Need Help With New Purchase

[m6-cj]

Hi all,

At long last I can now get an M6! I've been wanting for one for a while but for practicality reasons I haven't been able to justify one.

So I waved my Range Rover away yesterday and I'm now in the market for one.

I've browsed over a couple of buying guides (Evo magazine did a gooden) and I think I know what to look for. My question is what is considered high mileage on an M6?

I'm going to see one at the weekend which is the following:-

2005 55 plate
45000 miles
Silverstone blue / silver
Cream Interior
3/4 previous owners
Full Service History (half main dealers half BMW Specialist)

Any thoughts or advised would be greatly appreciated! Really looking forward to getting one ... I just want to make sure I get a nice example not a shed!

Cheers

CJ

[e///Mpower]

How much is it selling for?

[m6-cj]

£17,000 ... any thoughts?

[tampamark]

How well are you set to handle unexpected maintenance costs? Or are you considering an extended warranty? I just ask this as BMW's in general can have frequent minor failures of $1000 or more. Then you add in the SMG (in the event this is not a manual) and V10 engine and things get a bit more dicey over time, and very expensive. I would say 45k isn't that high, 70k or 80k would be a different story!

I would hate for you to finally be able to afford your dream and then have it turn into a nightmare!

[m6-cj]

Originally Posted by tampamark

How well are you set to handle unexpected maintenance costs? Or are you considering an extended warranty? I just ask this as BMW's in general can have frequent minor failures of $1000 or more. Then you add in the SMG (in the event this is not a manual) and V10 engine and things get a bit more dicey over time, and very expensive. I would say 45k isn't that high, 70k or 80k would be a different story!

I would hate for you to finally be able to afford your dream and then have it turn into a nightmare!

Thank you for your response!

I would be able to handle unexpected maintenance but if the car is going to cost thousands a year in parts alone, I must admit I probably would probably have a rethink. I know they will be expense to fuel, service, tax insure etc which is fine by me but to have high bills on top of all that ... wouldn't be desirable.

This is my dream car and for practicality reasons I haven't been able to get one but I've got a Land Rover Defender for the wintery days, I have a company Audi A5 for every day, I now want an M6 for Sundays / special occasions.

Are there any parts in particular which will need replacing at 45k miles?

Any more advice would be greatly appropriated.

[e///Mpower]

Originally Posted by m6-cj

£17,000 ... any thoughts?

That is a good price for the car itself. And the mileage really isn't that high (less than 50,000 and its fine). I have just got to 55,000 miles on mine and I have had absolutely no maintenance problems since I got the car with 35,000 miles on it (and it is my daily driver). If you want your mind to be at ease, just get the aftermarket 50,000+ mile warranty from BMW, that's what I got (with platinum coverage). The biggest thing you would have to worry about is doing damage to the car yourself, because that is what will cost you a lot of money. I've heard of a lot of people riding their front bumper up on curbs or hitting speed bumps too hard, which can damage the oil cooler and lead to a $1000+ fix. I would say go for it, the M6 is an amazing car in pretty much every way

[tampamark]

More good advice! It is a mixed bag if you read through the forums, there are some who have dumped their car because the car was giving them fits (not super high miles I believe) and then others who are fine. That is always the problem with a used car, it is sometimes a crapshoot.

Can you have the car inspected at a BMW dealer? I would ask that they pull data from the system, things like number of launches using the launch control, redining, etc. It does have a record of this. If the car was beat on you might have cause for concern.

If it is SMG see if it has been replaced. It seems to go around 35k to 40k miles. It is rather expensive to repair or replace. Here is a link to another thread regarding the subject, if you look back over the last couple of months you will see several threads just like it.

Well, I guess it's my turn...

My 650 shares many interior parts and electronics with the M6, so there are issues that carry over. I have an extended CPO warranty from BMW, I have had around $4500 in covered repairs in the last 3 years. My instrument cluster crapped out, my dynamic drive ARS block died, my steering angle sensor failed, lastly my tranny had a sleeve that leaked (wouldn't correlate to the M since you don't have auto-tranny). I bought the car with 27,000 miles and currently have 50,000.