The Phoenix: My Build Journal Excerpts

[Maxima SE]

Japan Red, Santorini Blue, Fire Orange - they're the original Skittles cars on the E9x M3. Everything you listed are run of the mill colors.

You have your own peculiar tastes - the point that I think is being made here is your tastes are not mainstream as defined by market valuations.



You have to remember what BAT is: an efficient market to set prices for cream of the crop examples.

If more LSB trade hand more often and at higher prices than PY, it tells you everything you need to know about PY's value: it's mostly valuable to their owners.

Again I was not talking about how rare those colors are. I was talking about how beautiful they are. I would take Melbourne over Japan.

And more LSBs trade hands on BAT in general, not necessarily at higher prices and not necessarily cream of the crop examples. Last two cars were super high mileage cars that were dumped on BAT and they happily listed them to make a profit. Is LSB worth more than PY? sure it is proven that it is. It is also easier to find for sale than PY. It has been that way for as long as I remember, despite production numbers. That is the only thing I'm trying to emphasize. If there are less LSBs in existence and trade hands more frequently than PY then does that mean PY owners are more happy with the color than LSB owners? You can interpret the data however you wants.

[Epoustouflant]

That is a needle in a haystack. Not a huge fan of Lime rock personally. I think the best colors on the E92 are Melbourne, Silverstone 2 and Le Mans. I own an IB but still think Le Mans looks way better on it and flows better with the silver ZCP wheels. But yeah 6MT LR will be cream of the crop E92 M3.

Japan Red, Santorini Blue, Fire Orange - they're the original Skittles cars on the E9x M3. Everything you listed are run of the mill colors.

You have your own peculiar tastes - the point that I think is being made here is your tastes are not mainstream as defined by market valuations.

I don't know man. Seems like LSB is on bat every other week. And PY not as much. Even on autotrader right now there are 5 LSB for sale in the country and 2 PY. You guys can quote production numbers all you want but even 10+ years ago I had a hard time finding a PY coupe. Definitely don't need luck to see a LSB since my neighbor parks his on the street every day.

Also my initial argument was never about PY being rare. I just said it was unique. I think it is a very beautiful yellow. Especially compared to yellow from other brands such as chevy or dodge.

You have to remember what BAT is: an efficient market to set prices for cream of the crop examples.

If more LSB trade hand more often and at higher prices than PY, it tells you everything you need to know about PY's value: it's mostly valuable to their owners.

[Maxima SE]

This is rare and scarce; we’re talking below 0.5% production *if* you include the Euro GTS. They’re also the highest valued E92s.

PY just isn’t.

That is a needle in a haystack. Not a huge fan of Lime rock personally. I think the best colors on the E92 are Melbourne, Silverstone 2 and Le Mans. I own an IB but still think Le Mans looks way better on it and flows better with the silver ZCP wheels. But yeah 6MT LR will be cream of the crop E92 M3.

Your PY is as rare as Steel grey with 3851 unit and Alpine White with 4171 unit worldwide.

And you are lucky to see LSB with 2495 unit worldwide, which is 1228 less than PY

I don't know man. Seems like LSB is on bat every other week. And PY not as much. Even on autotrader right now there are 5 LSB for sale in the country and 2 PY. You guys can quote production numbers all you want but even 10+ years ago I had a hard time finding a PY coupe. Definitely don't need luck to see a LSB since my neighbor parks his on the street every day.


Also my initial argument was never about PY being rare. I just said it was unique. I think it is a very beautiful yellow. Especially compared to yellow from other brands such as chevy or dodge.

[Tbonem3]

Lime rock ed is fire orange, but you can still have a regular e9x in fire orange.

I've never seen an E90 one! (only 5 made he says)

https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1003717

[WestBankM4]

But Fire Orange and Lime Rock Edition aren’t the same??

I thought they released the Lime Rock Edition E92 in Fire Orange only? Well it's the first time Fire Orange was introduced I guess.

[Nate047]

I live in LA where M3s are on every corner and I have yet to see another PY. But I see other colors all the time and LSB once in a while.

Nate said paint should look good all the time. Well paint looks best on a sunny day. Not at night or on a cloudy rainy day.

I hardly ever see e46 M3s on the west side, when I do they are usually silver or black verts lol. Regardless it's not like I hate PY or think it's the worst color out there, I just don't love it. I also don't really like LSB so the community can go ahead and dock my points further.

[Gt4]

3723 out of 84k cars translates to 4% of the global production which is rare. Fast forward 20+ years later, there are way fewer cars on the road now. I live in LA where M3s are on every corner and I have yet to see another PY. But I see other colors all the time and LSB once in a while.

Nate said paint should look good all the time. Well paint looks best on a sunny day. Not at night or on a cloudy rainy day.

PY will never rank in top 25 highest bids. Yellow isn't for everyone so it is a risky investment from a collectors standpoint. Then you have lack of ZCP and rarity of late model cars where PY greatly suffers. Other colors with these specs do very well on bat. Good luck finding an 04-06 PY. You're basically left with a bunch of beat left over 01-02 high mileage cars which perform slightly worse than their poor performing LSB counterpart.

Your PY is as rare as Steel grey with 3851 unit and Alpine White with 4171 unit worldwide.

And you are lucky to see LSB with 2495 unit worldwide, which is 1228 less than PY

But when I look at production number, I only consider NA unit & LHD cause an E46 M3 isn’t rare enough to import one from ROW or/and RHD… And I only look for Coupe (and 6mt).

[Gt4]

The Lime Rock Edition is so good on the E92. I'd imagine the purists would step up if you were to even think about painting this one.

But Fire Orange and Lime Rock Edition aren’t the same??

[Epoustouflant]

The Lime Rock Edition is so good on the E92. I'd imagine the purists would step up if you were to even think about painting this one.

Deservingly so ahah. It was hard enough having to restore the front end on this one - glad to say it looks better than OEM and I got it sealed in PPF.

[WestBankM4]

The Lime Rock Edition is so good on the E92. I'd imagine the purists would step up if you were to even think about painting this one.

[Epoustouflant]

3723 out of 84k cars translates to 4% of the global production which is rare. Fast forward 20+ years later, there are way fewer cars on the road now. I live in LA where M3s are on every corner and I have yet to see another PY. But I see other colors all the time and LSB once in a while.

Nate said paint should look good all the time. Well paint looks best on a sunny day. Not at night or on a cloudy rainy day.

PY will never rank in top 25 highest bids. Yellow isn't for everyone so it is a risky investment from a collectors standpoint. Then you have lack of ZCP and rarity of late model cars where PY greatly suffers. Other colors with these specs do very well on bat. Good luck finding an 04-06 PY. You're basically left with a bunch of beat left over 01-02 high mileage cars which perform slightly worse than their poor performing LSB counterpart.

This is rare and scarce; we’re talking below 0.5% production *if* you include the Euro GTS. They’re also the highest valued E92s.

PY just isn’t.

[Maxima SE]

3723 out of 84k cars translates to 4% of the global production which is rare. Fast forward 20+ years later, there are way fewer cars on the road now. I live in LA where M3s are on every corner and I have yet to see another PY. But I see other colors all the time and LSB once in a while.

Nate said paint should look good all the time. Well paint looks best on a sunny day. Not at night or on a cloudy rainy day.

PY will never rank in top 25 highest bids. Yellow isn't for everyone so it is a risky investment from a collectors standpoint. Then you have lack of ZCP and rarity of late model cars where PY greatly suffers. Other colors with these specs do very well on bat. Good luck finding an 04-06 PY. You're basically left with a bunch of beat left over 01-02 high mileage cars which perform slightly worse than their poor performing LSB counterpart.

[Epoustouflant]

I've been stopped on the road a couple of times, the last time it was a father and his son. They had made a bet on the color of my CS, the father said it's purple and the kid said it was blue, I told them it's San Marino Blue. I don't blame them either because there are times when the sun is going down, there's still ambient light but the car looks purple, there's no mistaking it.

Great color choice man, I'm excited to see what it looks like!

WestBankM4, I have had your car in mind forever.

Would you look at that!

San Marino is a great color. But it works well with the M4 with aggressive body lines. I can almost guarantee you it won't work as nicely on an E46. Softer colors work with the body lines of the E46 much better.

At the end of the day blue is blue and it will not have the presence of a yellow car.

Bile yellow? sure maybe on a cloudy day. On a nice sunny day its a different story. Not that we really care what anyone thinks anyways.

Hard disagree.

Any pearlescent colors will look best on rounded shapes to showcase the pearlescents gradient shifts. The "harder" lines of the M4 cut through the gradients - and if the picture above shows anything, it's that the M4 really wasn't all that harsher in its design.

It's a beautiful car.

One of these is not an E46 generation color.

Exactly 👍🏻
If you have to talk everyone (including yourself) into not disliking the color..it’s not a good color.

This has been one of my issue with PY since day 1. It's just not all that.

When the estimate rolled out around, you do a bit of research and figure out the market thinks like us as well.

I've discussed the numbers here.

[...] and it isn't that rare

The purists will say I'm botching away a rare PY.

I disagree that it's rare.

Even though it was a launch color, it was available throughout the entire generation.

Let's look at the numbers:
Out of 84,383 E46 M3s that were produced, 3723 were painted in Phoenix Yellow.


[...] nor valued that much.

The purists will say I'm mauling away the value.

I disagree that it's valuable.

Let's look at the numbers:
There isn't a single PY E46 M3 in the Top 25 of highest bids recorded on Bring a Trailer.

I was expecting NAM3 to be on the purist side. All in all I'm surprised by the positive reactions - thanks gents.

[Nate047]

Not that we really care what anyone thinks anyways.

As long as you like your own car that's all that really matters

[old///MFanatic]

my thing is the paint should look good all the time, not just situationally.

Exactly 👍🏻
If you have to talk everyone (including yourself) into not disliking the color..it’s not a good color.