BMW M6 convertible?

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Feb 15, 2003
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Jupiter, Florida
A friend has a 2013 BMW M6 convertible for sale (turbo 4.4L V8). The price is good, 32K miles and no damage history. I do like the car and I love convertibles. However, its age has me wondering if it's going to be a pain maintaining all that crummy European plastic and rubber. He has a 100HP tune on it that raises boost a little and disables the 155MPH top speed limiter.

I've driven the car in the past, before the tune and found it to have adequate power. It's launch is really not that hard, but like so many turbo cars, the car accelerates really hard once it's at speed. It's a big and heavy car, and feels it. But that's OK, as Florida is flat and travel is fast here.

The car is about as fast as a prepped Vette.

Any thoughts?
 
Life is short and it will be cheaper to maintain than than your airplane.

Seriously, my friend and neighbor is an exec at a dealership chain and has 7 BMW's, incl. a coupe of this vintage. It's been fine, but it doesn't get driven a lot.

I'd be concerned about 2 things, both related; 1) the impact of the tune itself and 2) its treatment by someone who would do that tune...

The plastics and rubber on Euro cars was much better by then. Really only seems to be an issues w/ the early 90's through early 2000's when the manufacturers were implementing more 'green' recyclable materials in their cars and hadn't quite gotten there yet as far as durability.
 
When was it built? Since some were part of an engine recall do to a faulty oil pump. Those affected were built between July to September of 2012.
 
A friend has a 2013 BMW M6 convertible for sale (turbo 4.4L V8). The price is good, 32K miles and no damage history. I do like the car and I love convertibles. However, its age has me wondering if it's going to be a pain maintaining all that crummy European plastic and rubber. He has a 100HP tune on it that raises boost a little and disables the 155MPH top speed limiter.

I've driven the car in the past, before the tune and found it to have adequate power. It's launch is really not that hard, but like so many turbo cars, the car accelerates really hard once it's at speed. It's a big and heavy car, and feels it. But that's OK, as Florida is flat and travel is fast here.

The car is about as fast as a prepped Vette.

Any thoughts?
I wouldn't worry too much about that car it is pretty solid, like anything else it depends on the price. IMO 38K or less is looking good.
 
Very impressive...


1628118999173.jpg
 
the S63 is a nice piece of equipment and easy to make gains, 650+ at the wheels is just a couple bolt ons away. it’s not turn the key and go though. still have random rod bearing issues, questionable injectors, crappy valve seals. make sure your tune is 100%.

it is the shortest lived and highest maintenance of all the force fed V8s out there but once again very very easy gains. if you are keeping it as it is i would not bother

 
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Take the massive depreciation as a plus and cross fingers on the tune. You've shared some health issues so if this gets you happy buy it and enjoy some of that Florida sun!
 
I had a chance to buy one of these not long ago. It was a real cream puff. I passed. Why?

People will hate me for saying this but I'm going to say it anyway.

These are niche cars that don't have much of a niche. Serious car guys will buy an M3 or M5 in preference to an M6.

I have a BMW and can say they are expensive and irritating to maintain. A $5 gasket will cost $500 to replace. You have to remove multiple parts to get to what you want to repair. And the gaskets all go. And the plastic parts break down.

And the V8s are said to be especially bad. Mine is an I6 and has been relatively reliable - but it's still expensive to keep up.

If you buy it, I'll say "What a great car." But I'll be thinking you should have bought an M5.
 
I say if you like it, buy it.

We've had a bunch of BMW's over the years. Never had any real issues with any of them. We have a '10 M6. The internet has been saying it's S85 engine is a ticking time bomb. 11 years later and it still screams to it's redline every time it's driven. Of course it gets brought to operating temp first. I bought it with the knowledge that I had the experience to fix it if need be. Or I have friends that can if I didn't want to. So far it's just regular maintenance.

We have a twin-turbo V8 in the X6 M Competition. Still too new to gauge reliability, but it moves that 5300+ lb brick with authority.

One of my sisters had an M6 convertible of the same vintage you're looking at. No problems, but they don't keep cars long enough to have problems. It's a nice cruiser, with some decent power.

Life's short. Enjoy it if you can.
 
Beautiful car. Where would you drive it that you'd want/need the speed limiter disabled?
Nowhere. I never go that fast in anything, including my Cessna... Well, the airplane does generally cruise at 167mph. I do like to cruise fast and not waste time on highway trips, but that's generally within reason, not racing speeds.

I was unaware that the turbo BMW V8 engines had rod bearing problems too. I will check the date to see about the oil pump. As a general rule, I keep cars a long time, unless I really dislike them.
 
People will hate me for saying this but I'm going to say it anyway.

These are niche cars that don't have much of a niche. Serious car guys will buy an M3 or M5 in preference to an M6.

I get that and you are absolutely correct, it's a drivers car, but not a sports car. I don't "love it", best I can say is that I like it.

Even so, a desirable low mile M3 or M5 is considerably more money around here. I'll keep looking around though, as ya never know.
 
Nowhere. I never go that fast in anything, including my Cessna... Well, the airplane does generally cruise at 167mph. I do like to cruise fast and not waste time on highway trips, but that's generally within reason, not racing speeds.

I was unaware that the turbo BMW V8 engines had rod bearing problems too. I will check the date to see about the oil pump. As a general rule, I keep cars a long time, unless I really dislike them.
So, that particular engine doesn’t have rod bearing issues. Based on year I think it is S63TU (technical update ) engine. This is very important as before N/S63 engines had issues with valve stems and turbo lines. Turbos are in bay, and ridiculously hot running. TU resolved much of those issues. The main problem is accessibility. Valve stems on old version were problem bcs. labor.
Of all M vehicles IMO best to go for is M2 with N55 engine option.
 
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