While I loved having 2 E46 M3s, again daily-ing an E46 M3, I felt that I had reached an impasse of sorts with the 2002 steelgrey 6spd daily. I had put a lot of sweat equity into it, but it was at the point where much more investment would be needed, and it wasn't quite meeting my needs as an older enthusiast and a father/husband. It was also always an issue, for me, of steel vs. silvergrey and the silvergrey was winning every comparison to the point where I was just constantly disappointed in the pre-lci car.
The market has also been on fire, as you all know, so I figured now was a fine time to sell. I also was starting to think it was a now or never situation with buying the only other BMW that I have real interest in, the e9x or e60 with f1 derived n/a v8 or v10 as their values are rapidly rising, but more laws/restrictions coming in.
Initially, I wanted to go big with the v10. My friend bought one around this time as well, but it has been problem after problem. I already own an E46 M3, so I'm no stranger to high running costs and "fixes," but this was going to be my daily car and a car I'd hopefully keep for years, so I shied away from the older and troublesome E60.
The only other car that would have a chance at making me as happy as an E46 does was the e9x with S65. I wanted 4 doors, dct, lower mileage this time around. My normal criteria of low options was still in play as I'm not a fan of much, even for a daily, but after 4 BMWs in black, silvergrey, tiag & steelgrey, I was ready for some color this time. Unfortunately, the e60/e9x generation's color pallet was very German, less colorful than e36/46 IMO. So me and my friends (who doesn't like looking at cars for sale
) started looking at listings, and it didn't take long to find something special.
My friend sent me a link to a craigslist ad, in a city only about 1.5hrs away. The ad was not that well done, which probably helped me, but the price was great, given this climate, for the mileage and year.
It took me a while, but I zoomed in and asked my friend, "wait a min, is this a fucking slicktop????"
My 2004 is a slicktop, my 2012 128i 6spd was a slicktop, gotta keep it going.
2011 with 48k for $36k? Car is unmolested, original owner! Engine bay looks like owner took car of the car:
The interior was not what I was looking for tbh, perhaps that also played into the ease with which I obtained the car. I was open to leather that wasn't black, but I'm no fan of the wood trim. Easy fix, though.
Car seemed immaculate and well priced, almost too good to be true being only one owner, 48k, slicktop, not white/black/silver/grey. I had to go check it out. Ran a carfax, which only served to increase my excitement:
Confirmed original owner, socal original, bought and serviced at the same Southbay dealership, it even got the 1200 mile oil change, not to mention a slew of maintenance/inspections.
So I drove down with my buddy, and test drove the car. It still had pilot sport tires from 2013 lol. Female owned, always garaged, and it showed. A stack of original receipts that matched the carfax was provided as well. 2 keys, you know, the kind of purchase you want. Bought it for $35,400 after tax/title, and drove it home!
That VIP sticker means it got a hand wash/wax every time it visited the dealership!
Still not liking the wood lol
The bamboo novillo leather is really growing on me. I love the supple feel of this leather. The e9x seats are incredible. These have full heat/lumbar (like 4 lumbar adj lol).
I think I'm only going to swap out the trim. The bamboo really suits the jerez nicely. Very classy. No, not as cool as mtex on LSB, but sophisticated and luxurious, especially at this mileage/condition.
I know it's Jerez BLACK, but this color is amazing. Very similar to Carbon black, a favorite of mine, this paint is a little darker and more purple than CB in most lighting. Then, at times, it appears very blue, like this:
Here's the vin decoder information on options:
Seems like I not only lucked out on it being an original owner/slicktop, but it's an 2011.5, which is pretty important. I knew it had to be an LCI, either e60 or e90, but the 2011.5 also has more upgrades like the combox for ipod/usb. This is very, very important to me as I want to play high quality .WAV files for music (30 gigs or so, on a thumbdrive, no less). This Hifi (m3 base) stereo, with the combox, is perfect because it's the easiest and cheapest to upgrade. And because my CIC will put out 5 volt low level signal AND will play .wav files, I only have to upgrade the amplifier! Ya, and probably speakers too, knowing me.
More to come...
The market has also been on fire, as you all know, so I figured now was a fine time to sell. I also was starting to think it was a now or never situation with buying the only other BMW that I have real interest in, the e9x or e60 with f1 derived n/a v8 or v10 as their values are rapidly rising, but more laws/restrictions coming in.
Initially, I wanted to go big with the v10. My friend bought one around this time as well, but it has been problem after problem. I already own an E46 M3, so I'm no stranger to high running costs and "fixes," but this was going to be my daily car and a car I'd hopefully keep for years, so I shied away from the older and troublesome E60.
The only other car that would have a chance at making me as happy as an E46 does was the e9x with S65. I wanted 4 doors, dct, lower mileage this time around. My normal criteria of low options was still in play as I'm not a fan of much, even for a daily, but after 4 BMWs in black, silvergrey, tiag & steelgrey, I was ready for some color this time. Unfortunately, the e60/e9x generation's color pallet was very German, less colorful than e36/46 IMO. So me and my friends (who doesn't like looking at cars for sale
) started looking at listings, and it didn't take long to find something special.My friend sent me a link to a craigslist ad, in a city only about 1.5hrs away. The ad was not that well done, which probably helped me, but the price was great, given this climate, for the mileage and year.
It took me a while, but I zoomed in and asked my friend, "wait a min, is this a fucking slicktop????"
My 2004 is a slicktop, my 2012 128i 6spd was a slicktop, gotta keep it going.
2011 with 48k for $36k? Car is unmolested, original owner! Engine bay looks like owner took car of the car:
The interior was not what I was looking for tbh, perhaps that also played into the ease with which I obtained the car. I was open to leather that wasn't black, but I'm no fan of the wood trim. Easy fix, though.
Car seemed immaculate and well priced, almost too good to be true being only one owner, 48k, slicktop, not white/black/silver/grey. I had to go check it out. Ran a carfax, which only served to increase my excitement:
Confirmed original owner, socal original, bought and serviced at the same Southbay dealership, it even got the 1200 mile oil change, not to mention a slew of maintenance/inspections.
So I drove down with my buddy, and test drove the car. It still had pilot sport tires from 2013 lol. Female owned, always garaged, and it showed. A stack of original receipts that matched the carfax was provided as well. 2 keys, you know, the kind of purchase you want. Bought it for $35,400 after tax/title, and drove it home!
That VIP sticker means it got a hand wash/wax every time it visited the dealership!
Still not liking the wood lol
The bamboo novillo leather is really growing on me. I love the supple feel of this leather. The e9x seats are incredible. These have full heat/lumbar (like 4 lumbar adj lol).
I think I'm only going to swap out the trim. The bamboo really suits the jerez nicely. Very classy. No, not as cool as mtex on LSB, but sophisticated and luxurious, especially at this mileage/condition.
I know it's Jerez BLACK, but this color is amazing. Very similar to Carbon black, a favorite of mine, this paint is a little darker and more purple than CB in most lighting. Then, at times, it appears very blue, like this:
Here's the vin decoder information on options:
Seems like I not only lucked out on it being an original owner/slicktop, but it's an 2011.5, which is pretty important. I knew it had to be an LCI, either e60 or e90, but the 2011.5 also has more upgrades like the combox for ipod/usb. This is very, very important to me as I want to play high quality .WAV files for music (30 gigs or so, on a thumbdrive, no less). This Hifi (m3 base) stereo, with the combox, is perfect because it's the easiest and cheapest to upgrade. And because my CIC will put out 5 volt low level signal AND will play .wav files, I only have to upgrade the amplifier! Ya, and probably speakers too, knowing me.
More to come...
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