Whats up guys Im DylanAfter lurking around on the site since the beginning of the year when i bought my ZHP in early January. I figured its finally time to join the family. My first BMW was a '00 323ci AT w/ 179k on the clock when I bought it. Wasn't really into cars when i bought it but wanted a BMW because they were nice cars. Within a few months of ownership was when my passion for cars exploded. At about 193k, just after moving to San Diego all kinds of repairs needed to be done and with no where to do them myself and indy's wanting almost as much as the car I decided to part ways
. I struggled for some time trying to find a MT and than ended up with a '02 530i AT
. Car was great but wasn't nearly as fun as the E46. I had that for about 7 months before I was in an accident, RIP
. Luckily with having USAA i received a great payout for it and instantly called my family friend that owns a used car dealership, mostly BMW's (he's a BMW tech). First car he told me about was a 2004 ZHP 6 speed
and i was sold at zhp. After talking to him on the phone for a bit I had gotten all of the details, grey nappa leather (huge plus in my book), 126k on the clock, navigation, pdc, hk sound, 1 owner, completely stock, and no accident history. I went the next day to view it. It was 10x better than I could have ever imagined. I had my E46 purchasing checklist ready that I had written up from ownership experience and forum reads. Every single point on my checklist was inspected or replaced plus a few more that I failed to have on my list lol. We agreed on a price ($1600 less than he had on it
) and he told me that there was a couple last maintenance items he wanted to take care of before I made the purchase (dead key and passenger window regulator was soon to fail.) 2 days later, on January 2 2015 I returned to the little dealership to pick up my new TiAg 6MT ZHP!
For the first few months I just enjoyed the performance package and huge upgrade my previous E46 and E39 while I replenished the savings that destroyed. In April i believe after scouring craigslist bored in class i came across an AFE Stage 1 and knew i had to have it, was able to meet a super cool guy local in SD with a zhp as well and traded my stock airbox with some cash on top. Than went back to savings for some coilovers, with being in school and not working full time it took me a while to save enough. About two weeks ago I threw on my new Solo-Werks coilovers with all new mounts and some fresh Meyle FCAB's. (Still kicking myself for not going with powerflex bushings but hey, the Meyle feel 10x better than original blown FCAB's). Anyways, I'm hoping to get a build and maintenance thread going here pretty soon once a get a few more items knocked out so i can start with a decent size thread. Also, I'm up in the bay area (east bay) for the summer taking summer school up here and enjoying time with the parents before going back to SD late July so if anyone is local up here I would love to meet some of the family and go to some events.
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Originally Posted by Hermes
