Car arrived on Thursday evening. I've been annoyingly busy at work and with 2 young children weekend time is limited, so the dealer kindly agreed to have the car delivered at no cost to me. The main benefit of this was that the car was fully warmed up and I was able to go straight out for a drive. The time of day means that it wasn't ideal as the roads were pretty busy, but still managed a few decent runs over some of the more twisty local(ish) roads.
First impressions are that the engine is great, the way it spins from 4-8k rpm is epic. In the end I went for the DCT gearbox, which tends to be a controversial topic. I know there have been many threads about the Z4M box (both good and bad) but I've always found mine OK. The manual M3's I drove had a longer throw and were more 'notchy'. Read loads about how changing the shift knob to a F10 M5 one would help but in the end I found, as many others have, that the DCT gearbox was a really good match for the engine. The other thing that put me off the manual is the ratios - it seems that top speed in 3rd gear for the manual is roughly equivalent to 4th gear in the DCT, so much more useable.
Not had a chance to get to grips with much else yet. In terms of spec the car has heated seats, front parking sensors and an upgraded stereo - all things that I would have expected to be standard on a flagship model, but that's German car brands for you. It also have adaptive lights (think they move with steering wheel) but no adaptive suspension (the internet tells me that my car is worth £500 because of this, but I prefer a good setup over loads of button pushing
More importantly it's a one owner car, with full service history - bought and serviced at the same dealership for the past 9 years. Annoyingly the dealer can't/won't give me a print out of all the additional and warranty work carried out due to GDPR as it has the former keepers details on it, but they let me look at the system and it's been back for every recall and had some goodwill stuff done in terms of a frayed seat belt and discoloured interior trim. A bit mad when you consider the V5 will have said owners details on it. Anyway, all of this suggests to me that it's been well looked after. Also had paint protection film applied from new, so no stone chips on the bumper/bonnet.
Sadly it will probably be a while before I get the chance to drive the M3 and Z4M back to back. Every weekend between now and September seems to be accounted for. That said, we had a UK road trip/holiday planned for early August and the 4 seats in the M3 means it might be a realistic alternative to the family wagon. Just need to borrow/rent a roofbox
TL/DR - M3 has arrived and is awesome, but have too many commitments not enough car time.
Couple of pictures from Thursday:
And the big boots this car is trying to fill: