Sorry if this is long. It's worth of a story.
OK, so I was talking to a guy in my office last week, and cars come up, then BMW, I show him a photo of my car, and he tells me he and his wife have an old BMW, too and theirs is very similar. "Oh, really?," I say assuming he just means it's also an E46.
He continues, "Yeah it's a 2000, two-door, and the wheels look exactly like yours." It's clear he's not really a BMW guy or even a car guy, so I figure it has some aftermarket wheels on it that just look like our style 135s. He tells me it was his wife's car, that they don't drive it anymore and that they just want to get rid of it. He asks if I'd be interested in buying it, tells me they're only asking $2000, but that he'd go $1800 if I wanted it. I asked about condition and mileage, he tells me it has 160,000 miles on it, and that he'll bring pictures next week.
Fast forward to half an hour ago. He walks into my office and says he has pics and whips his phone out. No. Friggin. Way. It's a ZHP coupe. Black with natural brown. Two-tone black and NB door panels. Style 135s. Automatic. Apparently, it's been sitting idle in a garage for three years since they had kids and the wife got a more kid-friendly car. He said it got driven about a year ago when it went across town from one garage to another for a move and was fine. From his photos, it may be a little rough around the edges, think "urban". It's a little hard to tell because it's dirty and dusty like a barn find. Front bumper looks rough. Aftermarket carbon fiber hood. Not sure about the interior. He said he thinks all it needs is a battery to be drivable.
So, immediately my gears started turning. I could buy this, spend a few weeks wrenching on it, play with paint correction, swap out a few parts and get some experience wrenching on an E46 without working on my own car, then turn it over to some local enthusiast for a reasonable profit. Assuming there's nothing major wrong with the car, what's a 160k-mile 2000 ZHP coupe worth? I'm thinking it'd be worth a weekend or two of work if I could net a grand or two and some experience.
Too risky for a flip, or is the price low enough almost not to matter? I could almost certainly get my money back out of it unless the motor or tranny died, right? The only other thing that came to mind was that I know with the earlier cars, the subframe was a concern.
All opinions welcome.
I'll post a couple of pics once I get them.
I waited patiently to buy a ZHP for almost five years, hardly ever saw them, finally bought one, and then another just drops into my lap. Life sure can be strange.
Cheers,
SC
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Originally Posted by Johnmadd
