Free F80 M3 24hr test drive... thank you BMW!

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ph001

Veteran
 N. Yorkshire.
So a pretty standard looking marketing letter arrived from BMW corporate last week offering free 24hr test drives of selected BMW models so I obviously fired up the PC and went online to the website expecting a 320d to be about the most exciting thing on offer. Surprised then indeed to find an M3 competition pack at the top of the list with a tick box next to it just waiting to be clicked!

Within about 48hrs I had a call from my local main dealer with a string of the usual questions along the lines of:

When are you looking to buy? - Answer, not really looking at swapping at the mo.
What finance package can I sell you? - Answer none, because I'm not really looking to buy one!

After that revelation, the nice lady said she would have to speak to her manager and would be in touch!! Yeh right.

So you can imagine my surprise yesterday when she called back to say the 24hr test drive had been APPROVED!!! :trampoline:

It gets delivered on Monday! :roundel:

WTF!
 
Spare set of rubber and watch out for the speed cameras,,, A perfect toy to play with, what's not to like :D
 
RustyZ4 said:
Spare set of rubber and watch out for the speed cameras
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No fixed speed cameras in N.Yorkshire :wink:

...but plenty of mobile vans so you never know where they are :cry:

Looking forward to giving an unbiased review actually. I have an E46 M3 at present but suspect it will be a radically different driving experience with the 3.0L twin turbo.
 
I'd be offended. They clearly think you are an unprincipled man who will cave in and buy one at the first turn of the wheel. :D

When you hand it back, say it was good but you wish they did something a bit smaller, maybe with 404bhp and 2 doors. And when you return that one, which could be later in the summer, look the guy in the eye and say "I liked that one too, but on second thoughts I'd love something much bigger with a lot more power, mate... mmmmmmm-eight.... M...8...".
 
slick said:
Get a track day booked .......
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Haha, tempting but maybe taking things a bit far :rofl:

Maniac said:
B) launch won’t work during running in period
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Whaaaaaaaaat!!! Actually it turns out from a little research that launch control on the M3 / M4 aint very controlled at all. The only thing it does is hold the throttle at a preset rpm - there is no traction management at all. Sounds like a great way to find the nearest hedge to me!
 
ph001 said:
slick said:
Get a track day booked .......
Click to expand...

Haha, tempting but maybe taking things a bit far :rofl:

Maniac said:
B) launch won’t work during running in period
Click to expand...

Whaaaaaaaaat!!! Actually it turns out from a little research that launch control on the M3 / M4 aint very controlled at all. The only thing it does is hold the throttle at a preset rpm - there is no traction management at all. Sounds like a great way to find the nearest hedge to me!
Click to expand...
Mind the Hedgehogs. :lol:
 
ph001 said:
Whaaaaaaaaat!!! Actually it turns out from a little research that launch control on the M3 / M4 aint very controlled at all. The only thing it does is hold the throttle at a preset rpm - there is no traction management at all. Sounds like a great way to find the nearest hedge to me!
Click to expand...

I heard that. It's insane that there are so many things done in these cars to "nanny" the driver, but they make the launch control mode totally unhinged. Not sure what they were thinking because it's both dangerous (especially with the gen 1 F8x's traction) and slow.
 
Yeh, don’t see why they can’t still have some control enabled but with loose reigns...bit like the M track mode on the CSL. I wonder how many owners binned it the first time they tried launch control 🙈
 
I hope you have a great 24 hours. :thumbsup:

It'll be interesting to see how many miles you can put on it! :)
 
Soooooo Jealous!!! That's going to be so much fun, I'd be planning a late night run and £100 for fuel. Have a great time :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
Took me a while to get around to this but here's my review from my recent extended test drive of the F80 M3 Competition pack.

Whilst I applaud BMW for allowing people behind the wheel of their top end cars, I have to say that the way the local main dealer handled the entire process was almost farcical.

On the run up to the booking I had at least 3 to 4 calls from the dealer to confirm dates, times etc. It took a fair bit of arranging - they would never phone me back when they said they would, then said that I could only have the car for the day (9hrs) when all the BMW spiel said 24hrs. When I queried this, she said she would have to speak to her manager and would call me back. This was on the Friday and I was supposed to have the car the following Monday. Of course, the call never came so I just turned up on Monday morning as planned.

When I arrived you could instantly tell there was nothing prepared so they ran around for a good half an hour to see if a car was indeed available. She said I could only have the car for the day due to day insurance, when I said that I was supposed to get a call from her manager on the issue she said he doesn't work weekends! :headbang:

Anyway, they had found a car. A brand spanker F80 M3 DCT Competition Pack with just 4 miles on the clock so I went through the paperwork and she handed me the keys! Just as I was about to leave she said that there was probably very little fuel in it and did I went them to put some in. I didn't want to take the piss so said it was fine and I would fill it up, but she insisted so we both went out to the nearest filling station whereby she added £30 :thumbsup:. Nice touch, but it was of course crappy 95RON and the M3 does take advantage of 97RON so was a bit disappointing but hey, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth!

To say it was a brand new car it was in a bit of a state tbh. It didn't look like it had ever been washed and was coated in a thick brown dust. Even the interior was dusty.

I took it fairly steady on the way home (about 8 miles), aware that's it's important to get some temperature into the fluids and tyres AND the fact that this thing is not even run in yet.

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I had literally just pulled into my driveway when I got a call from the main dealer that went something like this...

"Hello Sir, it's xxxx from BMW Stratstone. Errrrmm, you know that M3 that we have just given you for the day...well....erm....can you bring it back please. It's a customer car that we have just sold and we can't have any miles on it!"

:headbang: :headbang: :headbang: You couldn't make this stuff up you know. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

So, back to the main dealer I go and hand them back the keys to a car which now has 20 miles on it instead of 4!

I hung around for another 20 mins and they approached me with another set of keys. Another half hour sorting the day insurance (again) and out I go to collect a M3 DCT Comp pack with just 2 miles on it! Unfortunately it was probably the worst colour I can think of (Brown...although BMW probably call it something cool like Sepang Bronze) with the 666M alloys which I find awfully fussy. It was in a similarly filthy state so I decided the first thing to do was take it home and give it a good clean...

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<continues in next post>....
 
What were your thought on the car?

Also... it’s nice to see someone care... I doubt many people would have the courtesy to drive it carefully at only a couple of miles, let alone wash it! Nice work :)

Can’t say I’d choose either colour though :tumbleweed:
 
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