as I join the Pantheon of rear wheel drivers.
Some of you have followed my recent thread, (not about masters degree.. i'm still thinking on that one) would know what I'm talking about. and it's been an exercise in patience and frustration.
To begin,
when disaster(
) struck my trusty jetta, i began thinking. about a lot of things.
should i get a new car? should i stick with it? what if i miss the chance to own really fun cars until i'm really old? i'm turning 30, and haven't really owned anything special yet... and i've been an auto enthusiast for last 15 years!
88 nissan? fun as heck, nothing except tachometer worked, but my first car, i had so much fun with that.
jetta? it's ok. built solidly and i'm addicted to turbo now. (quite slow though, to be honest) and it's not really anything special.
so i made up my mind to look for a new ride.
i've considered a lot of options.
rx 8, gen coupe, bmw 330, ...
I only had 3 restrictions. be it manual, fit my sporting gears and within my budget.
first car i looked at was the 2001 laguna seca blue bmw M3. at Calgary BMW dealership. on sale for $26500 + fees and taxes.
the sales guy i talked to let me drive it right away. but that was the highest point of our short relationship, as he wasn't willing to do anything for me. his attitude was as if if i couldn't afford new bmw, i shouldn't be wasting his time.
came back from the dealership a little disappointed.
i thought about mini, but remembered that it would not fit my snowboard....
then i came across the thread on this board about rear wheel drives and i began thinking 'ya kno, i might as well get a rear wheel drive this time'
i was smitten with laguna seca blue bmw i drove. but alas, too expensive, and too rough shape outside.
so, i went searching for other bmw's. looked at so many ad's, contacted at least 7, made at least 4 offers.
at one time, I was so close to pulling the trigger on a black 05 m3 up in grand prairie.. it is a US car, and has 124k KM on it, so it's cheap. had a bank draft ready, made all trip arrangements, but at the last minute, my close friend who is almost like my sister requested some assistance. she's a single mom in US, and I couldn't say no. (also, this was the worst time period in my work situations..)
so i backed off on this.
saw a silver 02 prior to this.. this was my back-up car deal if the deal didn't go thru. 120k km.. bold tires.. was in a fender bender 3 times. but only $16k.. i was tempted many times, because nobody else wanted to deal, even when i make what i believe is fair offer based on actual sales prices i tracked. (3 deals i couldn't cash in on)
saw a black 02 with aftermarket rims.. owner told me it had no accidents, but fender had been off the car, clearly.
saw a black 03 with aftermarket rims.. US car that an engineering student was driving.. aftermarket stereo makes it impossible to even use the trunk. and he drove very rough.
made offers on couple of Phoenix yellow ones, ..apparently my offer was too low.
Then something happened. was browsing auto trader one day, and voila.. silver 02, fully loaded (except nav.. i wouldn't want outdated nav anyway) with low km at local used car dealership(calgary auto something). i went right away to take a look. it was raining at the time, and i didn't want to drive it, but i looked at everything like i usually do.
it was soooooooo clean. except one thing was puzzling... on E46 bmw's front strut tower, bmw has the VIN etched on them. but on this one, i couldn't find it.
there was no evidence of fenders taken off either.. i was really curious. i asked the sales person(probably the owner of the joint) whether it was in an accident. he kept saying it had clean title.
few days later, when it's sunny out, i decide to take a second look.. it's on sale for $19k.. wouldn't hurt to look again. but my GF tells me to run carfax.. just to be safe.
so i do. and what do i find? accident in 2008, estimated damage, $45000. yes, you read that right, $45k damage. the thing had entire front end replaced.. that's why it was so clean.
awww crap.. back to square one.
i was almost giving up at this point. mostly just going thru the motions but starting to look more at other cars. 330 zhp was tempting. mini did pull my heart a lot..
but one evening, after a hard afternoon of cleaning my gf's rabbit (vacuumed the heck out of that thing), and leisurely checking out the auto trader, i saw it.
laguna seca blue m3. on auto trader at $23k instead of 26.5
so I called. this time, i wouldn't be looked down upon. i hoped i wouldn't get the same sales guy but even if i did, i would be direct and to the point (I didn't get the same guy)
I got a salesperson named Matt Lyons. i offered him 18k, and he said he will talk to his mgr and get back to me in 5. he did.
he countered with 22, and I said no way.
he asked if i had a trade in, and when i said depends, he asked me to come on down, let him take a look.
me and gf drove down. looked at the car again. it was cleaner than before. but the driver's side mirror was gone. so Matt and I sat outside, and talked about the car.
he was very knowledgeable and friendly guy. i asked him why it was so expensive, and he gave me a convincing explanation and the work dealership did to put the car up to salable condition with written proof. he told me the dealer spent close to 4k in prepping the car and i was pretty much convinced. it has very close to new 19" dunlop winters. if i got this car, i wouldn't have to do anything until next summer arrives.
so we dealt some more. i told him everything that is wrong needs to be fixed, like the fallen mirror and trunk handle, and he said it will get done.
so ... I signed on the dotted line. that was last saturday.
Today, I picked it up. It's not the cleanest one I saw, or the lowest mileage one, or the cheapest one.. but it was the combination of the color of the car, the condition of the important part of the cars that i could inspect and verify on work records, the price and awesome sales guy. I'm not that excitable, i wasn't even excited to get M3 until i picked it up today, but this salesperson i dealt with, Matt, was such a pleasure to work with.
from the moment i called, he treated me with respect and honesty (and little bit of flattery), never failed to deliver on his words, (call back on time, constant email updates) and just flat out being awesome salesguy.
so folks in cowtown, in need of a new bimmer, give Matt Lyons a call.
and finally, i know this thread means nothing without pics.
2001 M3.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/HgZVqOJ_EUcVp3HUe-dySQ?feat=directlinkhttps://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/NQJm7C2p2Z46KtxUFrCVRQ?feat=directlink dog and the rabbit
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/v6uRwsbhyhYSd-zvxGVMwg?feat=directlinkfront
now, i'm gonna go for a drive.
(btw, while parking, i already put a brand new curb rash on the wheels.)
