M market watch

[Fishy Dave]

Never going to live the running in service down Ah well.

Good of you to laugh about it Tom

[Beedub]

early running in service.... = worse than genital warts AVOID!!!!!!! AVOID !!!!!!!!

[srhutch]

Well specced & imola red leather (though drivers seat has had a hard life) 36k TI silver Mroady at £17450 , got to love the dealer waffle on it
" fastidious last owner who even polished exhaust tips" then runs it on "Gallopro" rear tyres
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2006-BMW-Z4M- ... Swn7JYC0Ks

Looks like had front bumper respray. Maybe wrong, but colour looks way off.

[mr wilks]

Never going to live the running in service down Ah well.

Good of you to laugh about it Tom

it wasn't a dig at you Tom but i guess your head is well above the parapet for being shot at RE the running in service

[tomscott]

I was totally wrong about the mineral oil and generally thought that was true from the hundreds of threads here, m3 cutters and bmwforum and tbh that one thread has put to bed a long believed part of M servicing.

On the other hand I have my opinions like anyone else and stand by my original premise. I also don't think it's a great idea people are advocating late service history is ok especially if a new member is reading up on buying a car. It's fine until something bad happens. Ok it's rare but let's be fair it's not like it hasn't happened it's much more frequent than when I first joined.

If you had no part in when it was serviced because of a previous owner and it has poor history why take the risk? If me and many other members looked at the history and saw alarm bells why wouldn't anyone else when it comes to selling. The same 26 cars have been for sale on AT because of poor history.

People can rip the piss and scream at me until they are blue in the face and if that's a risk they are willing to take then fine. The response Dave got from BMW sums it up for me. After all the car in question that started the thread was pretty close to bmws late mileage parameters at 1550 miles. I also don't think the barrage and forum humiliation was called for, many of which were members with less than 500 posts but hey ho not the first time, won't be the last.

The new generation of members has made the forum a different place than it once was. I still enjoy reading and posting but many threads turn into

[Beedub]

Tom i didnt realise you took it all so to heart tbh so i wont make any more piss taking comments I'm just having a laugh..

on a genuine level how to you feel about early running in services... hell i think i did mine at like 850 miles! lol.

[tomscott]

I wasn't referring to you beedub! Not that soft but the other thread.

I think it's one of those things, I would always say early is better than being late. I think my service 2 was done about 8-10k early but overservice is better than under service plus your car is well over serviced. It wouldn't worry me at all. It's cars that have missed services or are well over due. From being on the hunt for a good year now many seem to go 4+ years between services.

If you buy the cars I don't think it's hard to have it serviced on time.

[original guvnor]

Tom your main point is absolutely spot on. There are a lot of cars that in most respects are probably well cared for (presented nicely, good bodywork, premium make tyres etc) but simply have not been serviced properly. I'm amazed how many aren't.

It's quite simple - it needs a service and brake fluid change every two years minimum regardless of how little the mileage is. No ifs or buts. A month or two late isn't an issue but anything more than 3 months late I think is. If maintaining a healthy value for your car is high on your list of priorities you MUST stick to that. Servicing yourself doesn't count either because if I was a buyer I have no idea a) how mechanically competent (or not) you are and b) if you've done things correctly and done every item in the service schedule. A commercial organisation is legally liable if it is proved they haven't carried out work they have been paid to do, a private individual isn't. If you don't care about the value of the car because you are long term owner that's fine but if you want to move the car on at some point you will have to accept that incomplete or self-service history will seriously damage the value of your car and will restrict the potential number of buyers.

[mr wilks]

It's quite simple - it needs a service and brake fluid change every two years minimum regardless of how little the mileage is. No ifs or buts. A month or two late isn't an issue but anything more than 3 months late I think is. If maintaining a healthy value for your car is high on your list of priorities you MUST stick to that. Servicing yourself doesn't count either because if I was a buyer I have no idea a) how mechanically competent (or not) you are and b) if you've done things correctly and done every item in the service schedule. .

My thoughts too & not trying to split hairs here but any buyer has to apply a degree of common sense in their search
There has to be some flexibility on the late servicing as with my current M car , , it was due a brake fluid change last October , i bought it in November lowloaded home into my garage & hasn't moved since .
First week in April it will be otr & in for Ins1 with the brake fluid which down the line may appear to be 6 months late Now if you were enquiring about a car initially & this info came to light would the car be worth any less or be seen as having a bad service record ?

[tomscott]

It's quite simple - it needs a service and brake fluid change every two years minimum regardless of how little the mileage is. No ifs or buts. A month or two late isn't an issue but anything more than 3 months late I think is. If maintaining a healthy value for your car is high on your list of priorities you MUST stick to that. Servicing yourself doesn't count either because if I was a buyer I have no idea a) how mechanically competent (or not) you are and b) if you've done things correctly and done every item in the service schedule. .

My thoughts too & not trying to split hairs here but any buyer has to apply a degree of common sense in their search
There has to be some flexibility on the late servicing as with my current M car , , it was due a brake fluid change last October , i bought it in November lowloaded home into my garage & hasn't moved since .
First week in April it will be otr & in for Ins1 with the brake fluid which down the line may appear to be 6 months late Now if you were enquiring about a car initially & this info came to light would the car be worth any less or be seen as having a bad service record ?

Completely agree with OG and that is my basic premise.

Obviously you have to take service history for what it is but the service history wont mention the car hasn't moved, to a buyer the car may have still been used every day for a 1-2 mile commute. Who knows? Brake fluid is a little different its not really going to effect the components as such unlike old oil running through the engine. I think engine oil every 2 years is a must and really brake fluid should be done at the same time so shouldn't be late really but inspections are generally done at different mileages. As long as they fit roughly into the 25/30k 50/55k 75/80k and fit the 2 year intervals. My inspection 2 was done at 46k simply because the car needed its 2 year service so it was done a few thousand miles early.

It may be fair to say that these cars are getting old and SH is probably more ropey than when they were newer. But imo the older the car get it needs just as much attention as it did when it was new. Its a catch 22 if the car wasn't serviced properly early on and components wear faster is a slippery slope from there and gets worse as it gets older and really probably needs more attention as they get older to keep them in good shape.

Lets be fair its not an episode of chasing classic cars they aren't worth a million and an engine rebuild for the sake of more money the next owner and keeping the car on the road is out of the question. But the cars being 20k if it needed a rebuild or new engine your talking at least half that for the components. It doesn't make them economically viable and I wouldnt want to be in that position (again). I think because it has happened to me it makes me much more weary than someone it hasn't happened to.

They seem great value at 10-13k at the low end of the market but like above if something did happen the car would be an economical write off and would have to be heart over head to simply keep the car on the road.

[pvr]

Odd thing with the brake fluid change is that on new cars (including my X5 and Audi), the first change is at 3 years for some reason. Then it is every 2 years afterwards.

How can it be ok for the fluid to be in the new car for 3 years and afterwards only for 2 ...?

[99ron]

Going back to those Gallopro tyres, as they are new then probably fitted by the idiot dealer? On a poverty spec hatch a set of new tyres is probably a great selling point, even if they are black circle specials or similar, but on these cars not. I'd rather see a worn set of premiums on there. Any one buying that car is surely pricing in another set of tyres (proper ones) anyway. Fair enough the previous owner didn't replace them if he's trading in.

[Gustavo7]

Odd thing with the brake fluid change is that on new cars (including my X5 and Audi), the first change is at 3 years for some reason. Then it is every 2 years afterwards.

How can it be ok for the fluid to be in the new car for 3 years and afterwards only for 2 ...?

Because of their 3 year Service inclusive package maybe? That way the cars will have had a fresh brake fluid change and the costumer will not be "upset" or bothered to return just 12 months later to pay for a brake fluid change, even if the car was not driven as the brake fluid is time-based maintenance. I can see a lot of people asking them "why haven't you changed the brake fluid last year under my service package?"

[tomscott]

Going back to those Gallopro tyres, as they are new then probably fitted by the idiot dealer? On a poverty spec hatch a set of new tyres is probably a great selling point, even if they are black circle specials or similar, but on these cars not. I'd rather see a worn set of premiums on there. Any one buying that car is surely pricing in another set of tyres (proper ones) anyway. Fair enough the previous owner didn't replace them if he's trading in.

But that's it you cant buy them anywhere! The M is also quite a specific spec and there aren't crazy amounts of options.

In my first email I said "I see that it has Gallopro tyres on the car, I assume now its been prepped that suitable tyres have been fitted"

Probably why I didn't get a reply.

If your going to sell these cars and he seems to stock a lot of Z4Ms then you expect a certain standard.

[Buckz]

it's because people are complete monkeys when it comes to tyres a lot think -;

tyre = rubber

cheap or expensive whats the difference ?

I always get put off by budget tyres on a premium/sports car just makes me wonder what else has the owner been cheaping out on..