i am a newb when it comes down to cars. barely did any diy as far as maintenance goes but yeah, i usually provide mats and just pay for labor

 

clean used e46 m3 is the way to go, the e46 design is classic and is one of those designs that, even though there are new versions coming out, will last forever

 

yeah...i will see if i can get sweet deals locally for cayman s...MSRP came out to be 77grand...(i have pdf files of both invoice and msrp on my comp atm)
if not...i will have to seek help from porschec4

 

should be plenty of clean e46 m3's floating in the country. i would suggest you expand your search to include a larger territory. spend some time on e46fanatics and also on m3forum. both good sites for this car.

maintenance is cheap on these cars. well included in the first 4 years/50k miles. but the intervals are so far and few in between all ur probably gonna have to do with your driving habits is oil changes. as far as reliability, i think overall the car is very good.

 

i wish i can do that but i want it to be local since i cant really go all over the country to check out m3.
if local doesnt work, something else has to happen.
i am not too concerned about maintenance as i see more posts about it like yours, 04ImolaZHP
thanks for comments guys!

[edit]
one thing for sure though, if i get cayman s, i wont be modding! (too expensive!)

 

enilder, i guess i should have been more specific. i have bought two cars outside of chicago, one was in NY and the other was in LA. I have no regrets about either. for my m3 i had to have red seats and SMG. I was somewhat flexible on external color and some of the other options. but as you can imagine, just those two constraints limited my choice pool greatly.

at any rate, both of the cars i purchased out of town came from forum members. the m5 i picked up from NY actually was sold to another board member so that car came from the dealer, was sold on the m5board, and then sold again on the m5board. and the added benefit is the car had all of its history on the board. cuz the first owner talked about problems he had and so did i. when the third owner picked up the car he had a nice track record of everything that was done on the vehicle not only from the dealer but also from the posts...

anyways, what i am trying to say is that if i were you i would watch closely adds in the sites i provided and see who is selling what. you would be surprised on how good of a deal on how good of a car you can get from a fellow board member. and picking up a car in another city is not that complicated. as long as you trust the person selling you the car, you should not walk into a surprise.

for my LA purchase i had the car inspected at an independent shop recommended by a friend. the process really isnt any different than buying a car locally. just make sure that in your final price you leave room for whatever that transportation cost will be.

good luck to you.

 

well as long as the person has some reputation through the forum, i dont see many problems but for a person like me who had no experience with a used car whatsoever, it's pretty hard for me to stab at it.

probably during thanksgiving week, i will go to local porsche dealer (HBL in VA) and check out things.
I will let you know

btw, if i happen to buy m3, it has to have zcp and 6 speed (need to "learn" manual now!) but i want prety much everything loaded. (makes it really tough :/)

 

youre in luck...look what i have for you

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=180170267095

 

wow i want it! thats the car i want thought it's now AW exterior
i am not ready yet though!!!
price seems to be ok considering it has 8500 miles (41grand bid)
probably negotiable too...!
oh man oh man oh MAN!!!

already has 7 bids...:/

 

man if you can get that car at anything less than $45 you would be getting a steal! and i like the color combo

 

yea, the color combos almost as good as mine

 

on a side note...zcp is IMO worthless...suspension, youre gonna go aftermarket anyway, wheels, youre gonna go aftermarket, steering wheel loses functions not good, the only this is really for the slightly tighter steering rack and if you dont track its worthless almost too. and the rotors which are decent too but the cross drilled rotors will hairline crack if you track them.
just my $.02

 

makes sense but i just wanted most OEMs possible
I think suede accents are sweet
premium,competition,cold weather are only packages that were available for m3 right?
I remember configuring one that was loaded and came out to be around 64grand
People say that SMG and ZCP(?) will make a huge dif when you sell it but i am not too worried about it right now (I don't think I will ever sell it!!!)

 

yea those were the 3 packages...i read and article a while ago about how nav gets you back minimal amount in resale. think about all the people who load up 911 turbo coupes to around 150-160K...they get nothing back in that value for the most part. im sure the people who are saying smg and zcp will help in resale are the ones who have it too.

the suede is sweet, but eventually, (and sooner if youre not careful) its going to ball up and look like ****...ive seen some pretty bad looking alcantara, its not pretty.

find the car that suites you best and buy it.

for me it was having the color combo i wanted, which happens to be one of the rarest out there, and then the list of options were pretty easy considering most m3s have very similar options list.

 

aftermarket suspension/rims are quite expensive compare to 4grand package so i thought i should look for one with zcp but i guess not
i will see how cayman S go...i guess i have to testdrive in tip since i cant drive stick
i dont take passenger so i dont really care for back seats nor space.

here's how i configured cayman s.
very loaded and i even had to drop turbo wheels to minimize the MSRP.
some of options aren't sure of. (such as aluminum grill on sides and front bumper, etc.)

another question, is it worth buying a loaded car "if" i am going to sell in 3~4 years?
from my understanding, you dont really get anything out of options when you sell the car so the actual mileage/year/condition matters NOT options.

what would you do if you are in my situation?
1. get options like you wanted to
2. minimize options as much as possible since you will take the hit when you sell the car

i know that it's very personal but i am just curious

also, am i missing any "must get" options?
thanks all!