Tuesday, August 7, 2007

It is time...

(August 7th, 2007)
















It is time for me to let go of this beauty, my first BMW, my first M3. It has been lots of fun, and I am sorry to let it go, but my garage simply ran out of room. I recall when I first drove the car home, it felt more like stewardship than ownership. It was my turn to take care of it, and now I will pass on my role to another.

For those who are uninitiated, BMW only produced 4 door M3 in 1997, and 1998. I think total was ~5000 cars that came to US during those two years, so it is an unique performance car with the useability of a family sedan.

First things first, here are some data:

Mileage: 87,095 miles as of August, 2007

Year: 1997, manufactured 12/96

Has it had a clutch service? No, not during my ownership

Do you have the original wheels? No, but it does have the original spare.

Does the AC work? Yes, nice and cold.

VIN please? VIN# WBSCD9328VEE05743

Story: I purchased this car from wholesale dealership as the second private owner. The first owner traded this m3 in for a Porsche. At the time of purchase Feb 2003, it had ~53,000 miles on the car. Since then, I have bought euro floating bmw m3 rotors and brake pads, new radiator, thermostat, and water pump. Currently the tires are Yokohama ES100 purchased at ~72,000 miles. The rims are AC Schnitzer type 2, 17” that runs the original tire size. The car has been serviced by RennWerks, now in Campell (http://www.rennwerks.com/). It is a great driver’s car, with good feedback from the road and responsive handling with its light weight chassis. If I recall correctly, the original spec sets it at 5+ sec for 0 - 60mph. One of my requirements when I purchased the car was to have 4 doors, and at the time, there was nothing out there with this type of performance, with 4 doors, at an amazing price. I would argue it is still true today. Life doesn't wait, and it has now become a baby stroller for my 2.5 yrs old son, so it hasn’t been driven hard. In fact, I work mostly from home in Sunnyvale, so I racked up ~34,000 miles on the car during my 4 years of ownership. Most of the time, it just sits in the garage.

If you are interested and have questions, please send me an email to thugus@excite.com. Any information requested will be posted here.















1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi, this is Anna... Gary referred me to this site. He was telling me how you might be selling this car so I just wanted to express interest personally. :-) Please feel free to contact me at anna.ching@gmail.com at any time to set up an appointment to meet. I'd love to come and check out this car!!