thrashed? or trashed?
It's an M car, it's designed to be regularly used at the upper rev range, right to the limit. Anyone who owns one and doesn't get near the red line on a regular basis is buying it to polish, not to drive.
The only thing you would love to avoid is finding a car that's been redlined when cold regularly. Good luck trying to identify that. Best you can hope for is a decent service history (+more in receipts), perhaps forum membership and how well it's maintained/looked after to indicate a well loved car.
That said - mine wanted for nothing, but still threw up some hefty bills for repairs (cam follower finger wear) that i couldn't avoid really... if someone tells you they've serviced a component you cant do much to check it.
It's an M car, it's designed to be regularly used at the upper rev range, right to the limit. Anyone who owns one and doesn't get near the red line on a regular basis is buying it to polish, not to drive.
The only thing you would love to avoid is finding a car that's been redlined when cold regularly. Good luck trying to identify that. Best you can hope for is a decent service history (+more in receipts), perhaps forum membership and how well it's maintained/looked after to indicate a well loved car.
That said - mine wanted for nothing, but still threw up some hefty bills for repairs (cam follower finger wear) that i couldn't avoid really... if someone tells you they've serviced a component you cant do much to check it.