The used car market is brimming with tasty deals, but sometimes it can be hard to tell the wise buys from the potential money pits.
Fear not, our used car experts have compiled their picks from the classifieds. See anything you like? Best to move fast and buy them before we do...
BMW M3: £15,990
Was the E90-generation BMW M3 the most divisive of them all?
Certainly, when it was launched in 2007, some enthusiasts were apoplectic that the calling card of an M3 – the screaming straight six engine – had been done away with.
See BMW M3 for sale on PistonHeads
They needn’t have been, mind you, for in its place is a glorious V8 with a power figure of 414bhp produced just 100rpm before its 8400rpm redline. In other words, this engine is just as capable of shrieking its lungs out as the straight six. But the V8 added something that some drivers had found wanting in the E90’s predecessor, the E46: flexibility, with 300lb ft on tap at 3900rpm.
Adaptive suspension means the M3 rides more comfortably than a stock E90 M Sport, but don’t think it has gone soft. Firm things up in Sport mode and it’ll deliver deep troughs of grip that bleed into the sort of easily controllable oversteer we’ve come to know and love from BMW M cars.
Chances are you’ll be wanting one, then, and here’s where the good news starts: E90-family M3s are now down to a remarkably tempting £16,000 starting price. Take the Coupeà (E92) we’ve unearthed in the Pistonheads classifieds. Finished in a very tasteful silver-over-black colour combo, it comes with a full service history and a full year’s MOT. It has a manual gearbox, too.
Okay, so the mileage is a touch on the high side at 97,000, but that’s hardly a moon-and-back figure, and it’s not like the E90 is renowned for reliability woes. In fact, it has actually proven to be nigh-on unburstable, which means this M3 could prove to be a surprisingly cost-effective and deeply satisfying way into BMW M-car ownership.
Join the debate
Add your comment
that Omega
Top Second hand picks
My view is that a second have 90K mileage modern high perforrmance car would be off my list.These cars,as is illustrated with comments when reviews appear,most likely have had the stuffing knocked out of them and have reached a time when fixes are very expensive.
The Lancia on the other hand would be to me a better bet,because generally to have kept a car of this vintage going the money for restoration has already been spent and the previous owner would have treated it sympathetically.
The Lancia Flavia sounds very
The Lancia Flavia sounds very attractive indeed. I'll be greedy and wait for the even more elegant Flaminia coupe instead, if such still exists.
FCA should have developed Lancia as its luxury brand instaed of Maserati. Lancia has a back catalogue of beautiful cars, any one of those could inspire new models or be the basis of retro models.