08 M3 E93 (new to me)

[Flyboy161]

Just thought I'd pop in and say, Hi! I've been looking at an M3 that's been sitting at the BMW dealer since October last year. According to the sales manager, it was taken in on trade and before they could list it for sale, it and about 30 other cars got caught in the wiring recall. So it sat for the next few months waiting for parts. Finally it popped up for sale on 26 April this year. The car was already discounted and I finagled a good bit more over the course of several emails with the sales manager.

It's an '08 with 29,000 miles on it. Very well taken care of with regular service at dealerships over its lifetime. Picked it up Saturday morning and have spent the weekend getting to know it a little better. So far all I can say is, "Wow, just wow". What a fun machine.

Edit: fixed the picture issue

[SYT_Shadow]

Welcome to the forum!

Very nice!! One of my favorite colors!!

[e93 jonesy]

Congrats and Welcome!!! Nice ride!!!

[Installsplus]

Congrats. These wheels look fantastic on space grey!

[Flyboy161]

Thanks all! I actually like the wheels. I wasn't sure when I first saw the dealer picture but in person... yeah, they're staying

[Flyboy161]

Never mind

[jiggz]

Originally Posted by Installsplus

Congrats. These wheels look fantastic on space grey!

Definitely looks like space gray, but I thought the only gray in 2008 was sparkling graphite metallic? Space replaced SGM in 2009...

[DSilk]

Originally Posted by jiggz

Definitely looks like space gray, but I thought the only gray in 2008 was sparkling graphite metallic? Space replaced SGM in 2009...

No. I have a 2008 and it is Space Grey. I looked up the VIN to see how BMW coded it, and it is "Space Grey"...

[Teufel_Hunden]

Congrats! Nice low mileage e93 for an 08.

[Installsplus]

Originally Posted by DSilk

No. I have a 2008 and it is Space Grey. I looked up the VIN to see how BMW coded it, and it is "Space Grey"...

Yes I figured that. Graphite is a lot darker.

[Flyboy161]

It's funny, my other two BMW's were Sapphire Black Metallic and when my wife and I went to the dealer her first words were, "You bought a gray car?" I had to remind her that here in Georgia, when the trees are dumping tons of pollen in the air, Gray hides it way better than Black. Yellow would have been the best color to hide the pollen, but I just couldn't do yellow, LOL. I had expected the wheels to be silver based on this image I found when decoding the VIN, but they are a very shiny dark gray, perhaps the SGM you are referring to. The first thing I did was to hook up the Carly and run a diagnostic. Found no issues, but the salesman was very curious about the app. so I took it for a test drive. While out a yellow triangle appeared on the dash. A quick check control determined the right angel eye bulb was out. Carly confirmed that with the corresponding fault code. Showed the salesman and he said they would fix that. So a 10 minute job, he says, turned into the mechanic says you can bring it back on Tuesday because he doesn't have the proper bulb AND he has to remove the whole headlight assembly, bumper, yatta yatta. I was just shaking my head. So, we signed our lives away and went on our way. Sunday morning I got up, pulled the access cover, pulled the H8 35 watt bulb, trucked down to my FLAPS, and picked up a replacement bulb. Replaced the bulb, cleared the fault code with Carly and had working lights again. The filament on the old bulb was burnt in two. Total time to change the bulb including travel time, making a cup of coffee: about an hour.

Now, I'm not bashing the mechanic or the dealership, because in their defense TIS does indeed say to remove the headlight assembly and bumper. But, being an old aircraft mechanic, I know tech data is sometimes written a bit harder than it needs to be. This was the case here. Or....a good way to soak a customer out of several hours of labor.

I also discovered that the parcel cover in the trunk has to be manually let down and latched in order to lower the top. Fast forward Sunday afternoon. The wife has agreed to try riding in a convertible with the top down. I've tried using the CAS feature on the remote to lower the top. It's not working.... hmmm... get in the car, try the top down switch, still not working, but then I see a picture of the roof in the instrument cluster and a message on the iDrive screen. Get out, lower the tray and everything works as advertised.

So, everyday I'm learning something. Like, the car is very quick. But, when the car is quick, the car loves to chug on gas. Lots of gas! So, I set everything to comfort and normal and drive like my grandma and I get better mpg. I didn't buy the car for mpg, but it's nice to be able to travel 40 miles a day on at least a tank of gas, no?

Overall impressions of the car are this:
I love it; I've always wanted an M3
It's a car full of technology
It's a frivolous expense, but I'm six years from retirement and after working for the last 38 years I'm kinda feeling it's time for a little frivolity.
The car handles like a dream, like it's on rails
And after working on some of the most technologically advanced aircraft in the world, I'm not scared of maintenance and repairs.
Repeat after me...ISTA is our friend when it comes to dealing with data busses and modules.

[zipper228]

great find, great color, congrats!

[PACarGuy]

Looks like a great car. I'm certainly partial to the color!
Congrats and enjoy!

[PACarGuy]

Looks like a great car. I'm certainly partial to the color!
Congrats and enjoy!

{Oops...sorry for duplicate post}