Hi folks.....

I drove an M3 for an hour yesterday and was impressed, though it certainly is not faster than most Scoobs with most drivers in bumpy B-roads IMHO.

The M3 is some car and so I'm considering breaking the bank to get one, even to do a "Birdy" and run for a short time!

Given that I love country blasts in Scoob, would an M3 be plain stupid......and are the running costs really that bad (like £1500 for the three-year service).....?

I'd really appreciate your comments.....

Cheers
DBM.....almost guilty of treason!

 

Are you referring to the E36 321bhp Evo? 1st thing to do is get an unsurance quote!

All M servicing is pretty pricey, even if you use non-franchise specialists.

Not up on the E36 but almost bought an E30 M3 a couple of years back but was put off by servicing costs. Around a grand for a camchain replacement.

Plus, all M lumps come tuned, so they're running at/around their limit making extra tuning virtually immpossible and stupid!

And, when they go, they really go bang!

 

It's the new M3 mate.........mad, eh?

DBM

 

Well if you have to ask about running costs you can't afford one!

 

don't BMW offer a three year servicing package for £500 on these models?

Matt.

 

No the servicing pachage is for the New 7 Series, £500 for 5 years servicing, including all consumables and labour, but excluding things like tyres and abused brakes. Can't remember what they call it, but the idea is the same as the Mini TLC scheme.

 

DBM,

Have recently been enquiring about servicing costs on an M5, so no doubt the M3 will be similar. Anyway, here are the costs .........

Oil Service £127 ( Cheaper if you provide own oil)
Inspection 1 £500
Inspection 2 £590

Basically BMW charge £10 per litre for oil. I can get the same much cheaper, so that'll save about £30 each time.

The servicing goes as follows and is approximately every 10-12K miles.........

Oil Service, Inspection 1, Oil Service, Inspection 2, Oil service, etc etc ad infinitum.

Clearly the services do not include pads, clutches, and other consumables that are considered wear and tear. To be honest, the costs of the Inspection 1 and 2 are about £150 more than my 330d. Not too bad.

Certainly compared with main dealer Subaru prices, IMHO these are reasonable

Matt

 

oh yeah, 7 series, close!

 

Cheers Mattoz......some helpful info there!

DBM

 

If it's any help, I cancelled an order on an E46 M3 because I got really pi$$ed off shelling out loads of cash to BMW for my E36 M3 Evo. It got to the point where everytime I even drove past a BMW garage it was costing me circa £700. It really put the dampers on what was a good car to drive.

By the time you spec up an M3 you're very close to a new 911 - which is even more expensive to run.

In the end I bought an STi UK and am using the saved cash to upgrade the scoob. The grin factor is ten time greater with the Scoob.

Phil

 

The new M3 and impreza's are worlds apart in my opinion. new M3 is closer to a super car!! much closer!!, even comparing a lancer evo is unrealistic i think!