It is with a heavy heart that I am going to put my beloved black sapphire Z4M roadster with Imola Red leather interior up for sale.
I want to sell it to a forum member who'll enjoy it so am not going to bother advertising elsewhere for now. I am not going to describe what the M is all about because if you’re looking you’ll know so I am going to focus on the history, condition and modifications to the car. I want strong money for it but I think it is worth it if you are an enthusiast. If not then I guess it won’t sell.
I purchased the car from Murketts in Huntingdon in January 2009 with just over 8,000 miles on the clock. It had been BMW’s own car at their Park Lane showroom in London before a doctor bought it and when she subsequently fell pregnant she moved it on via Murketts where I acquired it. It has been my pride and joy for five and a half years now seeing use mainly in the Summer and predominately on long trips. I’ve covered 32,000 miles in those years, including an amazing 4,000 mile trip around Europe in 2011 that is documented on these very forums here http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=27612. It is on 41,000 miles now and won’t go up much if at all.
The car has been extremely well maintained in my opinion with the servicing schedule being observed correctly and often a little ahead of time. The following services have been carried out:
I took out an extended warranty on the car for a year which is why the servicing is at main dealer up until 2011. When the oil service was due in 2013 I elected to use a garage close to me at the time which had worked on other cars for me. They agreed to me providing the correct 10W-60 oil and other consumables so since it was really just an oil and filter change I was comfortable.
When the Inspection 2 came around this year I decided to find a specialist who was recommended and they did a fantastic job on it. While with them I got a lot of other work done to the value of £2,000, namely:
The specification and modifications are as follows:
My reason for selling is quite simple in that life has turned a different direction. We now live in the country with dogs and the car gets used less and less. I loved it the moment I first test drove it and have kept it in fantastic condition because I’d always intended to have it as a forever car. It has seen nothing but V-Power as to be expected, everything is OEM spec or better and I simply don’t drive it hard without warming it up and have never done short journeys in it. It’s always cleaned and kept in the garage and I even roll it onto tyre savers if it is to be not used for a few weeks!
I’m asking £15,500 for it and am not interested in low ball offers (otherwise I would have put it on PistonHeads
) – I don’t need to sell quickly and I don’t think it is an outrageous price for the car, although the market will decide of course. I know that there are cheaper alternatives on autotrader but this one in my opinion has the following advantages:
So onto some photos of the car.
I want to sell it to a forum member who'll enjoy it so am not going to bother advertising elsewhere for now. I am not going to describe what the M is all about because if you’re looking you’ll know so I am going to focus on the history, condition and modifications to the car. I want strong money for it but I think it is worth it if you are an enthusiast. If not then I guess it won’t sell.
I purchased the car from Murketts in Huntingdon in January 2009 with just over 8,000 miles on the clock. It had been BMW’s own car at their Park Lane showroom in London before a doctor bought it and when she subsequently fell pregnant she moved it on via Murketts where I acquired it. It has been my pride and joy for five and a half years now seeing use mainly in the Summer and predominately on long trips. I’ve covered 32,000 miles in those years, including an amazing 4,000 mile trip around Europe in 2011 that is documented on these very forums here http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=27612. It is on 41,000 miles now and won’t go up much if at all.
The car has been extremely well maintained in my opinion with the servicing schedule being observed correctly and often a little ahead of time. The following services have been carried out:
- Pre Delivery Check – 28 December 2006 - BMW Park Lane
Running In Check – 20 August 2007 – BMW Park Lane (1,043)
Oil Service – 7 October 2008 – BMW Murketts (8,131)
Brake Fluid Service – 16 July 2009 – BMW Cooper Croydon (12,604)
Inspection 1 – 26 May 2010 – BMW Cooper Croydon (18,667)
Oil & Brake Fluid Service – 3 June 2011 – BMW Cooper Croydon (28,704)
Oil & Brake Fluid Service – 28 May 2013 – Autocar Repairs West Dulwich (37,411)
Inspection 2 – 15 August 2014 – Mastertech Ashford Independent BMW specialist (40,871)
I took out an extended warranty on the car for a year which is why the servicing is at main dealer up until 2011. When the oil service was due in 2013 I elected to use a garage close to me at the time which had worked on other cars for me. They agreed to me providing the correct 10W-60 oil and other consumables so since it was really just an oil and filter change I was comfortable.
When the Inspection 2 came around this year I decided to find a specialist who was recommended and they did a fantastic job on it. While with them I got a lot of other work done to the value of £2,000, namely:
- A Celtic tuning remap. This is claimed to up the power to 370bhp (I’m sceptical), but I wanted it mainly for the alteration to the torque curve, meaning it now pulls strongly and evenly right through the rev range while maintaining the character of the rev happy engine.
New bushes all round.
Fitment of a Bilstein B8 kit. I wanted to lower the car with Eibach pro springs and thought getting matching dampers in a kit would be a good idea. They then did a full four wheel laser alignment to CSL specs to dial out some understeer. It rides and handles superbly now.
Some minor things that needed attention were fixed like a new alarm bonnet sensor, handbrake adjustment and third brake light cover, which had cracked, being replaced.
New front discs and pads were fitted (rears were done about 5,000 miles ago)
The specification and modifications are as follows:
- Specification
Satellite Navigation and a better hi-fi (forget the right term but it has a DSP and sub woofers)
Carbon leather dashboard
Wind Deflector + storage in boot
Electric, memory, heated seats
Bluetooth phone connectivity
Electric mirrors
Climate Control
Black sapphire with Imola Red interior
- Modifications
Exhaust bypass mod as conceived and described in this very forum. A little more noise, more pops and bangs but no drone and OEM look
The B8 suspension kit mentioned previously
Carbon effect wheel centres
ZHP gear knob
Stubby aerial
Celtic tuning remap
Extra cubby hole under front passenger seat (empty extra first aid box)
Intravee and Alpine KCA-420i professionally fitted for iPod integration. (The CD multi-changer is disconnected as a result but still installed.
My reason for selling is quite simple in that life has turned a different direction. We now live in the country with dogs and the car gets used less and less. I loved it the moment I first test drove it and have kept it in fantastic condition because I’d always intended to have it as a forever car. It has seen nothing but V-Power as to be expected, everything is OEM spec or better and I simply don’t drive it hard without warming it up and have never done short journeys in it. It’s always cleaned and kept in the garage and I even roll it onto tyre savers if it is to be not used for a few weeks!
I’m asking £15,500 for it and am not interested in low ball offers (otherwise I would have put it on PistonHeads
) – I don’t need to sell quickly and I don’t think it is an outrageous price for the car, although the market will decide of course. I know that there are cheaper alternatives on autotrader but this one in my opinion has the following advantages:- It has done barely 200 miles since its inspection 2 so won’t need a big service for 25,000 miles at least now
Expensive consumables like discs and pads have all been done recently - £5,000 spent in the last 18 months/1,000 miles
Been in my ownership for 80% of its life with receipts for absolutely everything and great provenance
Full Service History according to schedule plus more interim oil changes
Relatively low miles at just over 40,000
Has some tasteful modifications that increase driving pleasure and performance
So onto some photos of the car.
That's a beauty. Best of luck 