What's happened to the market for M Cars??

Z

Zed Five

Senior member
Hi,

I recently sold my 3.0si coupe before leaving for several months in Australia for my employer. The idea is to purchase a 'just' used new shape Z4 when I return in Feb next year. (I tend to keep my Zed s for about 2 years so would have been changing anyway).

Just started looking at prices generally and noticed 'wow!' the bottom seems to have dropped out of the M Roadster/Coupe market. I sold my car with 70k on the clock just two months ago and can now practically swap it directly for an M-coupe...

... what's been going on whilst i'm away? - an oil crisis?? :cry:

Now becoming tempted to buy a late M rather than a 35i.... hmmm....

Chris.
 
It may be too expensive to run Z4M as a daily car, and buying another cheap run-about for daily use is not financially feasible.
 
ksher said:
..and buying another cheap run-about for daily use is not financially feasible.
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Wouldn't say that's true for everyone, lots of people here including myself do it, and it can be done pretty cheaply.

I wouldn't say the markets dropped out - how long have you been away? It seems for the last 2yrs or so you could get a reasonable /M for good Si money. The only difference is that recently (last 3/4 months) it seems there isn't many people looking for them, have only seen one M that's priced to sell in this market - the £16750 MC in this forum.

Like SammyZ says elsewhere - I'd feel raped to take £16k for mine, so it's a keeper..
 
Same here, run an X5 and a VW Polo. Overall costs is lower then if you run an M in the ground as a daily driver, as the second hand market for high mileage M is much worse then for non-M models.
 
ksher said:
It may be too expensive to run Z4M as a daily car, and buying another cheap run-about for daily use is not financially feasible.
Click to expand...

True, - in fairness that's why i've always shyed away from M-cars at the last minute. - too many daily miles. I must admit the possibilities seem quite interesting at the minute :evil: . I've even started to think about a 30i for commuting plus a late MZ3 for the weekend, there's a cracking grey MZ3 coupe on Autotrader at the minute. If the 30i price direct from BMW dips to below £30k for a good spec one, i'll probably fall for that conbination.

(i'll have to flit between here and Zroadster,net... .. ahh, the ole days! :D ).

keep up the good Z work, :thumbsup:

Chris,
 
ksher said:
It may be too expensive to run Z4M as a daily car, and buying another cheap run-about for daily use is not financially feasible.
Click to expand...

There are an awful lot of people driving much more expensive stuff as dailies though. It's more a softening of deman for performance cars in the current climate IMO. It's not just the Z4M, M cars generally are really sticking for some reason. An E92 M3 I drove at Thames Ditton BMW sat for 4 months and I notice it's now at Berry Chiswick. Black with red leather, every option ticked. The price has not moved in all that time of course LOL....dealers tell me that at the moment, demand is really slack for cars of this type
 
I break even on my banger running only a 2.5si I was only doing 6k a year so running an M doesn't have to be expensive.

If only I could sell mine to make that swap :headbang:
 
It's definitely a buyer's market at the moment Hutch. Drop the price of yours, and get rid of it. Take advantage of the cheap Ms!

It didn't take long to sell my 3.0si Coupe. First person who came to see it bought it within about 5 minutes! Because I priced it well.

For reference, my car was up for £18,000. It was a coupe (worth more), 07, 24k on the clock, way off a service, perfect condition, 4 brand new tyres, fantastic spec, etc etc... I priced it fairly, and it sold quickly.
 
I'll be commuting 100 miles a day for one year from October, so I've just bought an absolute bargin in the form of an E46 320d to use for this purpose. By my (conservative) calculations, the savings on fuel alone will cover what I paid for the car, even if I don't 't sell it at the end of the year. For me, the fact that I won't be putting 25K miles on the Zed is reason enough, even disregarding the financial motivations.
 
srhutch said:
I break even on my banger running only a 2.5si I was only doing 6k a year so running an M doesn't have to be expensive.

If only I could sell mine to make that swap :headbang:
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Drop it by 2k and you should manage it. The longer you wait, the fewer good M cars will be around. There are getting more and more rubbish M's on the market. :cry:
 
mikedav said:
ksher said:
It may be too expensive to run Z4M as a daily car, and buying another cheap run-about for daily use is not financially feasible.
Click to expand...

There are an awful lot of people driving much more expensive stuff as dailies though. It's more a softening of deman for performance cars in the current climate IMO. It's not just the Z4M, M cars generally are really sticking for some reason. An E92 M3 I drove at Thames Ditton BMW sat for 4 months and I notice it's now at Berry Chiswick. Black with red leather, every option ticked. The price has not moved in all that time of course LOL....dealers tell me that at the moment, demand is really slack for cars of this type
Click to expand...

I think the market for high end cars is pretty dire in general at the moment, there's a lot of cars for sale that have been for sale 12+ months and no one seems to want to budge on price, I think a few people are gonna get their fingers burnt.
 
pvr said:
srhutch said:
I break even on my banger running only a 2.5si I was only doing 6k a year so running an M doesn't have to be expensive.

If only I could sell mine to make that swap :headbang:
Click to expand...

Drop it by 2k and you should manage it. The longer you wait, the fewer good M cars will be around. There are getting more and more rubbish M's on the market. :cry:
Click to expand...

I have been offered £14.5k by a dealer and I could strip the dash and Reinhold modules which to me are worth £150ish (saves me buying again) giving me £15k. But if I'm going to sell privately it need to be for more otherwise it isn't worth the hassle.
 
I don't think it's just M cars - I had my 123d coupe advertised (huge spec, very low miles) for quite a while for only £1k more than i got trade in from the BMW dealer, and considerabky cheaper than any other comparable car

I had not one phone call or email in 6 weeks
 
srhutch said:
pvr said:
srhutch said:
I break even on my banger running only a 2.5si I was only doing 6k a year so running an M doesn't have to be expensive.

If only I could sell mine to make that swap :headbang:
Click to expand...

Drop it by 2k and you should manage it. The longer you wait, the fewer good M cars will be around. There are getting more and more rubbish M's on the market. :cry:
Click to expand...

I have been offered £14.5k by a dealer and I could strip the dash and Reinhold modules which to me are worth £150ish (saves me buying again) giving me £15k. But if I'm going to sell privately it need to be for more otherwise it isn't worth the hassle.
Click to expand...

14.5 + 150 <> £15k :D
 
pilchardthecat said:
I don't think it's just M cars - I had my 123d coupe advertised (huge spec, very low miles) for quite a while for only £1k more than i got trade in from the BMW dealer, and considerabky cheaper than any other comparable car

I had not one phone call or email in 6 weeks
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Not many people like 1-series (but I do). If it was 3-series diesel, it could be sold more quickly.
 
That is for sure, my wife can not stand them. The seating position is very, very awkward (side window frame very high) and she never wanted to have one again as a loan car.
 
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