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M3 Tail of Woe - advice appreciated -


Venomous
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Having finally took the plunge, I bought a 53 plate SMG M3 back in May.

Four weeks after purchase, the car failed in a semi-dramatic way as all the SMG pump fluid spilled out on to the A516, 400m from my house.

The fault was traced to the slave cylinder feed pipe which had come loose.

Further investigation found that this was the result of the pipes being incorrectly refitted after some gear box work.

To compound the issue, the car had gone into the local BMW dealer before I collected it for a suspected electrical fault...

Two electrical connectors inside the gear box were replaced.

With the pipe and slave cylinder replaced, my car should have been up and running again...

Alas no, both the gear box temp sensor and gear position sensor were both passing back erroneous data.

So.. I'm spending tomorrow in a flat bed lorry and the car is going back to the BMW dealer for an SMG control unit.

Luckily, all the major expense has been covered under warranty.

It really has taken the gloss out of the M3 ownership experience, as I've spent a lot of time and money trying to get the thing spot on.

The final straw was being offered £3K less than I paid for it to take it off my hands (this being the original seller).

53 Plate SMG Coupe in Carbon Black / Black Leater (no sat nav).

Paid £23K for it, any ideas as to what it is really worth?

All feedback appreciated, as always from TSN'ers!

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I think circa £20k is about right, you would get a bit more selling privately though.

Sorry to hear your M Power experience hasn't been a good one. My CSL has been in and out of the dealers numerous times, at least 6 times in 8 months but I still love the car....I would say stick with it, it's only a semi-minor glitch.

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Sorry to hear about your trouble there fella.

I'd be a little underwhelmed about the £3k loss in 4 weeks. If this is an AUC car you should be protected because it states something like they'll exchange the car / replace it if you're not happy inside the first 4 weeks. Now I'm wise enough to know these come with more clauses than Xmas but don't let them try to mug you off.

Also - don't let it put you off. The M3 is still an exquisite car, if they can fix it up for you then take the car back, say you're upset and they'll give you some love.

Just think about the cost if you'd bought it from someone privately! No one wants to lose that sort of cash in 1 month on a motor. Good luck amigo.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Chaps,

Thanks for the feedback, but the car has gone back to IMC.

The defect list - as at time of supply -

- SMG pipes three out of four not fastened down, this resulted in the slave cylinder fluid loss / replacement (fixed by Sports Tech)

- Two very loose bell housing bolts (fixed by Sports Tech)

- Failed SMG Control Unit (fixed by Woods at Hook)

- Missing Front Strut Brace

IMC bought the car back for £2K less than I paid, to be honest I was glad to see the back of it.

BTW: The car is RE53 BAV

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[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

Never heard a good word about IMC, some of the stories on bm3w are shocking.

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Indeed, very few people have had a decent experience from those guys. Shame as they profess to be the "M car specialists" dung.gif

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On a seperate note Gareth, my mate that bought the new Gallardo from Lambo Manchester has been treated like dirt by the salesman ever since he bought the car.....it's had a couple of problems and it had to go back over to Manchester, getting the logistics sorted out took 3 weeks and Dave had to sort most of it himself.....Lambo were shockingly bad....no courtesy car offered either when apparently there should have been.

He has said if one more thing goes wrong with it, he'll be sending it back. crazy.gif

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Seems that poor old RE53 BAV had "issues"...

I had a long chat with the previous owner this afternoon, and in summary the car had a very poor history of mechanical reliability.

Here's the short list of work done to it -

- Two complete new engines

- One new SMG gear box

- Seven hydraulic actuators

- One SMG Control Unit

The represents the best part of £30K!

The car was finally taken back by BMW, and later resurfaced in the independent dealer network.

Looks like I had a lucky escape from this one!

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