I wonder what the story is with this Z4MC...

B

Bradders75

Senior member
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1386897.htm

I like to keep an eye on the prices of Z4Ms. Over the past couple of months, the above car has been sold and then 're-advertised' at least five times! It seems a bargain, wonder what the seller is hiding? :?
 
Can't find the thread now, but it was discussed on here before and it hadn't had the running-in service at 1200 miles, although they are now stating that it has. Pretty sure someone on here bought it then took it back.
 
Strange,found thread ok/and it seems a v good price. wonder whats wrong with it,or they just wanting rid of it after having it for sale 4 ages??
 
Wasn't this the one that was cat D but not declared by the seller? If it is this one, the dealerr did an HPI and it wasn't cat D but then when the new buyer did one after the sale, he found it was and took it back, there was also a problem with the mileage as it was advertised with 17K and is now 28K a few months later. There is also dispute over the service history.

The last I heard, they offered it to the original buyer for £18K which if the car is alright, sounds about right for a cat D with a dodgy history.
 
There should be a sticky thread with a list of all dodgy or non-recorded write-offs, to help unsuspecting new buyers.

There's probably someone driving about in a written off Z4M without realising
http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15270
 
I put a deposit down on that car yesterday. Does anyone here have any evidence that it has been in an accident? I hope not as I was really looking forward to owning this car.

The seller said it is up for sale as the person who recently bought it was just made redundant so couldn't afford to complete.
 
Be very wary of the 1200 mile service - what does this mean?
THE RUN IN SERVICE IS SHOWING ON BMW SYSTEM AS CARRIED OUT AT 12 MILES

Ring the BMW dealer with the number plate and ask them yourself.

If it's not had it, it needs to be very very cheap.

If I remember correctly it wasn't accident damage it was the service history and irregularities about the mileage.

Welcome Dastardly - we're a friendly bunch here and we'll help you with anything we can - but there's some really excellent Z4Ms for sale out there for not much more, be very careful.
 
dastardly, I have looked all over for the thread but can't find it now. Anyway, there was definitely something up with that car, I like Andy don't recall it being Cat D but definitely something about the running in service.

Have you seen the log book - how long since it was sold to that dealer? And how many owners?
 
I haven't seen the car as I am a 4 hour drive away, so I will be seeing it on Tuesday. I was going to go get it yesterday, but as it has no tax they have to wait until tomorrow at the earliest. It has 1 previous owner, according to the advert.

The dealer told me that it had an initial service at only 12 miles and then another at 1300.

Cheers for the help guys.
 
dastardly said:
I did a HPI check and it shows no recorded accident history.
Click to expand...

that may just mean it hasn't been written off, "normal" accident damage does tend to go on the HPI report
 
Dastardly, just in case you do want to renag on the deal, I think you would be covered by distant selling. Also you have in effect bought it on condition that it meets your expectations and that you are satisfied on seeing the car. So even though you have paid a deposit, if you're not happy when you see the car and discuss it more, you are entitled to a full refund of your deposit.
 
I always worry when a deal is too good to be true - it probably isn't....

A quick look on Parkers put a 2007 Coupe in the region of £23k to £24k for dealer and franchise respective, with 30k on the clock. This is listed at £20,500, so well below book.

With Sat Nav, xenons, 2 colour interior and 1 owner it's a good spec and in a good colour, then it rings alarm bells to me.

Check it real carefully!!!!
 
I can't find the reference to cat D now either so please don’t take this as evidence that it is. I may be confusing this with another car. The car I was thinking of had a K155 *** reg number. The number rings a bell because I thought it looked like Kiss!!

Having owned a cat D car before, I wouldn’t hesitate owning another one but the price has to be right. £20K on a car which should be £23-£24K is not cheap enough.

I appreciate the interior colour is going to make it less sought after but not make it a £20K car if everything else is legitimate.

We are not in 2008 now when Z4Ms were nearly down at 3.0Si prices.

All I would suggest is buyer beware.
 
Thanks all.

I spoke to BMW UK who said that the BMW service history shows 3 visits:

Cooper, Thames Ditton - Aug 08
Harry Fairburn, Irvine - Aug 09
Sytner, Sutton Coldfield - Jan 10

I spoke to Cooper and they said the car had its oil service with them at 12685 miles. No previous history is available until I can find out which dealer originally sold the car and double check the initial servicing.

Right now, it looks like the main issue is that the car had its running in service at 12 miles instead of 1200. I am planning on keeping the car for years and understand that it's a few grand below book, so don't mind too much about lower resale. How much of an issue is this running in service? Can serious damage follow if it takes place 1100+ miles too soon? I don't want to be driving round for a while in a timebomb.
 
EDIT - AS SOON AS I POSTED THIS I DASTARDLY POSTED A POST... :wink: SO FORGIVE ME FOR THE POST BELOW BUT AS I SAID ONLY LOOKING OUT FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE FORUM


Dastardly... and everyone else here for that matter... forgive me if i am wrong, and i truly hope i am wrong, but i find it strange that you only joined the site yesterday and you are now buying the car... (a Z4MC at that)

Something just doesn't sound right to me but as i said, i hope that i am wrong but at the same time i also hope that this is not an attempt by someone to try and cover up the car in any way in order to try move it on...

As i said, i hope i am wrong but at the same time i am sure you will appreciate that i am only looking out for the benefit of the members on this the forum. Something similar to this happened on another forum (S2000 forum) back when i had an S2000.
 
I'd question if it had its running in service at all tbh. It certainly wasn't carried out at a BMW dealer, else it would still have been logged on the system. I would ask where the salesman got the information that the running in service was carried out at 12 miles - i sincerely doubt any BMW dealer would have carried it out at that mileage, and it is *far* more likely that the original owner forgot/didnt bother to bring it in at 1200.

What this means in any case, is that the engine is unlikely to be unwarrantied. As such the price should reflect that. If the oil WAS changed, then the chances are that you'll be ok, as these are pretty bulletproof engines. If it wasn't however, then the engine will have run a thicker, non-performance oil for the first 12,000 miles of it's life, and there is also a danger of swarf build-up during the running-in process, that would have been present during that time and not flushed through at 1200 miles.

I have to say my gut feeling is that the oil change was not carried out at all. Certainly BMW UK's records show that, and as such they will not honour any warranty claims on the engine, despite what the salesman claims.
 
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