Romanowski
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Honestly your budget is too low for that car man.
Even if u find one in ok condition for 17k it won't be long before u wished u spent 4-6 k more.
The money u will put in repairs on a 200k+ m3 will put u waaaay over budget.
If take a step back and really contemplate if you're making a good decision.
I'm not trying to rain on your parade btw
is a very good advice. I agree with youNo matter what, OP needs to do his due diligence on the a budget M3 and a premium M3. If it's still itching behind your head on what to do, make an excel of all the costs for maintenance to help you make a better decision.
Romanowski, you are a lucky guy because you are surrounded by good guys on this forum who are spending their time to give you a wise advice from their own experiences, which will save you money, and help you in the future. For every 5 comments telling you patiently how it is, there is 1 comment from someone supporting your idea. That ratio should tell you something, but I understand, you are really excited and passionate about owning an E46 M3 and you think you can pull it off with your budget.
I can see it in your last response that the main message is not getting through to you. You think this car will cost you $2000 in maintenance per year, when Patrick told you exactly how much it cost him to fix a bunch of minor things at the same time (3700). My maintenance costs on the cleanest E46 M3 you can find with 70k kms was 1500/year, excluding tires and brakes.
One last time, you are looking at minimum 3000, probably more for annual maintenance on that $15k car. That also means that you will be fixing something every month.
What Flip said above "Everything else that needs to be changed injectors/coils/leaking gaskets/pumps/fans to suspension/bearings/control arms or bumper cracks I can live with because it's not that bad to deal with", amounts to 3-4k per year for this car.
I think you should just go ahead and do it. It will be a great lesson for you going forward in life.
Found a car. A bit outside of my indicated price range. The car is extremelly clean tho!!
Purchase pending...
Found a car. A bit outside of my indicated price range. The car is extremelly clean tho!!
Purchase pending...