M market watch

[Jez_m]

How much do you want to pay for one..£7k....£5k...? You might be waiting a long time to find another one at such a low price.

I'm not waiting for a Z4M as such. Actually looking for an E92 M3.. but this caught my eye, purely because of the price compared to others. Only reason for considering it was to step in to something temporarily that i could potentially make a few quid on or not lose any whilst owning / enjoying it.

[Gazc]

Why does everyone on here say that cars are overpriced? On every other forum I have been on they get wound up about cars being underpriced and affecting the value of theirs. We should be talking the cars up not down.

[Gazc]

Just my thoughts is it people who are trying to buy pushing the price down. But the dealers seem to be pushing it up.

[Angelus666]

How much do you want to pay for one..£7k....£5k...? You might be waiting a long time to find another one at such a low price.

I'm not waiting for a Z4M as such. Actually looking for an E92 M3.. but this caught my eye, purely because of the price compared to others. Only reason for considering it was to step in to something temporarily that i could potentially make a few quid on or not lose any whilst owning / enjoying it.

Fair enough. I'd expect the Z4MR or MC to be the slightly safer investment bet than the E92 in the foreseeable future, as there is still a bit of a hit to take in those M3's. If you can stretch to £15k and a 60k mile one then your money might be in a safer place still.

[Dave1971]

Why does everyone on here say that cars are overpriced? On every other forum I have been on they get wound up about cars being underpriced and affecting the value of theirs. We should be talking the cars up not down.

Basically as prices have started to rise on these cars people are getting a slanted view of what the market price is. 5 years ago you could get a good low mileage, newish, well looked after car for £xxxx. Now you are looking at older cars with more mileage and maybe a service or two that are not to manufactures spec for the same money or maybe even more.

Now you can look at this two ways either all/most of the cars that are for sale now are overpriced and the sellers are having a lend or you could say that 5 years ago people didn't really understand what a cracking car the Z4M// was and they were an absolute bargain.

Either way the market is what it is and if you want a car right now you have to accept that you can't buy the standard of car you could for that price any more you either accept a "lower" standard or pay more money for the now much rarer "quality" examples.

[mr wilks]

This one has been up for a while on & off . http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... New&page=2

The seller must be wondering why his phone is silent
On paper this should be sold but can't help but think its those ACS alloys
Throw some CSL reps or 224s on a 61k Imola MC & surely £18000/£18500 is somewhat of a bargain

[gerryp]

This one has been up for a while on & off . http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... New&page=2

The seller must be wondering why his phone is silent
On paper this should be sold but can't help but think its those ACS alloys
Throw some CSL reps or 224s on a 61k Imola MC & surely £18000/£18500 is somewhat of a bargain

I agree it's the wheels.
They are definitely letting the car down.

[samj89]

I'm quite fussy and I don't think them wheels look that bad! Probably a slight improvement on the 224 imo

[derin100]

How far out was the run in service Tom?

About 300 miles or 25% Service intervals weren't brilliant either. If its a car that's been owned in a family from father to son and it was bought new and they cant even get the first service done properly it doesn't fill you with confidence.

The roof wear, the canvas is warn and the rear window is delaminating. The drivers seat bagginess is also suspect for the mileage. Lots of small journeys I suspect and not so well looked after for a "stunning example" which is why I would say it hasn't sold. Wish the dealers wouldn't BS all the time.

We need you to be our ///M 'mystery shopper' Tom - wonderful attention to detail

I must admit it was with some consternation whilst scrolling back through the pages of this thread yesterday that I stumbled upon this car being talked about and whilst no pictures from the link still exist I suddenly realised that the car in question must be the one that I bought a few weeks ago and the day before I bought the Alpina Roadster number 254.

Also, as the car is stored and I wasn't immediately able to check and have also never taken the hardtop off I was suddenly worried. You see, I bought both this car and Alpina 254 'unseen'. The owner of 254 (a forum member) kindly delivered the car to me and the dealer that I bought the Z4M from did the same.

So, it was with some trepidation that I got my wife to help me get the hardtop off just now.

So (thankfully!), just to put the record straight....

The soft-top is absolutely pristine! The is not a stain, scruff, snag, piece of stitching or fabric out of place! It almost looks like it has never been used! What might have been seen in photos was light reflecting in a funny way off the folds...I noticed that in the photos I viewed and I knew what it was. There is certainly no wear on this soft-top whatsoever.

Similarly, there is no screen delamination on either the soft-top rear screen or that of the hardtop. I think what you maybe saw was either dried water droplets (that's what it looks like on the photos that I saved). The windows have had a dark tinting film applied (not sure if it's even legal) and at one point on the driver's window a tiny bit is beginning to peel up. I'll probably be taking all of the tinting film off anyway.

The interior is virtually pristine. This is no slight to Alpina 254 (because it's previous owners have all looked after it very well) but it is in even better condition than '254' and the two car's mileages are very similar. All of the leather retains its original matt texture...including the steering wheel. A cliché I know, but the passenger seat truly looks like it has never been sat in. The car has covered 45K miles...I'm about 14st...I'm sure if I sat on a leather seat base for 45k there would be some degree of leather stretch. In no way is it excessive at all and I find it difficult to envisage a 45k mile interior being much better.

The Running-in service was done at 1490 miles. That's well within the "no questions to ask or answer" window of 700 - 1700 miles as far as BMW are concerned. There's just no issue there.

Being critical about the car:
Yes, it has never had an Insp 2. I don't have the book in front of me at the moment but I'm pretty sure it has had 5 services (not including the Running-in service) of which three have been Insp 1. The last two Insp 1s being only about 1100 miles apart. (The dealership I bought it from said they'd actually also just changed the plugs and coil-packs...I don't know for sure if that's true or why they would have changed the coil-packs unless there was a problem).

Finally, "Yes"...those wheels are not really to my taste either. You see, I'm a bit of a stickler for originality. To that end I had already bought a set off 224s from a forum member to go on it...actually before I even got the car! I'm going to have them refurbished and reshod. The wheels and tyres that came with are, as said, not to my taste but they literally have only the 170 miles on them that the dealer put on them in delivering the car and so are effectively brand new. I've looked at what these exact wheels and tyres (they're only a budget brand) cost from sellers on Ebay...it's a £799 package. I'll just put them up for sale and someone on M3Cutters will have them off me I'm sure.

So, all-in-all, I'm actually very relieved (and satisfied!). I looked quite hard at the market when I decided to buy and there was nothing with this spec and mileage around for this price. I haven't really bought it to drive very much; more as something better than seeing cash in a bank depreciate. To that end, low mileage was very important to me. As we know, come any re-sale that is one of, if not THE biggest factor in the market and high mileage is something that can't be undone or fixed...well, not legally anyway!

I haven't detailed the car yet (just no time at all at the moment) but once I have I'll get some photos of it up on my website.

[mr wilks]

I'm quite fussy and I don't think them wheels look that bad! Probably a slight improvement on the 224 imo

Really Beauty is in the eye of the beholder they say

[Zoomer]

I agree with Mr Wilks those wheels don't suit the car at all

[Zoomer]

I agree with Mr Wilks those wheels don't suit the car at all

[Z4M-2006]

About 300 miles or 25% Service intervals weren't brilliant either. If its a car that's been owned in a family from father to son and it was bought new and they cant even get the first service done properly it doesn't fill you with confidence.

The roof wear, the canvas is warn and the rear window is delaminating. The drivers seat bagginess is also suspect for the mileage. Lots of small journeys I suspect and not so well looked after for a "stunning example" which is why I would say it hasn't sold. Wish the dealers wouldn't BS all the time.

We need you to be our ///M 'mystery shopper' Tom - wonderful attention to detail

I must admit it was with some consternation whilst scrolling back through the pages of this thread yesterday that I stumbled upon this car being talked about and whilst no pictures from the link still exist I suddenly realised that the car in question must be the one that I bought a few weeks ago and the day before I bought the Alpina Roadster number 254.

Also, as the car is stored and I wasn't immediately able to check and have also never taken the hardtop off I was suddenly worried. You see, I bought both this car and Alpina 254 'unseen'. The owner of 254 (a forum member) kindly delivered the car to me and the dealer that I bought the Z4M from did the same.

So, it was with some trepidation that I got my wife to help me get the hardtop off just now.

So (thankfully!), just to put the record straight....

The soft-top is absolutely pristine! The is not a stain, scruff, snag, piece of stitching or fabric out of place! It almost looks like it has never been used! What might have been seen in photos was light reflecting in a funny way off the folds...I noticed that in the photos I viewed and I knew what it was. There is certainly no wear on this soft-top whatsoever.

Similarly, there is no screen delamination on either the soft-top rear screen or that of the hardtop. I think what you maybe saw was either dried water droplets (that's what it looks like on the photos that I saved). The windows have had a dark tinting film applied (not sure if it's even legal) and at one point on the driver's window a tiny bit is beginning to peel up. I'll probably be taking all of the tinting film off anyway.

The interior is virtually pristine. This is no slight to Alpina 254 (because it's previous owners have all looked after it very well) but it is in even better condition than '254' and the two car's mileages are very similar. All of the leather retains its original matt texture...including the steering wheel. A cliché I know, but the passenger seat truly looks like it has never been sat in. The car has covered 45K miles...I'm about 14st...I'm sure if I sat on a leather seat base for 45k there would be some degree of leather stretch. In no way is it excessive at all and I find it difficult to envisage a 45k mile interior being much better.

The Running-in service was done at 1490 miles. That's well within the "no questions to ask or answer" window of 700 - 1700 miles as far as BMW are concerned. There's just no issue there.

Being critical about the car:
Yes, it has never had an Insp 2. I don't have the book in front of me at the moment but I'm pretty sure it has had 5 services (not including the Running-in service) of which three have been Insp 1. The last two Insp 1s being only about 1100 miles apart. (The dealership I bought it from said they'd actually also just changed the plugs and coil-packs...I don't know for sure if that's true or why they would have changed the coil-packs unless there was a problem).

Finally, "Yes"...those wheels are not really to my taste either. You see, I'm a bit of a stickler for originality. To that end I had already bought a set off 224s from a forum member to go on it...actually before I even got the car! I'm going to have them refurbished and reshod. The wheels and tyres that came with are, as said, not to my taste but they literally have only the 170 miles on them that the dealer put on them in delivering the car and so are effectively brand new. I've looked at what these exact wheels and tyres (they're only a budget brand) cost from sellers on Ebay...it's a £799 package. I'll just put them up for sale and someone on M3Cutters will have them off me I'm sure.

So, all-in-all, I'm actually very relieved (and satisfied!). I looked quite hard at the market when I decided to buy and there was nothing with this spec and mileage around for this price. I haven't really bought it to drive very much; more as something better than seeing cash in a bank depreciate. To that end, low mileage was very important to me. As we know, come any re-sale that is one of, if not THE biggest factor in the market and high mileage is something that can't be undone or fixed...well, not legally anyway!

I haven't detailed the car yet (just no time at all at the moment) but once I have I'll get some photos of it up on my website.

I have seen some of the previous cars you have done Derin..

Looking forward to the Z4MC when finished...

[derin100]

Thanks!

I'm just so busy with other 'stuff' at the moment I don't have any time to devote to the cars. Both mine and my wife's daily cars are in a shameful state at the moment...

(It's a Z4MR)

[afennell]

If your worried about mileage when buying these cars, might be worth having a read of this.
https://www.pistonheads.com/features/ph ... e=20170406