Practicality triumphs- but it's not ALL bad...

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MCompact

MCompact

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I've spent the past several months looking for a replacement for my daily driver Mazdaspeed3; 500 Abarth, CPO 135i, Fiesta ST, 370Z, E46 M3- I was all over the map. I finally decided to hang on to the MS3 for a while longer. The thing is, I didn't want to spend much over $25k minus the trade and at that price point there wasn't anything I wanted bad enough to go into debt. On top of that, in my current semi-retired gig I'm driving a minimum of 1,100 miles every month and I hated to mile up a nice new/used car. Better to wait until I'm fully retired in @18 months at which point a Boss 302, Cayman S, or a Z4 M Coupe may be more attainable(fingers crossed).

On the brighter side, I get comped for travel at the rate of 47 cents per mile, and part of last month's reimbursement paid for a set of Koni FSDs for the MS3. That will fix my main complaint about the car and will make the next couple of years behind the wheel a lot more enjoyable. Who knows? I may even throw a mild tune on it and make it an even more effective Q-ship...
 
I understand not wanting to unnecessarily put mileage on a nice car, but once you get it, make sure you drive it! It frustrates me when someone purchases an expensive car or even a reasonably priced classic car and treats it more like a sculpture that gets dusted more than it gets driven.

By the way, you're getting shorted on your mileage reimbursement. The IRS rate for 2013 is 56.5 cents per mile. You should check with your tax person to see if you can claim the other 9.5 cents per mile on your personal income taxes. If all 13,000 miles per year you are driving are reimbursible, you are looking at a $1,200 tax deduction, lowering your tax burden by $300 if you are in a 20% effective tax bracket.
 
Originally Posted By: NMBurb02
I understand not wanting to unnecessarily put mileage on a nice car, but once you get it, make sure you drive it! It frustrates me when someone purchases an expensive car or even a reasonably priced classic car and treats it more like a sculpture that gets dusted more than it gets driven.

By the way, you're getting shorted on your mileage reimbursement. The IRS rate for 2013 is 56.5 cents per mile. You should check with your tax person to see if you can claim the other 9.5 cents per mile on your personal income taxes. If all 13,000 miles per year you are driving are reimbursible, you are looking at a $1,200 tax deduction, lowering your tax burden by $300 if you are in a 20% effective tax bracket.


Don't worry, I drive my cars; I'm no fan of garage queens. Whatever I get will be my HPDE instructor car. "Clean but not Pristine" is my motto...

And thank you for the heads-up on the mileage reimbursement. I knew that it was less than the the IRS number but it had not occurred to me that the difference might be deductible- I'll definitely check that out!
 
Originally Posted By: MCompact
Better to wait until I'm fully retired in @18 months at which point a Boss 302, Cayman S, or a Z4 M Coupe may be more attainable(fingers crossed).


I don't know what your financial situation is, but somebody here needs to say it: don't cash out your retirement for a new car - that money will be needed later on for more important things.

It might sound like obvious advice, but a lot of people seem to fall into that trap.
 
Originally Posted By: Gabe
I don't know what your financial situation is, but somebody here needs to say it: don't cash out your retirement for a new car - that money will be needed later on for more important things.

What's he going to do with all that money? Take it to the grave with him? One of the reasons for saving money is so that you can eventually enjoy it, hopefully before you're still able to.
 
Originally Posted By: Gabe

I don't know what your financial situation is, but somebody here needs to say it: don't cash out your retirement for a new car - that money will be needed later on for more important things.


That was never the plan. The wait allows for more depreciation of the cars I'm looking at.
 
Originally Posted By: MCompact
Originally Posted By: NMBurb02
I understand not wanting to unnecessarily put mileage on a nice car, but once you get it, make sure you drive it! It frustrates me when someone purchases an expensive car or even a reasonably priced classic car and treats it more like a sculpture that gets dusted more than it gets driven.

By the way, you're getting shorted on your mileage reimbursement. The IRS rate for 2013 is 56.5 cents per mile. You should check with your tax person to see if you can claim the other 9.5 cents per mile on your personal income taxes. If all 13,000 miles per year you are driving are reimbursible, you are looking at a $1,200 tax deduction, lowering your tax burden by $300 if you are in a 20% effective tax bracket.


Don't worry, I drive my cars; I'm no fan of garage queens. Whatever I get will be my HPDE instructor car. "Clean but not Pristine" is my motto...

And thank you for the heads-up on the mileage reimbursement. I knew that it was less than the the IRS number but it had not occurred to me that the difference might be deductible- I'll definitely check that out!

I did a HPDE this weekend and there were a pair of Z4 M coupes there. I've had some good back and forth with regular Z4's before in my S2000 so I figured they'd be a little quicker and I wouldn't be able to keep up. Well these things were a LOT quicker and were coming around to lap me by the end of the session! Two of the fastest cars in the group save the 911 GT3.
 
Originally Posted By: gofast182

I did a HPDE this weekend and there were a pair of Z4 M coupes there. I've had some good back and forth with regular Z4's before in my S2000 so I figured they'd be a little quicker and I wouldn't be able to keep up. Well these things were a LOT quicker and were coming around to lap me by the end of the session! Two of the fastest cars in the group save the 911 GT3.


I think the Z4 M Coupe is what I will end up with. Small, relatively light, and the last NA ///M inline six. I think it is also the most handsome car to come out of the Bangle era.
 
M cars do tend to be a LOT faster than their non-M brethren, especially around a race track.
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
M cars do tend to be a LOT faster than their non-M brethren, especially around a race track.

I don't always find that to be the case with the 3 series (certainly faster but not "LOT"). These guys were laying the smack down on an E46 and E92 as well.
 
Really?

The E46 and E9x M3s had around 90 more hp than their most powerful non-M counterparts, PLUS limited-slip differentials, PLUS substantial suspension tweaks, PLUS brake upgrades.

If the M3s you've encountered haven't always been hugely faster than the non-Ms, that's gotta be down to the drivers...
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Really?

The E46 and E9x M3s had around 90 more hp than their most powerful non-M counterparts, PLUS limited-slip differentials, PLUS substantial suspension tweaks, PLUS brake upgrades.

If the M3s you've encountered haven't always been hugely faster than the non-Ms, that's gotta be down to the drivers...


And depending on the track configuration. Short tight tracks are better suited to the lower hp cars and longer straights favor the big boys. My car has long legs and a big straight lets you show the speed AND use those big brakes to slow it down...
 
When you say tight tracks favor lower-hp cars, I'm assuming you mean it lessens the advantage of higher hp. If that's the case, good points!
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Really?

The E46 and E9x M3s had around 90 more hp than their most powerful non-M counterparts, PLUS limited-slip differentials, PLUS substantial suspension tweaks, PLUS brake upgrades.

If the M3s you've encountered haven't always been hugely faster than the non-Ms, that's gotta be down to the drivers...

Also how many good drivers leave their non-M BMWs stock?
I don't do the Time Attack series here, but I follow the results and its amazing what a few mods, good tires and a good driver can do. One guy had his Cobalt SS running within a couple seconds of all sorts really fast cars at mosport.
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
When you say tight tracks favor lower-hp cars, I'm assuming you mean it lessens the advantage of higher hp. If that's the case, good points!


Exactly, most smaller cars are normally a bit less high powered in general, then factor in weight and they generally do well on a shorter track with more/tighter turns.
 
Originally Posted By: IndyIan

its amazing what a few mods, good tires and a good driver can do. One guy had his Cobalt SS running within a couple seconds of all sorts really fast cars at mosport.


So true. A Cobalt SS is an amazingly well tuned platform, very indicative of the Generals expertise at the track. They have chassis mojo in spades if they want to!

Look at the ZL1 spanking the much lighter and quicker GT500 at VIR.

Tires alone can be a HUGE upgrade as my latest choice has shown me dramatically.
 
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Really?

The E46 and E9x M3s had around 90 more hp than their most powerful non-M counterparts, PLUS limited-slip differentials, PLUS substantial suspension tweaks, PLUS brake upgrades.

If the M3s you've encountered haven't always been hugely faster than the non-Ms, that's gotta be down to the drivers...

Also how many good drivers leave their non-M BMWs stock?
I don't do the Time Attack series here, but I follow the results and its amazing what a few mods, good tires and a good driver can do...

Exactly.
 
As an instructor I find that a novice with a lot of horsepower does not learn as much as a student with a relatively low horsepower car. I know that going from the M6 to the ti forced me to concentrate on conserving momentum and driving the correct line- things I could ignore to a large extent in the 6er due to having over 300 bhp at my disposal.

That said, I find that at virtually any HPDE the difference in driving ability almost always trumps a difference in bhp- just ask my B(intermediate) student who lapped an Evo VIII, a couple of 911s, and several M3s- all in her lightly modded E46 325i.

Be that as it may, I'm looking forward to seeing how the MS3 acquits itself on the track with the Mazdaspeed CAI(which added 24 bhp), the Pilot Super Sports, and the FSDs.
 
How many miles on the Speed3, and any durability issues? It will be interesting to see if the new for '14 3 comes in a Speed variant.
 
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