USED BMW M3 Coupe (01 - 07)

My car

Simply the best car I ever owned. Regrettably, a sudden illness put my stepdaughter in a wheelchair so, for practical reasons, the M3 had to go - not before I'd had 18 months of pure, unadulterated enjoyment though!

I bought the car from new and everything worked fine. The only minor issue was after about 6,000 miles the car would occasionally kangaroo on cold mornings when driven on low throttle openings. A visit to the dealer and an upgrade to a component cured that.

Servicing, tyre wear, running costs were all about what I was expecting and seemed pretty reasonable to me for this type of car.

Overall, it was just like a TV commercial from a while back "Looks good, feels good and by golly it does you good!" I'd have another one tomorow if I could afford to run two vehicles!

My car

Lets start with the dealership... I thought being in a BMW showroom they wouldn't have a lot of time for me but they were outstanding in every aspect of the buying experience!

The car itself is the best car I have ever driven (nonsense I hear people say - but I change my car on average every 10 months).

Everything about the car is fantastic. It's comfortable on long journeys and begs you to "stop messing about" when trying to drive it hard! Fuel comsumption I thought would be a headache but it's more frugal than my last car.

The only down side is the servicing cost but you have to live with that if you drive a car that is capable of "supercar" performance. The brakes are outragously tight when they are required and perfectly smooth when its being driven "on a Sunday".

When I decided to move from the 4x4 lunatic mobiles to rear-wheel drive I was unsure of how well I would get on with the change. This proved to be a false fear as the DSC and balance of the M3 is tremendous to say the least. I haven't yet found the bottle to switch it off yet!

The only draw back is the boy racers that "want to prove their worth" at every set of lights you come to, its only when you disappear and they see the Quad pipes and the back end dropping every time you change gear that they wind there necks in!

Long live the M3. And for my next trick, bring on the new M5.

My car

Awesome performance, throws you back in the seat.

You need to be an airline pilot to drive it. Cornering is sublime, road holding is incredible. What a car.

The only downside is it likes petrol - I averaged 22mpg.