I tested a new M3 (SMG and everything fully loaded) today and I asked if I could take it on the highway. The sales person was very nice and decided, "Sure why not." I merge on to the highway and out of the corner of my eye, I see this beautiful metallic blue Ferrari 360. I had never heard such a loud car before. It didn't look like he had anything (performance wise) done just some new rims. I speed up to take a better look of the car. (Mind you, the salesman is with me still) As he slows down, he nods to me, and revs his engine to a higher RMP. Now, I'm no fool to pass this opportunity up; I rev my engine right back at him. Pushing 90+ MPH we were neck and neck, he was in the right lane and I was in the left. I don't know what was in that car, but as soon as we cleared from the other cars, he almost ripped my doors off. It was as if a lion was right next to me roaring. (Stupid analogy, but hey... that’s what it sounded like) He gets off at the next exit, which is where I need to go, back to the dealership. So I followed him. And you wouldn't guess were he was going. Right to the BMW dealership, I'm assuming it was one of the "Executive Personnel" their. He was wearing a suit and tie. Sitting next to me still, the salesman; he laughs and says, "That’s my boss." My jaw hit the floor. I went over to talk to "Mr. Executive" and he asked me, "How was the test drive?" with a laugh. I told him it was my best one yet.

now thats funny. lol

was it a brand new M3?
just wondering b/c I woudl think it would be a little harder to push/race the car if the engine is yet to be broken in...but sounds like alot of fun!

how do you rev the engine while the car is not in neutral with SMG, i suppose you reved it while moving on the highway.

hah thats awesome! i've never met a beast like that on the road before but thats a good description!

Yes, brand new, only 3 miles to start with and finished with 9. M3 out the box is quite a mean machine, but it was a baby compared to the 360. It still needs more miles before its really opened up.

e30m3_78rus: Yes, that’s what I meant when I said that. Just a quick tap on the gas, so he knows I'm ready.

You raced a car that had 3 miles on it, niiiice.

More like "testing" :P

thats so cool!!

Hell yah I think i might stop by this dealership.:devillook

That was one cool sales guy... test drive of a lifetime right there.

Originally posted by b0rf
You raced a car that had 3 miles on it, niiiice.
I feel bad for the person who buy this car.

Originally posted by Ridgeway
was it a brand new M3?
just wondering b/c I woudl think it would be a little harder to push/race the car if the engine is yet to be broken in...but sounds like alot of fun!

It wouldn't be any harder to push/race a brand new engine than it would to do the same exact thing in a fully broken-in example. It definitely isn't a good idea to push a new engine to it's limits with only 3 miles on the odometer though, especially in one as "fragile" as the S54. j/k

But then again, a few fairly hard and brief acceleration runs at or near highway speeds is generally accepted to help seal the rings against the cylinder walls, but you would definitely want to avoid full throttle runs from a dead stop. :nono

Originally posted by 99M3
I feel bad for the person who buy this car.

What he/she doesn't know won't hurt them.:D And, unless you know for a fact that you were the first person to ever really drive your car, its a good possiblility that the same thing happened to your car also, unless you bought the car new and special ordered it without it ever having to sit on the dealer's lot waiting for potential test-driver's to wring it out.

feel bad for the person who buys that car but if im ever in clevland, that dealership will be my 1st stop. Props to you man-nice story

the next person who buy that M3 should not have to worry at all, he's backed by bumper-to-bumper warranty by BMW NA

I think I know the Blue you refer to, I saw a 360 on I-295 North last week, a deep rich metallic blue, absolutely gorgeous color... :aroused

I think the Salesperson was more irresponsible for allowing this. Worse, his Boss didn't even seem to care. Had I been the Salesman, I would have told you to pull over immediately.

On another forum, there was this other guy who got a similar test drive in an M5. Only he clearly abused the car. Imagine spending over $70,000 for car with an engine that may be compromised. :mad:

I often see people out on the highway "test driving" cars at 90+ speeds. It's the definition of selfishness and irresponsibility. Then you see the dealer employees who shuttle cars from one dealer to the next, driving the sh*t out these brand new cars. Sometimes I'm tempted to follow them, and report them.

Dave, didn't you «test» similarly (coughcough) a brand new Camaro a few years back? :devillook:

Get over it, the car was fine. As long as it was warmed up, there is no problem with pushing it a little. What is the point of buying a car if you don't know what it can do before you buy it? You have to see if you like the power yourself.

I have serious doubts about even breaking in a car. All of my past cars were driven hard from day one and I got well over 150,000 miles out of them before selling to move on.

If it was built correctly and the engine is warmed up, then go ahead and have fun.

Originally posted by Hugo
Dave, didn't you «test» similarly (coughcough) a brand new Camaro a few years back? :devillook:

It's ok, you can say what really happened, I beat the living hell out of it... :devillook

YOU WIN BEST TEST DRIVE EVER!

My best test-drive story:
I tested a used 98 M3 @ Reeves in Tampa. The sales guy drove off the lot, around the corner, then stopped. He looked at me all crazy-eyed and said "check this out", then loaded up the engine and dumped the clutch @ 6k fishtailing all over the road. He didn't let up either, rode it out through half of second gear! Later on the guy gave me a hard time about letting up but the shift knob was falling off the whole time at night in a construction zone and I got nervous! Now that's irresponsible.

I have serious doubts about the "break in period" as well. Think about it, the marvelously engineered and built high performance engine is loaded with ultra slippery synthetic oil but it quickly "wears in", then like magic stops at xxx miles? Could it be possible that a company with engineering & production prowess like BMW would ship incomplete engines and leave it up to ignorant consumers to finish them? I think that would have serious quality control implications. Engineers as a rule way overbuild everything to compensate for misuse/abuse/unknown. Anecdotally, I thought race cars don't even run their engines 1000 miles between rebuilds so this break-in issue must have been overcome.

Does anyone know of any car damaged by working it hard when it's new? Many E46 M3s were blowing up when they first came out but that was manufacturing defect.

I wasn't bashing the engine to a pulp. We warmed up the car before we went on the highway, that’s just common sense. As for the car they might use it as a demo, if all else fails they can lower the price and sell the car. I'm sure no one is going to care for the 6 extra miles on the car is going to matter. I know I wouldn't. And if it still didn't sell, I would have a sign that said, "Raced a Ferrari!"
People would start pouring right in. ;)

I think the break-in period is as absurd as changing synthetic oil every 3k miles. I change my oil when the car tells me to because I don't think that I know more than the people who designed and built my car. It's got 100k and uses less than a quart of oil between changes (7-10k miles). Consumer Reports came to the same conclusion about oil change intervals after MILLIONS of miles of testing in New York taxis. So I saved 1k in oil change materials alone. That's half a ring job so I doubt oil change fanatics are going to net a gain. Even if fanatic's rings last 200k AND they actually own it that long they won't come out ahead. If I own the car when I need a ring job I'll be dropping compression & boosting that biatch! Now if you're making double the horsepower then that's totally different.

Warm it up, drive it hard, stop worrying. It's going to break, so be ready to fix it. Conspiracy theories will make your life difficult, even if they're right. Anybody else know about GRAVY? Do you want the red pill or the blue pill?

I love to mix it up! :evil2

Originally posted by Atanasovski
And if it still didn't sell, I would have a sign that said, "Raced a Ferrari!"
People would start pouring right in. ;)

Ha Ha Ha Ha!!! You're SOOO right.

The break in periods are more for the drivetrain than the engine. The engines are run for hours at multiple RPM's before they are even put into the cars.

That said - this dealership knows how to sell cars.

Originally posted by MotorWerkz
the next person who buy that M3 should not have to worry at all, he's backed by bumper-to-bumper warranty by BMW NA

True! 6yrs/100,000 miles. Can't beat that! Unless you want to drive a Hyundai.:D

You should be proud to even get noticed by a ferrari :D

it sounds set up to me...

you're test drivin, then there's a ferrari next to you going like this

:wave:

and instead of this :nono the sales guy gives you this :buttrock

and you're racing...and when you're done, instead of this :) you're on the forums giving these :boink

and the dealership is thinking :evil2 got 'em

i'm sorry, i'll stop now. good story, i'm jealous.

So, did you end up purchasing an M3 from them? If not, I would not agree that this dealership knows how to sell cars.

In fact, I would go out of my way to NOT purchase a car there since I know they allow potential customers to abuse the cars.

Originally posted by SilverStreak
I think I know the Blue you refer to, I saw a 360 on I-295 North last week, a deep rich metallic blue, absolutely gorgeous color... :aroused

Don't ask how I know. The Blue you are referring to is called "Tour De France Blue". It is very similar to the old Fjord Blue BMW use to put on their Cars (2002, 3.0, etc.)

Cheers

A salesperson would probably have more cause to complain about irresponsible driving than abuse on the car. He was driving on a straight lined highway, going a relatively normal 90 MPH, which if anyone has driven a highway in America, that's the normal speed when traffic permits.

Also, these cars are designed for the Autoban--average speed is equivalent to 80 MPH over here in this lovely country where people in Ferraris enjoy having a little fun with fellow imported cars.

Great story. My co-workers loved it!

By the way, is this the car and color you saw?

http://www.ferrariofhouston.com/ferraripreownedcars/images/Standard/MVC-134S.JPG

If so, I'm drooling.

That's the color of the one, I saw yeah.... :boink

LoL funny story :)
What did you expect from a ferarri :nono:

Atanasovski-

Dude, which dealership did you go to?? BMW Cleveland??

I have Cain BMW down in Canton, they suck. The first time I went in there, the sales guy gave me shit. Their service dept. has been mediocre as well.

However, I've heard awesome things from the CCA folks about BMW Cleveland!

There's a dealership in Akron that I haven't dealt with yet...

My friend has a 2001 Golf 1.8T and searched the VW forums for recommendations for breaking in the car. They actually said going WOT during break in period (not at 3 miles but in the hundreds or so) is good for the car or something. He did that periodic WOT (not constant) and his car runs fine. Has over 100k miles in it, with 300hp (big turbo). Btw he drives to LA every weekend from Nor Cal thus the miles, haha

This story reminded me of my encounter against a ferrari 360. I was driving my previous car , a 96 civic. I was returning from college (NCC) driving on grand central. When I see something so bright it hurt my eyes. I get closer to it, than I see it, a bright Red 360. I have never seeing anything so beutiful in my life. I have seen plenty of pics of them, but let me tell you, in real life they are so much more beautiful.

I dont race my civic or act like a ricer. So I just pull up nex to him to just stare at the car for a little while. Doing about 60, nothing big. I guess he thought I wanted to race him :( . I had my windows closed and I could hear his engine like I was standing right next to it. It was so loud, but very very nice sounding. And than I just saw it fly past me and disappear :( . Ofcourse I didnt even to keep up. I knew better than to even try.

After seeing it, I got home, and quickly hit the books to study, be smart, get a job and buy that car :D . It was a very good form of motivation.

haha
what a coincidence!