Obioban's 2004 JR/Black M3 Wagon

[CSLManual]

Yes I discovered this too, I can fit a baby seat directly behind me in the CSL but can’t do the same in an E91! The leg room behind buckets is excellent.

Well anyway great work. I understand the choices now and it’s cool having something with so much potential in such an unassuming body.

[Obioban]

Yes I discovered this too, I can fit a baby seat directly behind me in the CSL but can’t do the same in an E91! The leg room behind buckets is excellent.

Well anyway great work. I understand the choices now and it’s cool having something with so much potential in such an unassuming body.

Once the kid is old enough for a forward facing seat, they take up a lot less space.

But, yeah... currently there's more back seat legroom in my M3 coupe than the M5, thanks to the Nogaros. But, the kids not allowed in it, yet

[0-60motorsports]

Yes I discovered this too, I can fit a baby seat directly behind me in the CSL but can’t do the same in an E91! The leg room behind buckets is excellent.

Well anyway great work. I understand the choices now and it’s cool having something with so much potential in such an unassuming body.

Thats good to know. Thanks.

[Obioban]

Installed an induktiv Qi charger in place of the stock cup holders in this car, as I have a 250 mile drive in it tomorrow and it'll make the Wireless CarPlay all the more pleasant.

So far, at least in night time, the finish is close enough that I don't think I'm going to be compelled to have it redone. We'll see how I feel when the sun shines on it...

Without the spacer, it's perfectly sized for a Max sized iPhone with case :P

... it was really nice to do a "normal" car project, where I'm not fabbing/creating wiring harnesses/precisely metering, etc. Been a while since I had any... low hanging fruit easy installs :P

[0-60motorsports]

Installed an induktiv Qi charger in place of the stock cup holders in this car, as I have a 250 mile drive in it tomorrow and it'll make the Wireless CarPlay all the more pleasant.

So far, at least in night time, the finish is close enough that I don't think I'm going to be compelled to have it redone. We'll see how I feel when the sun shines on it...

Without the spacer, it's perfectly sized for a Max sized iPhone with case :P

... it was really nice to do a "normal" car project, where I'm not fabbing/creating wiring harnesses/precisely metering, etc. Been a while since I had any... low hanging fruit easy installs :P

Looks great, looking forward to mine arriving.

[Rudbari]

Installed an induktiv Qi charger in place of the stock cup holders in this car, as I have a 250 mile drive in it tomorrow and it'll make the Wireless CarPlay all the more pleasant.

So far, at least in night time, the finish is close enough that I don't think I'm going to be compelled to have it redone. We'll see how I feel when the sun shines on it...

Without the spacer, it's perfectly sized for a Max sized iPhone with case :P

... it was really nice to do a "normal" car project, where I'm not fabbing/creating wiring harnesses/precisely metering, etc. Been a while since I had any... low hanging fruit easy installs :P

cool install and easy one

[Obioban]

Pondering selling this car 🤔

[oceansize]

I doubt you will have a lack of interest. Have something else on your mind or just downsizing?

[Obioban]

I doubt you will have a lack of interest. Have something else on your mind or just downsizing?

Well, my thought process is something along the lines of...
-I think we're down to around a decade of gas cars being viable DDs. Before the world agrees with me and gas cars lose value, I want to sell the M3 wagon and the M5.
-Right now, car values are up, up, UP. I don't believe they're going to stay there long term. So, if we're ever going to sell, now is the moment they're pull in the most money.
-we're currently building a house in the country and will be adding a pickup truck the fleet. With a pickup truck in the fleet when we need to move big stuff, the extra practicality of the wagon isn't that beneficial.
-if we're selling one of the gas cars, the M3 wagon driving experience is more redundant to the M3 than the M5 driving experience is. It's nice to have a variety of experiences on offer, IMO.
-M5 is a rebuild title, and has been whacked a couple times (rear ended). It's probably not worth much, despite actually being in great shape. Great shape makes it easy to justify keeping, low value makes it hard to justify selling.
-my daughter is almost of the age where she can buckle her own seatbelt, at which point we can start using the M3 as a family car. Even before then, I could (would rather not) stick a stock seat in on the passenger side to ease child seat loading.
-the i3 ends up seeing 99% of the family car use anyway, because you can't drive that dynamically with a small child/dog/wife on board, and the i3 is SO much cheaper per mile... and paying for gas feels like a huge rip off when you're used to paying pennies per mile, such that if you're not driving dynamically it's really hard to get inspired to drive a gas car.
-while we're building our house we'll be living in an apartment. I'm renting garage spots for the M3 and M5 during that, but the wagon would probably end up living outside... which makes me sad.

I feel like it would do reasonably well on BAT. Big 3 have been locked down, it's very much OEM+ modded, it was a CA car for most of it's life, etc.

[oceansize]

-Right now, car values are up, up, UP. I don't believe they're going to stay there long term. So, if we're ever going to sell, now is the moment they're pull in the most money.

Agreed. I was just in many of the new car lots where I live and the demand coupled with supply chain problems has left dealerships, in some cases, with 7 to 10 new cars on their lots. People are spending stupid money, money I don't think they have on what I consider plain ol' cars. Every "cool" car left on a lot has an MSRP +5k (or more) price. I think in a years time there will be a glut of cars on the market as people absorb and understand the real cost of those ridiculously high monthly payments.

Not sure I agree on the timeframe of gas and DD cars but even if it is 15 to 20 years I suppose it doesn't really matter. Doomed, and rightly so, either way.

[Sharocks]

Well, my thought process is something along the lines of...
-I think we're down to around a decade of gas cars being viable DDs. Before the world agrees with me and gas cars lose value, I want to sell the M3 wagon and the M5.
-Right now, car values are up, up, UP. I don't believe they're going to stay there long term. So, if we're ever going to sell, now is the moment they're pull in the most money.
-we're currently building a house in the country and will be adding a pickup truck the fleet. With a pickup truck in the fleet when we need to move big stuff, the extra practicality of the wagon isn't that beneficial.
-if we're selling one of the gas cars, the M3 wagon driving experience is more redundant to the M3 than the M5 driving experience is. It's nice to have a variety of experiences on offer, IMO.
-M5 is a rebuild title, and has been whacked a couple times (rear ended). It's probably not worth much, despite actually being in great shape. Great shape makes it easy to justify keeping, low value makes it hard to justify selling.
-my daughter is almost of the age where she can buckle her own seatbelt, at which point we can start using the M3 as a family car. Even before then, I could (would rather not) stick a stock seat in on the passenger side to ease child seat loading.
-the i3 ends up seeing 99% of the family car use anyway, because you can't drive that dynamically with a small child/dog/wife on board, and the i3 is SO much cheaper per mile... and paying for gas feels like a huge rip off when you're used to paying pennies per mile, such that if you're not driving dynamically it's really hard to get inspired to drive a gas car.
-while we're building our house we'll be living in an apartment. I'm renting garage spots for the M3 and M5 during that, but the wagon would probably end up living outside... which makes me sad.

I feel like it would do reasonably well on BAT. Big 3 have been locked down, it's very much OEM+ modded, it was a CA car for most of it's life, etc.

I think these old M cars will become classics. That being said, I know prices for them are inflated to the nth degree right now.

If you wanted top dollar, now is the time.

Your timeline on EV's taking over is a bit quick, I would say we have at least 15 years before anything is "forced".

Although I worked for BMW in Marketing for years, the i3 was the one car I hate/loved. Loved the way it drove, hated the way it looked.

Your plans on why you're selling make sense to me however, and as nice as the M5 is, remember it's a dream car for a lot of people so it will sell FAST.

I do believe that the E46 M3/E39 M5 combo is peak old BMW stable goals however. They compliment each other very well.

[Obioban]

I think these old M cars will become classics. That being said, I know prices for them are inflated to the nth degree right now.

If you wanted top dollar, now is the time.

Your timeline on EV's taking over is a bit quick, I would say we have at least 15 years before anything is "forced".

Although I worked for BMW in Marketing for years, the i3 was the one car I hate/loved. Loved the way it drove, hated the way it looked.

Your plans on why you're selling make sense to me however, and as nice as the M5 is, remember it's a dream car for a lot of people so it will sell FAST.

I do believe that the E46 M3/E39 M5 combo is peak old BMW stable goals however. They compliment each other very well.

The i3 is super ugly, there's no doubt.

I don't think the M5 would get much. I bought it as a salvage title, fixed it and had it retitled as "reconstructed", and got whacked a couple times sense (every time the car was not in motion-- people just keep hitting it for some reason). It's also at ~200,000 miles.

On the flip side, for me, every bushings is new, all the maintenance is up to date, all the paint is fresh, and, as you say, it's a great compliment to the M3-- so it makes a ton of sense to keep/drive.

I don't think the EV move will be forced. I think people will choose to move to EVs, as they get cheaper, because they're WAY better for what people actually want from a car. Right now there's a ton of fear of the unknown about them (e.g. misguided concerns about range, because they don't really consider the implications of starting every day with 100% battery), but as people get comfortable with them I think adoption will be FAST. As EVs adoption goes up, there will be less demand for gas stations. As gas station demand decreases, the quantity of gas stations will decrease... making driving ICEVs more inconvenient, further accelerating EV adoption.

The underlying issue issue is that EVs are just... better as transportation. Going to a gas station feels like an inconvenience and rip off to me every time I go now, now that it's not "normal". Not having to do maintenance is great. The quietness is really nice 98% of the time. The reliability from the lack of moving parts is great. Once consumer priced EVs exist and people realize how much better they are for what they actually do, I think it'll happen FAST.

All of the above said, the reason we're moving out to the country is almost entirely because I want to get back to having daily dynamic drives-- the kind of drives were EVs are not better. Where we're moving has is isolated enough that there is no local police department (no local speeding tickets), and all the roads are low traffic and very twisty. It's going to make spending money on gas much easier to justify

[Obioban]

Picked up an oven 200 miles away. It fit... just.

[Sharocks]

Did you put the kid seat in the oven?

New meaning to buns in the oven haha

[Obioban]

Did you put the kid seat in the oven?

New meaning to buns in the oven haha

Nah, just stuck it in front of the oven after taking the picture. The oven only came about as far forward as the back seat rest normally is.

... we didn't have the kid with us.