"how you got your zhp?" thread

[Rovert]

1997: Drove an E36 328i Cab 5-speed for the weekend and fell in love with the 3 series.
2000: Dad bought an E39 540i and drove his E46 323i Auto courtesy car for the weekend and fell in love again!
2001 - 2004: Decided to save money to buy a BMW cash.
2003 - 2004: Went on my search for the mysterious unicorn'ed 2003 ZHP.
2005: 1 year later found it locally at a dealership parking lot by chance when at a BMW meet.
Next Day: It was mine...LOL
2011 (present): Still enjoying and can't wait to drive her. She's been one tough cookie that's for sure.

[llll1l1ll]

My E30 was becoming increasingly irritating and was just becoming senile. She's old. Started thinking about a new car, so I decided to make sure I could afford one and what my budget would be. Narrowed it down to what I would want after a while, since I was torn between a WRX, an M3 or a ZHP. I didn't know much about the ZHP at the time and hadn't even known it existed until I saw it mentioned somewhere when I was looking at M3s. I think what won me over was the fact I could get a sedan. I was sick of driving a coupe, and even though nobody really even rides in my cars, I just like added convenience of not having to fold a seat back. Plus, when people get in my coupes, they always scuff everything up getting in the back.

So, I decided to go for a ZHP. The lower maintenance, better doors and all around usability factor was inviting. I started hunting about two months ago. I was dead set on Imola Red, since I was tired of owning a black car. I wasn't really finding anything at all in the budget I wanted or the mileage I was looking for - or they were simply too far away.

Then, I noticed a craigslist ad for a ZHP in my area. It was black, but it had all the other options I wanted and the price was okay at $15,100. I emailed the guy, and although he answered my questions, he was sketching me out. The car had a little too much work to do for that price, so I just told him no thanks and gave the reasons why. A couple weeks later, I get an email from him saying that he has lowered the price to $13,900. Now we're talkin'. So I went and saw it. The guy is swamped with his job and his new kid, so he didn't have much time to really clean it up and make it look like the pictures. I'm smart and I can see through this. I drove it, and it drove nicely, but there was some smokey smell and some tire noise.

He had to run in when we got back since his wife was mad, so I thanked him for his time and told him I would contact him the next morning. I offered him $12,800 and linked him to the KBB pricing guide I used. He was pissed and could not take my offer. Fast forward another week and a half, and I spot an email saying that it's mine if I still want it.

So I jumped on the offer, but there was a catch: he was leaving out of town for some time, so the sale was going to take some time to complete. No worries, I use Metro everyday so I can wait. Spoke with my bank, did some paperwork, got some monies, and about three weeks later, I drove it home.

PS I forgot to mention that when I first looked at the car, it smelled like smoke and the owner claimed he had just smoked a cig so that was probably the case. I guess it was, since the car does not really even smell like smoke anymore.

[WOLFN8TR]

My wife got a new job as a Pharma Rep. She usually gets a company car but most companies are just giving a car allowance now. We currently own a 2006 4Runner and a 2008 Chevy 2500HD that is lifted with 35's. The original plan was for me to drive the truck to work and she could drive the 4Runner. After figuring how much diesel fuel was gonna cost per month just driving to work we decided to use the car allowance and get her a work car. We always wanted a BMW and always liked the look of the 330's. So the hunt began! I searched craigslist and autotrader in Arizona, Nevada and California. I found a 2005 330i ZHP down in Temecula Calif. The color scheme was what I really wanted. I had her dad that lives down in Temecula go look at it. The guy had a Carfax ready and was willing to take it to the BMW dealership for a complete inspection. They said the Oil Filter Housing Bracket was leaking bad, radiator hoses needed to be replaced, coolant flushed and a broken strut bracket. The total was $1700! The guy knocked off a few hundred for repairs and I did them myself for $100. Her dad drove it up to Las Vegas for us also.

Turns out my wife doesn't feel as safe driving the BMW as she does the 4Runner so guess who gets to drive it all the time!!

Before I bought the BMW I never knew what a ZHP was until after getting it home and learning more about the car. I guess I got pretty lucky buying the ZHP over the standard 330i. Love driving the car, it really makes going to work more tolerable.

[gr330zhp]

http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showt...-Imola-Project

Pretty much my long story

[danewilson77]

Bump for new fellas.

HTC Thunderbolt+TT

[webster]

i decided i wanted a new car in march when i had the timing belt service on my 02 acura done. i know that sounds silly, to shell out a bunch of $$$ for service and THEN decide to get a new car, but the timing belt was overdue by 10k+ miles and i wasn't sure what car i wanted or how long it would take to find it. in addition to the timing belt, the acura dealership said it need a new VCG, a new power steering pump and some other misc stuff, and i decided i didn't want to sink all that into a car i didn't really want anymore. i DID (foolishly) end up putting 2 new tires on the car about a week and a half before i sold it, but again, i didn't know how long i would be driving the acura when i had this done...

initially i wanted an E46 M3. pretty much my dream car since i was 16. my perfect match would have been an 03.5 or newer 6mt with ~70k miles or fewer. oh and my budget was $20k max. after extensively researching the maintenance and repair issues that i would need to address with almost any M3 (valve adjustments, etc) i decided it just wasn't gonna happen, especially given my budget. and in all honesty, i don't need that much muscle as a daily driver, and the M3 isn't exactly subtle in its ways.

next i considered the E92 328i. i knew i couldn't afford the 335s. so i found an 07 ZSP 6mt with 50k miles that was pretty nice, but my heart just wasn't in it. the E92s are bigger, heavier, softer, quieter, and IMO not nearly as nice to look at as the E46s. not to mention my total hatred for RFTs...

one day on autotrader i decided to look up some E46 330s just for the heck of it. i found a nice looking black ZHP (didn't know what ZHP was at the time) at a local dealer. i was struck by the wheels and body kit, and i emailed the dealer for some info on the car. sure enough he had just sold it. blast! i thought. but i wanted to know more about whatever package that car had, which led me to some searches on E46 fanatics and the performance package, and it didn't take long before i decided this was what i wanted.

a couple weeks later i found an imola red/alcantara ZHP coupe with roughly 70k miles listed for $16k at a local bmw dealership here in houston. went for a test drive, and immediately fell in love. this car had some serious interior wear (ripped side bolster, scratches all over the place) but the exterior looked immaculate. i was sold. except i knew i needed a PPI for it. so i asked the sales guy to send it to another dealer for inspection. later that afternoon i got a call from the sales guy letting me know that the other dealership reported so many problems that they would not even sell the car AT ALL! i tried to ask what exactly the problems were just out of curiousty, but all the guy would tell me is there were too many to name. then he tried to sell me a plain 330Ci (not even ZSP) and i promptly said no thanks.

shortly thereafter i found a link to this forum and decided to poke around and joined. looked in the classifieds section and found neil's sparkling graphite coupe listed. exactly what i was looking for, except it's in maryland. i was all set to do the deal though, and we agreed on a price. then i found out my financing credit union would not title a car from out of state unless it had passed TX inspection. so that pretty much put the end to my idea of buying a car out of state and shipping.

at this point i was starting to feel a little frustrated. i knew it was a good thing that i didn't buy a lemon, and probably that i didn't incur all the shipping costs from buying out of state, but damnit, i wanted a ZHP!

and then it happened. that same night i had to tell neil i couldn't buy his car, i just happened to find a CL ad for a silver grey metallic ZHP coupe 6mt with ~50k on the clock. it was the PO's 2nd car that sat garaged for most of its tenure with him. not a scratch on it (minus some minor curb rash on the wheels - as to be expected for the 135s). went to test drive it that night, agreed on a price pending PPI with the seller. next day he took it to a bmw dealership and it passed with flying colors. got the financing in order and closed the loan on the next business day. suddenly i went from down and out to the proud owner of a ZHP!

now i'm looking at getting some routine maintenance done before starting to tackle some minor cosmetic & performance mods. loving every second of the new car! (well minus the CDV issue which will be addressed next week...)

so that's my ZHP story.

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Wes, great story. Thanks for sharing.