hi rob, just been through your dilemma, all the if's and buts and what if this breaks or that fails, i know its frustrating as hell , iremember the same 5 years ago when i bought my m roadster, panicking when i started reading about vanos issues ,but i had that car for five years, did 3k ayear ,never missed a beat gave me so much pleasure then i sold it and only got a thousand pounds less than i paid for it. never went near a main dealer service dept but have a great relationship with their parts dept who are just a1 ( plug for simon and the guys at ocean falmouth ) i now have a 2008 4m coupe which i am still finding my way around, but which has so much soul i just love it , and yes it crashes and clunks just like everyone on here said it would, but is pretty much normal and you learn to drive them accordingly, my point is we can talk ourselves out of buying cars like this for a thousand reasons, but like you say we may always regret it or wonder what may have been, I say buy one, drive it love it for what it is, far from a daily driver , far from perfect , and far far from the rep mobiles that most drivers satisfy themselves with, if after having it for a year or whatever it does'nt work for you, whats the worst can happen ? ,you'll dip acouple of grand if you had to sell it in a hurry, but you would have had it and done it. a few years back I always wanted a 72 vette and spent 3000 quid travelling around the country looking , but could'nt quite bring myself to buy one due to either body or mechanical issues etc etc, saw some minters, and some dogs, quite often it was the doggy looking ones that drove like new and the mint ones like tractors, but within all the cars i looked at I probably turned down 5 that I should have bought but did'nt . when i decided that a 30 yr old car was maybe to much of a dream and started looking at the z's, i thought just buy one and worry about issues WHEN they happen not IF they happen. and you know what, not one regret, ever. hope your quest is succesful rob, good luck.
