Wow! 33,000 mile 2005 E46 M3 ZCP manual just sold for $90,500 on Bring a Trailer

[Thoglan]

You can just have an mtex interior made. Its not magic, its upholstery.

I mean sort of. It's really hard to 100% match the OEM look. I had to re-do my door cards because at some point they'd been re-covered in leather and the mtex underneath was ruined by the adhesive. I used the reproduction fabric, and it's really good but not 100%. I could easily tell the difference between a retrimmed mtexture and genuine set.

There is definitely value in a good condition OEM set in a car specced to have it.

[Kcalhoun27]

I mean sort of. It's really hard to 100% match the OEM look. I had to re-do my door cards because at some point they'd been re-covered in leather and the mtex underneath was ruined by the adhesive. I used the reproduction fabric, and it's really good but not 100%. I could easily tell the difference between a retrimmed mtexture and genuine set.

There is definitely value in a good condition OEM set in a car specced to have it.

There is a company reproducing it. Im sure it does look different than the original because it isnt 20 years old. But neither is the foam underneath it. I can appreciate the value of aged goods, but lets be honest about this. Bmw didnt get several things right on this car, and weve all had to update our cars for their mistakes. Interior is no different. Upholstery is a skill that not everyone gets right, but plenty of skilled craftsman can do what bmw did wholesale. All that said, for 90k, you couldve bought 2 custom mtex interiors, burned one, threw $50k cash on that fire, and still saved $10 buying a good M3. Fine, someone with more money than brains broke a bat record. But for everyone else, if you want mtex, just go get it. Its probably ~$5000 all done. Not chump change, but less than a set of rs-gt wheels with tires.

[Thoglan]

There is a company reproducing it. Im sure it does look different than the original because it isnt 20 years old. But neither is the foam underneath it. I can appreciate the value of aged goods, but lets be honest about this. Bmw didnt get several things right on this car, and weve all had to update our cars for their mistakes. Interior is no different. Upholstery is a skill that not everyone gets right, but plenty of skilled craftsman can do what bmw did wholesale. All that said, for 90k, you couldve bought 2 custom mtex interiors, burned one, threw $50k cash on that fire, and still saved $10 buying a good M3. Fine, someone with more money than brains broke a bat record. But for everyone else, if you want mtex, just go get it. Its probably ~$5000 all done. Not chump change, but less than a set of rs-gt wheels with tires.

Im not necessarily defending the price tag, no m3 is worth that much imo. And yes if you want m texture your best bet is having a set made because they just aren't available. But you only have to look at the retrimmed sets made by someone like bmwrestoredseats (who seems to be one of the best at replicating the OE look) although the seats look great, his m texture sets just look slightly off compared to factory. The difference in the fabric is more than just age. I've had new old stock of the OE fabric next to the ASC reproduction and they are different, granted it's subtle. Alcantara changed their production process in the early 2010's so the Alcantara is a bit thicker and behaves differently to the original.

The other thing is just having a matching vin matters to me and likely others. That's worth a premium, even though it's a bit arbitrary whether your vin says F2AT or not. Each to their own.

[Kcalhoun27]

Im not necessarily defending the price tag, no m3 is worth that much imo. And yes if you want m texture your best bet is having a set made because they just aren't available. But you only have to look at the retrimmed sets made by someone like bmwrestoredseats (who seems to be one of the best at replicating the OE look) although the seats look great, his m texture sets just look slightly off compared to factory. The difference in the fabric is more than just age. I've had new old stock of the OE fabric next to the ASC reproduction and they are different, granted it's subtle. Alcantara changed their production process in the early 2010's so the Alcantara is a bit thicker and behaves differently to the original.

The other thing is just having a matching vin matters to me and likely others. That's worth a premium, even though it's a bit arbitrary whether your vin says F2AT or not. Each to their own.

Thats fair. The value is certainly up to the owner

i happen to be a customer of Joni (bmwrestoredseats) so i think its fair to say i have a bias

That being stated, 20 years between production of fabric is going to lead to a different result. Not better or worse, but certainly different.

i dont want to argue, and i apologize if im coming off as arguementative. We all decide the worth of something on our own. Im glad youre happy with your mtex

[JokerElite]

Besides miles it also has sunroof, SMG, lots of dings and a prior accident.
That would have been a nice car to buy and manual change and flip. I’d keep the heated Imola interior as a selling point.

If originality is a selling point I’d probably keep it SMG.

[old///MFanatic]

If originality is a selling point I’d probably keep it SMG.

This second one doesn’t really check the boxes off for higher and rare availability. So SMG in my humble opinion isn’t that necessary here or compromises its integrity. Although absolutely see your point.
I found it interesting that even real CSL owners convert the SMG to manual. Although these aren’t dedicated garage queens examples.

[oceansize]

An interesting one recently was this manual conversion which didn't meet the reserve despite being a good color combo, 66k miles, and clean title. I'm personally not touching a swap unless I know who did it, exactly how it was done, and I can put the car through its paces with thorough test drive and inspection.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2004-bmw-m3-coupe-109/

[maw1124]

I'm personally not touching a swap unless I know who did it, exactly how it was done...

I'm the same way about modified cars, actually. I've been thinking about that a fair amount lately.

... and I can put the car through its paces with thorough test drive and inspection.

Maybe this can get me over that. But I want all mine done expertly and by experts, so I don't even know if a drive and inspection help much. I'd have to have respect for the shop, the quality of components, etc., which is a heavy lift. This forum does a great job of vetting mods, so that'll help future buyers here. But these days DIY is all the rage, so... nah... that ain't it... you'd have to know what you said above.

When it was my time, I bought an all original, fully loaded, adult driven, still under extended factory warranty, option tick, full VMI car. Come to think of it, that's all of mine actually, except for the '92, which had been aficionado owned and maintained since new, the last 15 years of which at the same shop that looks after the M3 (that's how I found the car, it wasn't for sale publicly). Where I've modded the cars, I've kept the factory components (except trash), made sure everything was safe and fully reversible, etc., for that same reason.

A buddy was a Eurocharged dealer back in the day (sold me my E46M), and had an S55 that he put their pulleys, tunes, headers, Xpipe, methanol, resonator delete, etc. After 5 minutes in that car I KNEW that would never happen to mine. It has remained virtually stock ever since.

maw