Advice On Purchase Of 2005 M-3?

[cpadpl]

I am currently anticipating purchasing a 2005 M-3 in the next few months (after owning many different BMWs in the past), and would like any feedback that the M-3 owners can give me. Although I am interested in any input, I specifically have three questions:

1) For those of you who may have looked at a Porsche as an alternative, what were some deciding factors in your choice of the M-3? I certainly appreciate a fine sportscar, but am in my 30s and am not contemplating any daily drag racing from stoplights (thus 0-60 at 4.4 seconds rather than 4.8 seconds is of little significance to me). Therefore, even though the Porsche has a certain mystique in certain people's minds that the BMW may not have, the reality is that it appears one would have to step to at least the Turbo or the Turbo S to even get a decent increase in horsepower past the 333 that the M-3 puts out. In addition, even with the Turbo and Turbo S, the 0-60 time of the M-3 is very close to the Porsche, and beats out many of the non-turbo models (the Targa, 911 Carerra, and Carerra 4S AWD). Simply put, I'm not a cheapo but the M-3 seems to have the best "horsepower/0-60 bang for your buck." Would any of you concur or am I missing something?

2) Second, I know all high-performance sportscars have low profile tires. I know they are more prone to damage, but how easily are they really damaged? I mean I hit the occasional pothole, and I'll be damned if I want a car that I will have to replace a rim twice a year. I'll still with the BMW sedans with regular tires if that is going to be the case.

3) For any of you who may have owned a Porsche in the past, how is reliability? One thing that attracts me to BMW is 1) the overall level of reliability I have experienced in the past and 2) the fact that there are numerous dealers throughout the continental US who can repair my BMW (should something go wrong). In my State of Florida, I have over 24 BMW dealerships, but only 8 or so Porsche dealerships. The last thing I need is a high performance sportscar that is prone to breaking down and that I have to get towed to the nearest service center in B.F.E. when that happens.

I thank you all in advance for your input.

[bigred318]

i can only account for #3 and remember this is just from one guys expeirence. My uncle had a older 911 turbo, very sick car. pretty reliable, those models did have some flaws to them and would break down sometimes though. When it did it wasnt cheap to fix... nor is a bmw cheap to fix, but the porshce prices are crazy!!! now i dont know what year porsche you are thinking about so my above responce might do you know good... all i know is the porshce did break more than say my 2 bimmers.... sorry for the lack of advice... but thats just from my personaly expeirence

David

[Team Perfect Line]

I never looked into the Porsche option. I own a 2004 M3. You will love it.

Also, about the low profile tires, the occasional pothole will not do damage. From you post I realize you are concerned about this and will obviously make your best efforts to avoid damaging your rims. IF you upgrade to a different set of rims all you need to remember is that with replica rims the occasional pothole CAN mak trash out of your rims.

Perfect Line

[cpadpl]

Originally posted by Team Perfect Line@Jan 16 2005, 05:36 PM
I never looked into the Porsche option. I own a 2004 M3. You will love it.

Also, about the low profile tires, the occasional pothole will not do damage. From you post I realize you are concerned about this and will obviously make your best efforts to avoid damaging your rims. IF you upgrade to a different set of rims all you need to remember is that with replica rims the occasional pothole CAN mak trash out of your rims.

Perfect Line

[snapback]272803[/snapback]

Thank you for your advice, and yes, I'm sure I will love my M-3. You could say I've got a wandering eye (in many respects) and when I was looking at my choices among the M-3 and the new 6 series, one eye kind of wandered over to the Porsche since the 911 Carrera is kind of in the same ballparky price range.

Let me rephrase one of my earlier questions and ask have you ever damaged your rims on your M-3, and if so, could you describe the incident that caused the damage? The reality is with a sportscar I'm going to have to live with low profile rims, just kind of want to know what I'm getting into.