1,100 - Kilometer 1991 BMW M3 Convertible on BaT

Well, as anybody who has come to my warehouse will know, what I call one of my major mistakes in collecting was buying a next to zero mileage car. How do I say this respectfully............. it's a brick, maybe a pretty brick, but still a brick. As the saying goes "the good thing is, its extremely low mileage and the bad thing is, its extremely low mileage".

Of course we are all different and I respect the people who save these things with this kinda mileage, they are at least an archeological evidence of correctness for us geeks who are into that thing.

I have one of the 786 (yes its 786) convertibles and it has almost 23k miles, for me thats nice mileage, its been used, but not abused and just today I have been driving out around and gave it a good Italian service on the freeway :). A car that has done 40k or 60k miles, but has been looked after, appeals a little more to my own sensibility, but kudos to others who feel differently, eh it all makes the world and our hobby an interesting place
 
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i struggle with this idea from both sides of the fence. the beauty of the low mileage car is that it is generally correct and everything is original as it should be. as you mention, the downside is that it hasn't been correctly maintained by driving. i like a 40k to 50k mileage vintage car.

your Italian service means driving it with a little respect (some good pressure on the accelerator). i like + respect that approach - i remember an old friend who was a Jag mechanic that told a client, after he praised him for a great service ... "the car had never driven better", that he babied the car and didn't drive it with the respect it deserved. all George did was go out and really drive it - clean out its lungs / blow the carbon out of it.
 
rsporsche said:
your Italian service means driving it with a little respect (some good pressure on the accelerator). i like + respect that approach - i remember an old friend who was a Jag mechanic that told a client, after he praised him for a great service ... "the car had never driven better", that he babied the car and didn't drive it with the respect it deserved. all George did was go out and really drive it - clean out its lungs / blow the carbon out of it.
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Precisely! AKA: Italian tune up. Don’t think it works with cars built in the last 20 some years.o_O

The BaT M3 is in amazing condition and 1100 km is roughly 700 miles. Already at $100k, it will likely end up twice that amount. The winner, for investment reasons, will probably lock it away and offer it up a few years from now with 1200km. Where’s the fun in that? Why buy a drivers car and not drive it? A real enthusiast would drive it and ENJOY it for 5 years, adding say 10000km to the odometer. Then if they decide to sell, it will still have less than 12000km or 7500 miles. Provided it’s maintained properly it will still look and drive as nice as it does today and retain its value. It would be a nice problem to have.
 
This touches on the broader question of survivor cars vs restored cars. having had both I'm torn. I love the patina and originality, but I also love having everything new like factory but then I don't enjoy driving as much as might put a mark on it..
The other big question is when to restore vs not to restore.
 
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