ebay auction Z4M roadster - with no reserve...

[Gwest44]

More importantly the 22p per mile business rate I can claim almost covered my fuel cost

 

[srhutch]

Not heard this before - what was the cutoff date?

Cars with a CO2 figure over 225g but were registered before 23 March 2006 are lumped into Band K - currently £315/year instead of £540/year or £555/year

Indeed they are out there but a realworld rarity for sure in over 6 years on the forum i can't recall any members in this fortunate position with their Z4Ms

There was a forum member, username “Andy” who had an imola roadster in the cheaper bracket. It’s the only one I know of though other than this one now.

 

[Felix79]

I paid £100 more for my '07 with 96,000 miles. I guessed I must have paid a bit over the odds for my one, as I decided to buy from a local dealer near Oxford. I wanted to at least have the security of a warranty after being bit in the backside big time in the past. As it so happens, I'm getting a new cam position sensor and labour done under it next Tuesday, which I guess makes the extra £100 I've paid already worth it?

As it happens, I really wanted to get a ZMR in one of the blue colours, but there was nothing remotely close to Oxford in it. Last weekend, my old man who was a car valeter/detailer for 20 years, did a full detail/check over of it's paint etc. He was really impressed how little damage there was to the car and that it seems to have been looked after pretty well for most of it's life. The Carbon Black colour has been growing on me, as I love the bluish hue it seems to have in the paints shine. At least with Vinyl Wrapping being so advanced and common these days, I could always get the colour changed if I've got money burning a hole in my pockets next year. After seeing a MR in the same Velvet Blue (Purple) my old man's E46 M3 had, I am already lusting to have my own MR in that colour one day.

With the engine bay pics, is all that staining on the engine due to coolant being puked out over a hot block?

 

[mmm-five]

Me too, but I least I get my money's worth out of it

At that mileage you certainly have!

It's just a thought, but I'd be fascinated to learn about the long term ownership experience of an MC. (Partly because after 4+ years of a 3 litre E86 I keep wondering about an upgrade)! :lol:

They're not that expensive to run when compared to M5s, but after 100,000 miles the bigger bills start creeping in:

• Diff (@ 150,00 miles due to accident) (@ 80,000 under warranty) - £3k
• Clutch & flywheel (@ 140,000) - £2k
• Suspension (@105,000) - £2k for Bilstein PSS10
• Cooling system refresh (@ 110,000) - £1k

Then there's stuff you'll need to budget for as preventative maintenance as the car reaches 150,000 miles:

• Rod bearings - £1k (although most say do them at half this mileage)
• Vanos - £1k
• Top-end rebuild - £2k

I did keep a blog/diary on my Pistonheads garage for about 8 years, but I stopped doing it once my annual mileage dropped (after my accident in 2015) - and the Alfa does the 25k commuting miles instead.

 

[Mr Tidy]

Many thanks mmm-five.

Some helpful information there. If I do give in to temptation I guess it's key to find one that has some miles to go before any of the bigger jobs are due.