......parts will be pretty expensive compared to other Japanese and American cars. Previous maintainance is what you need to worry about. All you really need is to take your car to your nearest BMW dealership, and get them to run your chassis number. They can pull up the past records on that car. Also look for receipts for services and repairs.

Feel free to ask questions, PM me if you would like or just post here. I am a BMW technician.

Darren

 

you have a monster pm... well 3 of them

 

thanks alot, i figured it would be more expensive....but really isnt an issue

 

The E36 M3, and BMWs in general, are pretty reliable cars and can take some abuse (ask me how I know !!). But like what was said earlier, it is the past history you need to take a look at, if the info is available.

At a minimum, take the car to have it looked at by an experienced BMW tech, even if you are going to buy it from a BMW dealer, but especially if you are buying it from an individual or a used car dealer.

Price on parts are higher than Japanese or domestic cars, but you can still get parts cheap if you know the right place to look (I can help you out with that). If the car has a factory CPO warranty, then take it to the dealer to get warranty work done. If it has no warranty, then I would stay away from the dealer. I am not sure where you are located but I know 2 good independent BMW shops in the area.

The area where things can get expensive is modifying the car. For example, a supercharger system for a Mustang may be $3000 but for the M3 it would be closer to $6000 (and lets not get into turbos !!). The only tuner I would personally stay away from would be Dinan. They make good stuff (most of it anyway IMO ) but it is grossly over priced and you can get the same performance from other tuners for much less (I can also talk to you about this).

To get an idea of some common mods for an E36 M3, take a look at my sig. There are not too many things left fo me to do on my car (but I can always find more !!). Trip can vouch for my car since he has seen and driven it. Good luck!

 

what dealers are they? also would the take a honda trade in?

 

Where are you located? There are 2 BMW dealers in the Tidewater area: Casey BMW (in Newport News) and Checkered Flag BMW (in Virginia Beach). There are several used car dealerships in the area, some of which I have seen E36 M3s on their lots (VA Beach Blvd). But I could not tell you if they would take a trade or not.

If your were referring to maintenace shops, the 2 are Atlantic Autowerks in Virginia Beach and Sports & Imports in Chesapeake.