7/17/08 DEPOSIT ACCEPTED - DEAL TO BE FINALIZED SATURDAY
Thanks, John6/26/08 Lowered the price to $9200.
7/7/08 Pre Purchase Inspection Done at Bavarian Specialties, King of Prussia, PA. See post below for results.
7/11/08 Posted on Ebay Ebay Link (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cars-Trucks___BMW-M3-Sedan-5-spd-manual-ALL-RECORDS-Inspection_W0QQitemZ190236402168QQddnZCarsQ20Q26Q2 0TrucksQQddiZ2282QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item190236402 168&_trksid=p3756.m14.l1318) Going into shop 7/16/08 to get the steering rack looked at and other stuff done!

Did a 4 page web site with lots of pics of the car + full info
www.garnetsecure.com/M3

http://www.garnetsecure.com/M3/images/drivfr34.jpg

http://www.garnetsecure.com/M3/images/drivside.jpg

http://www.garnetsecure.com/M3/images/Engine.jpg

http://www.garnetsecure.com/M3/images/frontintdrivside.jpg

http://www.garnetsecure.com/M3/images/controls.jpg

It has been very well maintained in my 7.5 years of ownership - I have all records and receipts! I am the second owner. Was a Certified Pre Owned car with 37k miles when I bought it Dec 2000 from the dealer. I did some BMWCCA driving school track days with it from 2001-2005 but have not had the time since 2005 when I my business started taking off. Car has been maintained at the high level required of a track car and also being my daily driver.

Cosmos exterior, I'd rate it 7/10, some stone chips, couple small dings, tiny bit of rust right near the license plate. Other rust on door bottoms was just fixed.

Black interior, lux package - I'd rate it 8/10 - no rips/tears, some of the wood trim has cracks in it. Driver seat bolster has been repaired and reinforced to keep in good shape

Mods/upgrades are:
ECIS Cold Air Intake,
Shark Injector/Chip upgrade,
Bilstein sport shock/struts,
staggered forged LTW wheels w/ 4 Toyo T1-S 235/40/17 tires,
Z3/E46 M3 rear shock mounts.

Car is up to date on maintenance, redid whole cooling system and belts at 110k, change tranny and diff fluids every 2 years with Redline now that I don't track it anymore and only drve it 5k miles/yr, synthetic oil + filter changes every 5k miles when driving daily, now every 6 months. Brand new Zimmerman rotors and low dust pads, Brake fluid changes yearly with ATE blue and yellow brake fluid. Steering was stiff and just had some lower bits replaced so it steers great again.

Has the non Harmon Kardon stereo, does have the 6 CD changer. Has the full 18 button OBC. I get an average of 21.6 mpg in mixed driving and get up to 28 mpg on the highway if I stay below 80 MPH. Over 80mph, I get about 26.5 mpg.

My car pulls very strong and shifts much better than every other E36 M3 or M coupe I have driven. My mechanic once said that it was the smoothest shifting M3 he ever drove.

I had an accident back in 2002, at about 62k miles, slid off the road into a ditch, and my body shop did a great job with repairs taking their time over 6 weeks to do it. Still all original panels and had everything but the roof repainted. I had my mechanic (Mike Yaskin at Bavarian Specialties in King of Prussia PA) check it out when I got it back since I was doing driving schools then, and he said they did a great job, did not cut any corners. All suspension parts were replaced with original BMW parts except for the Bilsteins.

Car now has some stone chips on the front fascia and hood and a couple small dings from parking lot idiots. It was my daily driver until I picked up the 530i a year ago.

Wife and I are BMW fanatics. We have had 2 Z3 M Coupes, another M3 Sedan, 2 E28 535i, a modified E21 323i Euro and it looks like I'll be driving my 02 530i Auto w/ Sport pkg, 61k miles. Getting old sucks!

John

jbdavid@yahoo.com
home office # 610-965-1990 - leave message if I don't pick up

I took some pics of the rust spots on the lower front doors and they were worse than I thought they'd be. So I am taking it in to the body shop to get fixed. Was some rust on the bottom of both doors and the passenger side door had 3 spots.

So, I'll post when I get it back and show pics.

Thanks, John

Got the car back from the body shop Friday night. They redid the door bottoms to get rid of the rust and repainted and redid the clear coat on the door bottom half below the trim line. Great job and rust is gone!

I'll post pics Sunday once the friggen rain stops.

God the car feels great! On the way back home hooked up with an Estoril Blue 4 Dr M3 on Rt 309 and we turned lots of heads - including a local cop who was trailing me. So I had to take it easy. The Blue M3 did not see him and kept working through traffic. Luckily the cop did not go after him.

Car is doing great. I am enjoying my time with it. Not beating it, just loving the drives. AC works great. Forgot to mention that it had been redone a couple years ago so it works great.

Thanks, John

Hey John, can you post those pics you mentioned of the rust before and after? Car looks nice.

Link to folder of before treatment pics. After pics coming.

http://www.garnetsecure.com/M3/images/b4

Thanks, John

So my body shop redid the bottom inside and out of both front doors and the rear passenger side door outside. The door bottoms are smooth as glass. In one pic, it looks lumpy and rough, but that is the reflection off the driveway.

Here are the pics - roughly 800x600 in size.

http://www.garnetsecure.com/M3/images/fixed

Thanks, John

beautiful m3, you really took great car of her. this will be sold very soon. bump!!

So weird, lots of emails and calls. Besides the Nigerian Scammers, One guy had $6000 CASH IN HAND to buy my car the very next day. Another guy is wiling to pay $8000 CASH.

I guess they'd have to pay cash since I don't take food stamps or credit cards.

Man selling cars really sucks. I guess it would be different if I just bought the car, tore it to shreds for 3 months and was trying to dump it.

John

Hi John,

I'm located in Macungie and am VERY interested. I will be calling you today

Did have a couple guys check out and test drive the car last weekend. Got feedback from them. Both agreed it has been well maintained and does drive very well. Found a small spot of rust near the bottom of the license plate holder on the trunk lid. I can have my body shop fix it quickly. My driver foglight and passenger side amber corner had stone hits and their replacements are on the way.

I am dropping the price to $9200 as these guys plus some car buddies did think it was still a bit too high priced.

It is on the original clutch. The clutch works great and since I did not beat the car - as evidenced by the clutch lasting so long and engine and tranny and diff working so well, I am not going to replace that before selling the M3. Other people have had theirs last a heck of a lot longer than 133k miles - well into the 200k range.

The big negative is that I have said it was in an accident. I don't think a buyer would want me to lie about it and pretend it never happened right? It was not totaled, does not have a rebuilt title. And I have the shop records for what has been done to the car. The accident was almost 6 years ago, Sept 2002, and 70k miles ago. I don't think there are any lingering problems to worry about.

So if you want a great car at a great price with all records, feel free to contact me.

Thanks, John

Adrian,

Please let me know if you are still interested in the car or what is going on. Others are interested and I am holding off on them because we were supposed to do the deal today. Not a good time to disappear.

John

I welcome any discussion here on this. I have 100% of the maintenance history of the car and with this PPI being done, there should be no surprises for any buyer.

So this 18 year old ute (see above post) test drives the car last week, loves it and schedules a PPI for Monday 7/7/08 at a local top of the line Indy shop, Bavarian Specialties, King of Prussia PA just outside Philly. I have gone there for years with all my BMWs and highly recommend it. Mike does not let a car leave his shop if anything is at risk. He treats the cars like his wife and kids will be driving them.

Monday morning, I take the car there, get the PPI done but no buyer who was supposed to meet me there. I leave messages but no reply. I apologize to Mike the owner, we go over the results and I leave. Normally I would not have gotten the results but since I was the only representative of the car there, and I will probably end up paying for it, Mike went over results with me.

So, here are the results of a very comprehensive PPI done by a top notch shop:

Problems that need to be addressed:
-Front Springs need to be replaced
-Steering Rack has a slight leak that needs to be looked at further
-Brake fluid needs to be changed
-Car needs a lube

Other Items noted:
-Surface rust on shocks/struts, rear shock mounts and front swaybar
-front tires are at the wearbars on the inside (car was alligned in June)
-Small engine leaks found at head gasket in back of motor and front bottom of motor near the pan
-Small rust spot on top of front passenger door sill - had been treated by my bodyshop in June
-Rust on bottom edge of trunk lid under license plate
-Small rust spot on rear pass. door bottom - I could not see that spot and my body shop was supposed to have fixed it in June so I will look again today.

Summary from Mechanic: Car is in great shape for its age and miles and has been well maintained (Most of my receipts are from there so they really know the car well). The top items need to be addressed, the other items are to be expected for a used car 11 years old with 133k miles on it and just need an eye kept on them.

One other interested party from BF here test drove the car this week after the PPI, so I went over the results with him. He loved it but was worried that it would require maintenance to keep it going. Um, it is an 11 year old car with miles on it and is priced accordingly. Of course it will need maintenance to keep it going. For no maintenance you buy a new Honda with an extended warranty. Just had to vent on that, very frustrating.

Like I said above, I welcome any comments. I have to decide whether to sell as is or get the top things fixed, bump the price up and sell. It may go on Ebay but I know that will expose me to even more screwballs, dreamers and scammers.

Thanks, John

Wow, so much detail and full disclosure - what more could someone ask for? This is one of the best For Sale ad's out there, from the pics to the web page you made (my favorite line "We do reserve the right to NOT let someone test drive the car if we are not comfortable with them.") If I were in the market for one of these it would be in my garage by now! Hang in there, John, right buyer should come along eventually. Nice car and g/l with sale.

One other interested party from BF here test drove the car this week after the PPI, so I went over the results with him. He loved it but was worried that it would require maintenance to keep it going. Um, it is an 11 year old car with miles on it and is priced accordingly. Of course it will need maintenance to keep it going. For no maintenance you buy a new Honda with an extended warranty. Just had to vent on that, very frustrating.

Like I said above, I welcome any comments. I have to decide whether to sell as is or get the top things fixed, bump the price up and sell. It may go on Ebay but I know that will expose me to even more screwballs, dreamers and scammers.

Thanks, John

hi all, that one would be me who test drove the car, and i understand John's frustration, i have no doubt in my mind that the car isnt well maintained, it runs great, and is really tight and just hugs the road superbly. BUMMP for A SUPERBLY WELL TAKEN CARE E36 M3 OUT THERE. And John is refering to my Honda Accord, when he says buy a honda if you dont need maintenance costs.

I agree BMW's and honda's are made differently and with a BMW you should expect normal maintenance costs, Johns car is really well maintained but at this point in my life i dont think i would be able to spend regular maintenance on this E36 M3, hence i decided not to go with it, and that is the reason why i still drive my 99 Accord EXV-6 with 134k miles which is up for sale as well...

newjersey.craigslist.org/car/741479250.html
m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=219536 and
bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=297020

LAST WORDS: i dont think anyone will go wrong with your car john, it is one of the best taken care e36 m3 for its age and mileage

Hi Aavi, thanks for the kind words. Like you said after the test drive, the Honda's are so easy on the maintenance, but the BMWs are so fun to drive.

Take care, John

Hi Aavi, thanks for the kind words. Like you said after the test drive, the Honda's are so easy on the maintenance, but the BMWs are so fun to drive.

Take care, John

john that drive was something i have never felt in any car honestly, while returning my wife goes like "when you were changing gears it was a huge RUSH kind of feeling going through me" it was fantastic, yours was the first e36 M3 i have driven which was a MANUAL/STICK and i enjoyed it, and hence i never want an M car with Automatic, i cant believe how smooth your m3 goes inspite of having 133k on the odo.

Great car, which deserves a great home and a passionate owner.

Stop being the nice guy and dropping the price. I've seen less go for more. Your listening to people that want something for nothing, and trust me, theres plenty of them.

I seen older M's with this mileage sell for 2K more. Stop selling yourself short. You have diclosed whats been done and what it may need. For $9500 or whatever your at now, its still worth it.

For the guy that is scared of the car cause he may not be able to afford maint. If you want something pristine that you wont have to touch, expand your budget M3 wise. Either way your gunna pay (weather you do it or the previous owner has it done)

Thanks for the posts guys, I do appreciate the input.

I am scheduled for next week to have the steering rack looked at and get the springs replaced and lube and brake fluid done.

I put new posts on Cragislist Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley and am debating putting the car on Ebay.

My E28 is selling next week. It will be so weird to not have an extra BMW around to drive. We've had at least 3 since 2000.

Thanks, John

bump for an honest guy

Ebay link is up top in the first post. This will be interesting.

Also found other records for the car so that will be updated. 2004/2005 were filed away with my business stuff and I finally found them.

Man I spent a lot on that car! But it was worth it.

John

free bump

Thanks for the Bump Aavi!

Car Update 7/17/08

Got it back from the shop with the new springs on, new brake fluid, new fog light (rock hit).

Oil leaks are absolutely minimal and my mechanic says nothing to worry about - normal for an M3 of this age.

Steering rack will need to be replaced sometime though. That is the only thing we know of that will need fixing.

Great car if you are interested.
Thanks, john

Sold to the man in WV!

Thanks, John