practicality of an m3

[armeN]

alright lemme talk numbers first. lets say car is about 10k. i have 6k and will get a loan for 4k. i can pay the loan off in a year or two. say about 150 a month for the loan. i can afford about $200 a month on maintance EVERY MONTH. so wats the practicality in this? something I can pull off? I mean I doubt the car is going to break down every month. give me some input. it will be a daily driver if anyone was going to ask. and the specific car im looking at seems to be very clean and well maintaned.

[KenC]

Why would you consider a car that you think you might have to dump $200 a month into every month?

[Werksmini]

He just has that much to spend a month. 400 here, 50 there. Not 200/mo.

[Rob]

ever hear of the $15k rule for E30 M3?


If you're limited to $200 a month, I dont think thats a good idea, especially with a $10k m3...

[blunttech]

i personally wouldnt consider a car i had to take a loan on in the first place. id buy a nice 318 or 325 and wait till youre older and your wife can afford more.
if youre thinking you my not be able to afford it you shouldnt be driving 1.
be patient and youll have your dream m3 when youre older and have more loot

[M20_powered]

m3 suck on the street. and they are far from practical....they're a damn race car sold to the public. didn't you read the 3 series comparo in GRM? buy a M20....or if you don't require torque, m42.

[Rob]

loan, for an e30, LOL

[armeN]

dont put it down because i can get it for 10k. bimmerfanatik can vouch it is sexy and seems very very clean. and i mean i doubt the car is going to break down every month... am i right?

[Jarvis]

dont put it down because i can get it for 10k. bimmerfanatik can vouch it is sexy and seems very very clean. and i mean i doubt the car is going to break down every month... am i right?

Your $200/month maintence budget would buy you one control arm. Then you could wait another month to buy the other one if you needed it. Or, you could have a qualified mechanic work on your expensive S14 motor for 2 hours... see what I'm getting at? Besides the general $15K rule, $200/month would not cut it. You could go 3 months spending nothing, then suddenly need $1000+ to have something properly fixed. It doesn't seem like buying an E30 M3 would be a financially smart decision on your part.

[Il Duce]

a 10k e30 m3 is a POS. it's wierd to think like that only because we're getting sexy ass e30s for less than 3.5k, but its true. its an ENTIRELY different car. in order to get an e30 m3, you need to abide by the 15k rule, and hell with the market value increasing every day, it might be somewhere near the 16k rule by now.

[Rob]

and i mean i doubt the car is going to break down every month... am i right?

ASS+U+ME (but not me really...)

[cramer]

a 10k e30 m3 is a POS.

I bought mine for 10.5k. Far from a POS in any stretch of the imagination ;)

You can find deals out there, however as mentioned several times already, 200 a month isn't going to cover much on an M3 when it does break. I'd suggest another car.

As for it being a daily driver, yeah people do it. I bought mine from a guy who daily drove it for a couple years and only sold it because he bought a white one to daily drive. The facts are the S14 is all high RPM, it sucks in stop and go traffic.. very uninspiring. Put it on a track and it's right at home.

[Digitalwave]

If you have to take out a $4,000 loan for a $10,000 M3, I don't think you will be able to afford to keep it running and nice.

[RCWells]

IIRC, Eric Giles bought his for about $10.5 as well. It too was far from a POS. Actually, it was a very nice example, very clean, and very well put together. I think for a daily driver it might not make a lot of sense, but for a weekender you couldn't go wrong.

[screamingbmwe30]

dont be a waffleswaffleswaffleswaffleswaffles . do it