You'll shoot your eye out kid...
1995 M3...Screwed
You can wrap any car around a tree, but the more powerful the car is the quicker you find yourself in bad situations. You don't get pulled over for doing 80 in a 45, you get pulled over for doing 110. They don't just have a closed casket for you, they have one for everyone else in the car. And that other car you hit that might've been fine if you were doing the speed limit, now the family has to cope without a daughter and grandchildren.
I hear heroin is coming back.
Not so much a signature as a cry for help.
Hold on, saw this in a cartoon once...think I can pull it off.
m3 for your first car? what will you be driving for your third car? a porsche? BMW are nice cars in general and you should be glad that you can actually have a "fun" car for your first car.... before youre rear wheel drive responsible, I would stay with a lower torque car such as a regular E36..
Also, even tho M3s are not "fast" cars like everyone says here (i think its fast and nicely balanced), however, it is a precise high performance machine, itd not be a good choice to practice your driving on...
Get a beater car, get better at driving and working on cars... few years later.... M3!!
ps: my first car was a beater corolla...
Lol I'm not into drugs or that kind of stuff(Don't worry ik that was a joke) , but thanks for the advice
When I was 15, the only car I wanted was an E24 M6 (I still want that car). I learned on a 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan (with no functional A/C, stereo, or windows) for a year and a half, and I ended up splitting the cost of a E46 325i (with my parents), and I can happily say, it was perfect for me. It doesn't have crazy power, but it definitely has enough to have some fun in. Learn how to drive, have fun with it, and when you're ready, step up to performance. Its what I intend to do! I can happily say (knock on wood) I have had absolutely zero incidents with police and zero accidents (20 years old now).
Last edited by youngbimmer; 11-07-2013 at 08:02 PM.
My brother is 23, and he owned a 99 M3 for a few months. He drove very responsibly, but after seeing the back tires worn thin (partially from the previous owner, partially by me...) he swore he was going to get new tires that weekend. That friday it rained hard for a good bit and he had to drive to a jobsite to do some engineering work. He called me 5 minutes later telling me he was in a bad accident. Indeed he was. Somehow he was unhurt, but the car was completely and totally destroyed. He hydroplaned and spun around, hitting the wall at nearly 50 miles an hour, flipping the car onto its side. Somehow I still have a brother after that collapsed roof and flipped car. I am grateful for that. He was so happy to be alive for the first day afterwards, then after a while he started feeling terrible that he had taken a M3 off of the road for good. Granted its not a Ferrari F599GTO or something similar, its still an awesome car. I am 20, and before it crashed, he let me borrow the car when he was out of town for a week. In that week I only got on the gas heavily once, and it scared the absolute crap out of me. I know how i drove at 16, and If I would have had a car like this, I would be 6 feet deep by now. I grew up a bit, and learned to respect and understand that which I can't fully control, and after seeing my brothers accident, i respect the power of a semi fast automobile (and learned not to ride on bald tires!) The car is very safe, but I promise you, if you get a car like this as a first, it might ruin you. At 14 i also didnt have the mechanical ability to fix a car like an M3, and I think few people do. My views are that you really shouldnt get a car like this at first. Its expensive to maintain correctly, just not a good first car. Awesome though. My main thing is that its too fast. I know that i topped out my first dodge intrepid at 120 one night on the highway, and if I wouldnt have gotten a ticket for 14 over, i might be dead from my speed craziness. Be careful. It only takes a fraction of a second to die. try to limit yourself to things that might cause it. I know you might say you'll drive it responsibly, but you wont. That gas pedal will get good to you, until it gets you. I apologize for the long post. Here is the album of pictures from my brothers car if you're interested. Parting it out now. http://s1240.photobucket.com/user/Po...20M3%20partout
M3 is a great 1st car if you are responsible enough to handle it.
Brand new 1995 M3 was my 1st car. Delivered before I even turned 16 so I learned how to drive a 5speed.
You will always remember your 1st car, might as well make it something cool.
At the time, my friends had 240sx's, corollas and civics.....cars were always in accidents. Be responsible and test your limits on a track/course.
Last edited by Eemueekmu; 11-08-2013 at 01:20 AM.
Get a beater for your first car. You'll do some stupid shit when you're young, it never fails. Get it all out of your system.
1995 M3...Screwed
Do you like E30s? Buy one, fix what needs fixing, learn how to work on cars, and drive it with a whopping 170hp. Once you get tired of that either swap the engine, turbo, or buy a new car.
That's the way I'm going about it (19 now), no accidents yet lol but it really depends on you and your driving style.
Some people can handle the speed and power responsibly at 16 and some can't.
m3, 993 c4s, 928 s4....cars I had when 16-18.
i got a speeding ticket in my rent-a-car dodge neon....
It's not the car, it's the person.
E36 M3 has to much power for an inexperienced driver unless the kid is a seasoned kart racer or dirt track racer or something
Get a 318, learns some driving skills, go to a track day upgrade later or do an s50 swap
I have yet to meet a responsible 15 year old with a performance car. Have seen/ heard way to many stories of people wrapping their car around a tree and killing 5 other people because race car
I wanted my first car to be a E36 M3 and I'm glad I didn't have the money or the parents money to get one. This car is not the most forgiving. If its something you really want you will inevitably get one. If it has to be a BMW Get like a e30 318 and go stance nation or something IDk, or something FWD. My first car was a CRX si and (no one could tell me it wasn't faster or cooler than a m6 !!! If it has to be a faster top of the line type car just find some 80's or 90's Japanese FWD sports car you won't regret it.
Nice M3s are expensive. Nice 328 manual is not. I'm on my 3rd e36 M3, so don't think your first BMW will be your last.
I would get an e36 328, or 325 to start. You can always upgrade later. Do you even know how to drive a manual? E36 M3's are very costly for maintaince. Unless you plan on doing the work or have rich parents willing to spend $1,000's on the car I don't know if it's worth it to someone as young as you.
Having just bought my first M car, an e39 M5, I can tell you that if I had had it at 17 when I got my license, I would have crashed it by now. I am 22 now and am quite appreciative of the fact that my first car was my grandma and grandpa's Oldsmobile. It taught me to look forward to the future and finally getting a nice car. I was teased the entire time by getting to drive my parents e38 740iL on occasion. That car was plenty fast enough to learn to drive in.
When I got my license I would have given anything to the 98 740iL that my parents were selling, but instead I got a near mint condition 99 Oldsmobile that I still love to this day. Also it made getting the M5 even that much more exciting. Now I get to swap between driving the Olds and the M5 every other day while sharing with my twin brother. He owns half of the M5.
Even though I have been driving for a few years now, I have completely had to relearn driving to get use to the M5. I already have had one very humbling and lucky experience while fooling around in the M5, and now I have a much better appreciation for limited slip differentials and their ability to make you loose all of the traction your back wheels have.
Current fleet:
1999 BMW e36 M3
1999 BMW e36 328is with rotary valve engine head
1999 Oldsmobile Eighty Eight
1990 Jeep Comanche Eliminator
1962 Austin Healey Sprite
I also wouldn't recommend an M3 as a first car. Not because of the 'wrap it around a tree' factor, that can be avoided with driver training and an M3 isn't any more dangerous in the hands of a new driver than an e46 330ci. I would avoid the M3 because of the increased maintenance costs. If your dad is already skeptical of BMWs and isn't a car guy then he's going freak out at the maintenance costs because he won't understand why they cost so much more to run than his standard car. Plus, when you are 16 you want to spend your money on petrol and girls not on your M3.
Find a well maintained e36 or e46 325i/328i and learn how to do basic maintenance at home. You'll be happier in the long run.
^Maintenance will not be much more for an M3 vs regular E36, if you do the work yourself. I can see some shops adding an ///M tax on anything they can get away with, though. Insurance may make more of a difference.
I do a combination of deal hunting, diy, and help from local people on the forums. The amount of stuff I get done with my money surprises my dad, who has work done at an independent. I think that keeping a BMW in tip top shape for less than whatever your dad pays for his car maintenance will change his mind.
Oh, and I vote for driving a beater while fixing up an M3 that needs major work.
It's not high powered at all. It literally has less horsepower than the 2.0 L chevy malibu.
Considering the fact that I drove a 430 whp car when I was 16 and never had a single accident, not its not. I'm not special in that regard either.
Speak for yourself.
Bookmarks