Hello 1Addidcts
Last week I purchased a BMW 1M and I wanted to share the adventure of picking it up with you. I had been looking for a car to replace the 2014 STI I had recently sold due to the lack of refinement & dash board / interior panels vibrating. I avidly kept an eye on the 1M market off & on for almost a year and it was time to pull the trigger.
3.26.14 On my daily search of AutoTrader I run across a black BMW 1M for sale at Passport BMW in Maryland. 1 owner, 13k miles, has the options I am after and the pictures of the 1M look great. I call the dealership and speak with Jerome Maultsby who was extremely helpful. He quickly told me the answers to the questions I had and I spent the evening thinking it over.
While out for dinner that evening with two friends who both drive M5's we discussed the pros and cons of a few different cars I was considering. Having recently sold my Ariel Atom & 135 and picking up the STI that only last 3 months for me I knew the next car needed to be something special to me.
I went home and slept on the idea of driving a 1M around.
3.27.14 The next morning I was ready to commit, I called Jerome back and said lets move forward. I had requested that the dealership run the 1M through the shop and have the car CPO'd. They went to work right away. I called my friend Madhav & said what are you doing tomorrow? He was onto me already and said lets go! I looked up flights online and booked us two tickets to Washington DC.
After work I headed home to have dinner and start packing. We had to hit Walmart to purchase some blue painters tape.
We got home and finished packing, I went to bed around 1AM.
3.28.14 Our flight was at 6:30AM, I woke up around 5AM. Having a pretty sleepless night thinking about the 1M and not knowing if its in as good of shape as the pictures were showing it to be I was nervous and anxious to see the car.
My friend Iain was kind enough to bring us to the airport in his brand new Ford Raptor! This truck is a beast!
After driving the Raptor a few times my respect for this truck has completely changed... rolling over speed bumps at 50+ mph and feeling the truck just giggle at them is extremely entertaining!
We arrived at the airport with no issues & made it to our plane. We catch our first flight to Denver Colorado.
Flying above the mountains I grabbed this picture of the snowy mountains below.
We landed in Denver and walked around to find some lunch.
While we waited for our next flight I gave Jerome a call and requested that the 1M be up on a lift waiting for us when we arrive so we can inspect the underside of the car. Jerome responded with not a problem I will make it happen.
We boarded our next flight to DC.
We watched a little TV to pass the time on the plane.
Flying
Landing
Landed!!!
We landed in DC around 5PM. We headed straight to baggage claim to call Jerome to meet him for a ride back to Passport BMW.
DC Airport
I call Jerome & let him know we have landed, he lets us know he is on the way in a 5 series and keep an eye out for him.
We spot him in the traffic and loaded up our bags and headed to the dealership. The drive from the airport to the dealership was about 15 minutes. We crossed into Maryland.
Jerome drove us straight to the back of the dealership & into the service bays. We were present with my 1M up in the air on the lift. He gave us our space and said he would check in with us in about 10 minutes. I am in love already!
The underside of the car was extremely clean, all of the exhaust bolts were untouched and everything was in good shape. They replaced the front tires during the CPO process, the rears had recently been replaced. Brakes looked good! Jerome came back into the service bay area and we request the car be lowered back down. Once on the ground we took a look at the interior and engine bay. The previous owner took extremely good care of the car. The interior was beyond mint.
We took the 1M out for a quick test drive.
Driving the 1M reminded me of the 135 on steroids, everything felt solid and overbuilt. The steering rack reminded me of the Honda S2000. We drove up and down the street gently waiting for the oil temp to heat up. Once we had some heat in the engine I rolled into it with & without the M button and I was in love. The little refinements that were made to the car over the 135. The upgrades to the interior, the aggressive body lines of the fenders. Everything was so well put together.
We pulled back into the dealership and gave the thumbs up to start the paperwork. We started the process of taping up the front end of the car.
I got pulled into the finance office & Madhav knocked out the rest of the tape.
Pulled the 1M out front to grab a pic before we headed off into the night.
I shook hands with Jerome & thanked him for his help. Off we went! Back to Arizona! It was a almost 9PM by the time we pulled onto the freeway, Madhav got the Valentine 1 mounted up and started to navigate us in the right direction. We had no real plan in place of where to stop or anything.
I had finally gotten my first M car!
We drove until 2 or 3AM & pulled over at a truck stop to grab a short nap.
After about 2 hours in “M” hotel we headed off again. We were greeted by some wonderful rainstorm in Tennessee!
For the rest of the trip we continued to hammer down the I40 at 10 over the limit getting funny looks from people because of the blue tape. The tape didn’t enjoy the rain and started to come off so every stop we would have to remove the pieces that started to come off. We lived off of snacks found at truck stops. We both wanted to sleep but I wanted to get home so I kept driving.
In total we covered over 2500 miles in 41 hours including 4 hours of sleeping in the car at truck stops. We arrived back at my place at 11:30AM Sunday Morning. Zero issues with the car, I enjoyed every second of driving the 1M home. Special thanks to Madhav for coming with me to pickup the car. Kudos to Jerome from Passport BMW who made everything seamless.
Thanks for reading!
ZeroF