(Possibly) new E82 owner! (TX)

[tracer bullet]

Yeah sounds like the 135i was a hard pass. No love lost there.

The 128i you linked, seems good, not sure when your semester is over but you really might want to consider checking it out in person and potentially grabbing it. They aren't soooooooo rare or anything but I think you're seeing that good ones are hard to find. No guarantee a good one will be available at a time you find more convenient.

[djacinto]

Originally Posted by tracer bullet

Yeah sounds like the 135i was a hard pass. No love lost there.

The 128i you linked, seems good, not sure when your semester is over but you really might want to consider checking it out in person and potentially grabbing it. They aren't soooooooo rare or anything but I think you're seeing that good ones are hard to find. No guarantee a good one will be available at a time you find more convenient.

My semester finishes up on the 10th. We could potentially go the weekend prior, (3-5) and take 2 days to drive back.

However, this is my last semester so I don't have any other commitments for my first 6 months out of college. If a better deal comes in that time we can wait, but, this is the perfect combination of everything we wanted in the e82, should everything be in working order

And it seems that way, as the owner is very transparent and kept very good care of it.

Will probably buy our plane tickets next few days as I continue talking with the owner

[BMWCCA1]

Historically, the ones that sold are the ones you should have bought! Like houses these days, anything on the market for more than a couple of weeks is either overpriced or has fatal flaws. The California car seems like a long way to go for one without Xenons or leather, but maybe that's just my priorities! When you're ready, you'll find the right one. Just be prepared to act quickly.

[djacinto]

Originally Posted by BMWCCA1

Historically, the ones that sold are the ones you should have bought! Like houses these days, anything on the market for more than a couple of weeks is either overpriced or has fatal flaws. The California car seems like a long way to go for one without Xenons or leather, but maybe that's just my priorities! When you're ready, you'll find the right one. Just be prepared to act quickly.

True, I don't think those weee really priorities, just nice to haves…

How do I tell the difference between leather and non-leather?

[BMWCCA1]

Originally Posted by djacinto

True, I don't think those weee really priorities, just nice to haves…

How do I tell the difference between leather and non-leather?

If you've owned one without leather and then spent some time in leather, you'd appreciate the leather for sure. Likewise, drive a Halogen equipped 1-series at night and then one with Xenons—you'll pay whatever it costs for the better lights.

Easiest way to tell if it's leather is to see the build sheet. Failing that, if there is horizontal stitching in the inset panel in the door card, then it has leather. If there's no stitching it's vinyl.

[djacinto]

Originally Posted by BMWCCA1

If you've owned one without leather and then spent some time in leather, you'd appreciate the leather for sure. Likewise, drive a Halogen equipped 1-series at night and then one with Xenons—you'll pay whatever it costs for the better lights.

Easiest way to tell if it's leather is to see the build sheet. Failing that, if there is horizontal stitching in the inset panel in the door card, then it has leather. If there's no stitching it's vinyl.

This line?

[Gangplank]

Originally Posted by djacinto

This line?

No like this one. The horizontal stitching in the middle on the ones that are leather.

[djacinto]

Originally Posted by Gangplank

No like this one. The horizontal stitching in the middle on the ones that are leather.

Got it. Thank you for that!

[K9Leader]

Originally Posted by djacinto

True, I don't think those weee really priorities, just nice to haves…

How do I tell the difference between leather and non-leather?

You can run the VIN on a VIN decoder site and get the build/options list.

I see the California car is an N51. When I was looking I passed on any N51s ad I wanted to be able to bump up the HP and torque with a 3IM upgrade. The N51 already has the 3IM to get it up to the same performance as the N52 so it is already maxed out. Even if there is no desire to increase HP, I would prefer the N52 for the greater simplicity and simpler maintenance. Of course, I am willing to incur the added maintenance of yhe 3IM and the DISAs for the HP gains.

[twinturbovan]

Hey im in San Antonio and track addict. You can check out my posts and threads. My car is somewhat known in san antonio by car enthusiasts. Mtechnik, N5X Syndicate, Frontline Euro are your go to shops for 135i's.

[djacinto]

Hey everyone!

Hope your thanksgivings went well and are taking advantage of Black Friday sales!!

Some good news, we're in contact with the California 1 series. We've agreed on a good price and my girlfriend and I got our flights and hotel booked and will have insurance ready soon

We really like this car, the seller has been very open and transparent with us and I think this is the one. Even if it doesn't have the real leather or hk audio or xenon's, we'll make due lol

I really appreciate everyone's assistance so far and we're really excited to drive it back and report our feelings on the car!

[K9Leader]

Originally Posted by djacinto

Hey everyone!

Hope your thanksgivings went well and are taking advantage of Black Friday sales!!

Some good news, we're in contact with the California 1 series. We've agreed on a good price and my girlfriend and I got our flights and hotel booked and will have insurance ready soon

We really like this car, the seller has been very open and transparent with us and I think this is the one. Even if it doesn't have the real leather or hk audio or xenon's, we'll make due lol

I really appreciate everyone's assistance so far and we're really excited to drive it back and report our feelings on the car!

Sounds good! While the Xenons are nice (I have them on my E91) they do introduce a lot of extra complexity. My E91 has had the right cornering light out since I got it and, except for the error triangle and the codes, I would never have noticed it. I suspect it will require major disassembly and/or replacement of the whole lighting on that side. And, with the 3IM and DISAs, the N51 has enough giddyup to be quite fun. Good luck!

[WilsoN55]

Originally Posted by djacinto

Hey everyone!

Hope your thanksgivings went well and are taking advantage of Black Friday sales!!

Some good news, we're in contact with the California 1 series. We've agreed on a good price and my girlfriend and I got our flights and hotel booked and will have insurance ready soon

We really like this car, the seller has been very open and transparent with us and I think this is the one. Even if it doesn't have the real leather or hk audio or xenon's, we'll make due lol

I really appreciate everyone's assistance so far and we're really excited to drive it back and report our feelings on the car!

exciting news!!! look forward to seeing how this develops -- my apologies I forgot to write you back an email in time.

[djacinto]

Originally Posted by WilsoN55

exciting news!!! look forward to seeing how this develops -- my apologies I forgot to write you back an email in time.

Ha ha that car was certainly not the car lol!

It was just a bad experience and glad we didn't get into something just cause the "price was right"

Plus, I don't think my girlfriend needs a 300 hp dct rocket anyways XD

[djacinto]

And the day is finally here, we got it!!

I (my girlfriend) am now a proud owner of a '13 e82 m sport 128i sulev!

Here are just a few pics of our trip with more to come.

View post on imgur.com

So we left early Saturday morning for a 7:30 flight to LA, got up at 4, all was well at the airport and flight went smooth

Seller and his wife picked us up in the car and we chatted to a nearby starbucks and got to know their story and more about the car and the other ones he owns. A really stellar car enthusiast couple, his main car, an e46 m3 is now going to the wife in the mean time 'till they get another vehicle.

After we made sure everything was ok on both sides, we went to get some food, some coffee and some pictures around the city while we could!

Day 1 trip went very well, LA traffic was expected, but we were never at stop and go which was awesome. Got our first fill up a little outside the city for 5.20 a gallon, what the hell!!

We stopped in Phoenix to meet up with one of our friends who is apartment hunting and showed him the new car, then drove the last hour and a half to tucson where our hotel was.

Day 2 was quite long, we discovered the driver side window was not tucking under the roof line well so at around 85 miles an hour, a lot of wind was coming into the cabin. I confirmed it was the window and not the mirror caps, as I put my finger to the upper inside seal on both sides and felt the window itself wobbling on driver side, but no play on the passenger.

Other than that, it was just road road and more road with the occasional stop for gas and by 1 AM we had gotten home.

Super excited for this car to be in our lives, nothing crazy will happen to it as it's the girl's car so all oriented for comfort and efficiency until she tells me otherwise.

I will be opening a new thread following the projects done to it, however I will be looking through this thread in case questions arise for the process of getting the car pop up

Big thank you to fotontom , WilsoN55 , tracer bullet , and K9Leader for helping me with this process, y'all really helped this process go smoothly.

Thanks for reading and I will see y'all more here now

New thread here