Never Believe "We are only making ..." (archive)

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Price is certainly a big consideration for you, but even more important is the condition of the car, especially the body. A car can look "Mint" and still have been body work or been painted, and you would not know from just looking. If you are serious about the car, I would get it checked out by a independent mechanic AND someone who can check the body for accident damage.

I would then make an offer to the dealer assuming he got the car for Trade-in value (or less) based on what Kelly Blue Book (www.kbb.com) says, and the condition of the car based on what your mechanics told you. KBB says the dealer bought the car for a trade-in value of approximately 23,500. So if he sells it to you at $26K, he is making $2500. He should be able to go down another $1000 easy, and if your mechanics "OK" the car, you should make an offer in that range.

Sure, we all know a great car. Scares the crap out of me, I still want it though!

I drove a '97 M3 Coupe with 55K miles on it from a dealer in the area (Boston). He had it tagged for $27.5K and would do it for $25,995, plus $995 for a Wynn's 36/3 full warranty. He would not go any lower, said he was making less than $1000 on the deal. Seems like good guy with a solid buisness.

Very clean car inside, out and engine, stock (supposedly) except for the stereo and a cold air intake. Some nicks on the wheels. Oil had not been changed, but it looked alright, a medium brown with a little carbon. Engine was clean underneath, a little dusty, but no oil residue.

Came from a lease. The title is clean, it says it was registered for lease in CA, does that nessisarly mean it spent part of it's life in CA? It also checks out as registered for commercial use......does this mean it was a company car? Don't think so, because it was listed as a commerical lease vehicle first, then as a lease, at 38 miles. There are no real service records for the car, except for a 10K service receipt in the owner's manual. Should I be leary of the service record, or is there any way I can find out about any BMW service it's had??? Otherwise, the car seems very solid, I bet I should have a shop check it out though, for that kind of money, but I don't have a shop around here as I'm new to the area.

What's the worse case senerio? Wouldn't somebody have to drive the hell out of one of these things and then not maintain it to really wear it out.....everything visible on the car is MINT, and they hadn't even gone over it since it came in. Should I be wary of the cold air intake? If anything, do most people who put one of those on have an idea what there doing and maintain the car? Maybe the lack of records beyond 10K indicates the guy just changed the oil himself, possibly missing an important service? Is this point mute, because since this was a lease car, shouldn't the schedualed service be manditory?? Actually there were two stickers for recall work that had been done, one was a ecu reprogram, I forget the other. I guess I'm inherently safe with this type of car, MOST owners are responsable.

There are a number of these cars in my area, so it's not like this is my only chance or anything. I gave them a $100 deposit to hold it till tomorrow while I check with my job's credit union, and call a few other dealers in the area. I also would have prefered one of the sedans, personally, but the coupe is nice and the same size.

Finally, the stupid question. I have large sports equipment that I need to cart around on a regular basis.....mountain bikes and alpine skis. A roof rack is out of the question because of aerodynamics and the shorter roof of the coupe. Is a reciever hitch and rack a remote possibilty? It's nice because you can take it on and off easy. How would you mount that? I know the rear seats fold down and I could probably fit a bike or two in, but it's tight, and do I really want to subject my interior to that?!

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