2006 M3 or M4 When???

Mid to late 2006? 400bhp V8, 7 speed SMG III. Probably about 5-10% more than existing M3 by the time its launched. Hopefully Logic 7 as an option!

Told Sept 2007 for the UK market...

2007! Oh well, more time to enjoy the existing ones although I wouldn;t be suprised if BMW have shortened the usual "base model to M" lead time. By 2007 the E46 M will look well and truely dated, especially when the E90 coupe arrives.

"TonyK" wrote

Ah, so you're a poser that cares about looks and doesn't care about performance.

FloydR

Why would you want the E90??? IMHO it's a 'non-car' Everybody who sees it says it looks like another manufacturer's product. That is the problem - it looks like everybody elses car and not a BMW. I was planning to trade my 2004 M3 into an E90 in 2007, but havinbg seen the new E90, I am just totally unimpressesd by the look of the car. I don't dislike it, but I don't really like it either. It does nothing for me at all, and to spend over £50K on a car that 'looks' mediocre and ordinary won;t do it for me. I have withdrawn my pre-order with BMW and would rather spend the extra £30K and get a Carrera - a car that looks the part as well as acts it - much like the E46 M3.

Interesting assumption, did it take you long to think that one up?

Sorry to sound stupid, but what difference does it make as to which car you spin off?

I mean, if you have two, and want to get one to replace another one, it seems that the one that gets replaced will get replaced no matter what you replace it with. I have three cars as well, and that is all I can keep at my house. If I was gonna get another car, I'd be planning on the one to get rid of already, without regard to what actually was selected to replace it. Whether or not I actually replaced a car would depend on the acquisition costs of the new car, but the car I planned on getting rid of would not change.

Well, I can see his point.

It's taken me many years to get the SO to truly understand that there are *cars*, and then there are *toys*. Years ago, she'd tell anyone who wanted to listen that I had five cars. Now she understands that I have one car, and two toys. (I sacrificed two of my toys in the last few years for reasons that are not really clear to me, except that they were both old and money pits.)

The thing is, you don't always acquire and dispose on a one for one basis. In the past, I've acquired on a promise to the SO that an existing toy would go as part of the deal, and I was at plus two at one time for nearly two years before I got seriously called on it.

Well that's all well and good. But the bottom line is, the car that went had nothing to do with the car that came. Getting rid of a car would happen, and getting a new car might or might not happen, but the getting rid of and the getting of the new one aren't linked except by time. That is, you pretty much knew which one was leaving before the new one came home. The new one coming home was a larger variable than the old one leaving. At least, that's the way it is at my house.

This deccision does not really have any financial ties. I caanot even use any common sense to make the decision; buying a M has nothing to do with common sense. My decesion is purely an emotional decision. I have a sports car (Z4) and a sedan (325), two distinctly different vehicles.

The Z4 is a toy - pure and simple. She is flawless and practically new - sits in the garage all day long under cover. 325 is an absolutly wonderful car in every way - an absolute joy to drive.

These cars are like choosing between beautiful women.

Why the M when I have two perfectly good cars? Because I can. A stupid reason - an illogical reason.

The car I'm definitly gonna keep - A 2004 Jeep Wrangler - why? Because I can park it where I want. If people bang my doors, if I don't wash it - when the weather is rainy and possibility of flooding - I can drive in areas where there are mega potholes - it doesn't bother me to abuse this vehicle. I live in New Orleans - pothole country.

This decision is gonna be hard. And I am not giving up both BMW's for one. I like having a spare.

JP, You sound a lot like me!

Mine is an older Z3 ('97) but immaculate. It's up For Sale by the way... Info on my Home Page in my sig below:

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. ;-)

I have a Wrangler too, though a bit older. But I'm not keeping mine. It's For Sale too at the same link as above. I like the Wrangler but there are a few drawbacks to life with this cult car. For one thing, with a soft-top on it it is 100% impossible to secure the thing from being broken into. Not a big deal in most of New Hampshire (where I live) but it means no side trips into Boston in that configuration.

Secondly, I hate driving that thing on the highway. No fun.

But the main reason I'm getting out of the Jeep is I have too many damn cars and my kids are all moving out so I have fewer drivers.

Pothole country? You gotta be kidding... Come on up to New England and I'll show you some potholes you could hide your Z-car in. ;-)

Yep, gotta have the right tool for the job at hand...

--

-Fred W

"Ah, so you're a poser that cares about looks and doesn't care about performance.

FloydR "

No need to be a jerk Floyd. People enjoy cars for different reasons.

Well duh! The new M will be more like the 325 than the Z, so dump the 325 and keep the Z as a toy. I get the whole attraction to the 325, and my 325 was recently creamed by an old lady in golf pants turning into a retirement community, so I replaced it with a rag top. I get the best of both worlds, the 325 for space and driving pleasure, and a rag top like the Z for that wind-in-my-hair and sun-in-my-face experience.

Get the new M3 and use it to replace the 325. Keep the Z for weekends. That's truly a no brainer.

I have a Jeep CJ5 that I will keep -- my wife says she'll simply pull some brush over it to cover me up when I die, but that's another story -- and I can park it where there is no chance in Hell that I'll get a door ding, however I tend to roll it onto its side from time to time, and the door dings are the least of my worries. ;-)

I've heard that you don't have maps of where the potholes are, you have maps of how to get around inside the potholes.