Yup - Porsche. Many may recall I was active here until 2 years ago when I sold my minty Imola E39 to a local car nut in the SF Bay Area who still has the car going strong at now over 140K miles. When I bought the car from AZ it looked showroom fresh and had a mere 48K miles. So nearly 100K miles have been logged over the past 8 years, 60K by me in 6 years. I defected and picked up a 2013 Panamera S with the 400hp V8. Wonderful car and glad I owned it - but at the time I wasn't so sure I would take it past the CPO period, and I decided in the end not to go there. It wasn't as much that I was worried about repair bills - I can fix most items myself and the car was relatively robust during the 2 years I owned it and 12K miles. But the depreciation was steep and wasn't done yet and ready to fall off another cliff once it was completely out of warranty and coming up on 8 years old. It was a great long distance road trip car for sure - smooth and quiet, great seats, great sound system, nice steering - easy to drive for 4-5 hours a day and 9-10 hours over a weekend which we did quite a bit visiting our daughter in Santa Barbara. But we didn't take enough road trips to really justify owning such an expensive car that was primarily good at that particular use case. It was rather large and harder to park around town - better than my truck I guess, but not as easy as the old E39 for running around town. Which turns out is still my main use case - so what did I do, I ended up just taking the truck around town most of the time and the Porsche sat for weeks until the next road trip. And sometimes I wanted to take the Camaro SS convertible for the road trip too - it's quite nice on the highway with the top up or down. Anyway - it was time so I listed it 4 months ago and didn't worry about it and finally got the right buyer this week and now that car is headed to AZ - Phoenix. Somewhat ironic I suppose.
So now I have $$ burning a hole in my bank account and while I don't absolutely need a car, I'd really like to get back into a BMW M car again.
Short list right now is:
E90 M3 sedan - 6MT
F80 M3 sedan - 6MT
E60 M5 - 6MT
Plus keeping my eye out for the right deal on a lower miles E34 M5 or 540M-sport too, or even a E36 M3 sedan - found one with 56K miles that peaked my interest.
If I found the right E39 M5 I might go back to that one - but right now leaning towards one of the two M3 sedan options.
Found two private owner cars both in Alpine White that look interesting - 48K mile 2015 and 57K mile 2008 M3 sedan 6MT. Cost difference is about $10K for the F80. I could also swing for a lower miles F80, but that gets me up into the mid $40K's which gets me back into a higher depreciation situation that I'd rather avoid. Not too worried about mileage as this is a car I will drive ~6K miles a year.
I drove a similar F80 yesterday - also a 2015, non comp package car with the 19" wheels. Really liked how it drives - very similar in size to the E39 which I liked. You give up some driving feel for size and low end tq when comparing to an E90 M3.
I have 3 E60 M5 6MT's in the running with miles in the 60s. Price point similar to the E90 M3. Most have had the TB actuators done - one had rod bearings. Not too worried about that - it's a $2K job and would do Blackstone analysis to get a read out on condition. Pretty much a required maint item to factor into the ownership of these cars. And with my expected miles / year I am comfortable with the risks and upkeep needed on that V10 or the little brother V8 in the E90.
The F80 seems to have a much more bulletproof regular production type engine. But I am a much bigger fan of a NA motor and those high reving motors are last of a breed so those models really interest me as the latest model BMW's that were really designed for hard core enthusiasts.
Kevin - got any thoughts for me pal??
So now I have $$ burning a hole in my bank account and while I don't absolutely need a car, I'd really like to get back into a BMW M car again.
Short list right now is:
E90 M3 sedan - 6MT
F80 M3 sedan - 6MT
E60 M5 - 6MT
Plus keeping my eye out for the right deal on a lower miles E34 M5 or 540M-sport too, or even a E36 M3 sedan - found one with 56K miles that peaked my interest.
If I found the right E39 M5 I might go back to that one - but right now leaning towards one of the two M3 sedan options.
Found two private owner cars both in Alpine White that look interesting - 48K mile 2015 and 57K mile 2008 M3 sedan 6MT. Cost difference is about $10K for the F80. I could also swing for a lower miles F80, but that gets me up into the mid $40K's which gets me back into a higher depreciation situation that I'd rather avoid. Not too worried about mileage as this is a car I will drive ~6K miles a year.
I drove a similar F80 yesterday - also a 2015, non comp package car with the 19" wheels. Really liked how it drives - very similar in size to the E39 which I liked. You give up some driving feel for size and low end tq when comparing to an E90 M3.
I have 3 E60 M5 6MT's in the running with miles in the 60s. Price point similar to the E90 M3. Most have had the TB actuators done - one had rod bearings. Not too worried about that - it's a $2K job and would do Blackstone analysis to get a read out on condition. Pretty much a required maint item to factor into the ownership of these cars. And with my expected miles / year I am comfortable with the risks and upkeep needed on that V10 or the little brother V8 in the E90.
The F80 seems to have a much more bulletproof regular production type engine. But I am a much bigger fan of a NA motor and those high reving motors are last of a breed so those models really interest me as the latest model BMW's that were really designed for hard core enthusiasts.
Kevin - got any thoughts for me pal??