Joining the festivities from Phoenix

[KevinC]

Greetings all,

After a surprisingly short search, I found my perfect ZHP 2400 miles away in Miami last week. Fortunately, my best pal lives up the road in Ft Lauderdale, so I was able to have him drive the car and do an exhaustive inspection. He's a former dealership mechanic (many moons ago) and confirmed gearhead so he's the perfect guy for the task. I hooked him up with the seller, and it turns out they both fly the 767 for American out of Miami. Kinda surprising their paths had never crossed. Anyways the car is an '05 330Ci with 51k miles, 2nd owner, was a lease return CPO when he bought it. He was asking $19.9k, we settled on $18.5k, which I feel was a very fair price for the condition, mileage and excellent history of the car. It's in my buddy's hands as of today and will board a truck for Phoenix in the next couple of days.

Here are a few preliminary pics from his driveway today. Can't wait to reel her in!

http://2.zz.s3.amazonaws.com/i/24a065b1-7a56-43e3-878a-eab13adde787-m?1335573962

http://2.zz.s3.amazonaws.com/i/9ccd4075-3ced-4511-bc89-c8274efd4dff-m?1335573965

http://2.zz.s3.amazonaws.com/i/9a05b820-c93d-4562-acd9-a8251d6018e1-m?1335573964

http://3.zz.s3.amazonaws.com/i/5fb7e9b7-7039-4b43-a8f7-7ca420a07f2d-m?1335573970

http://2.zz.s3.amazonaws.com/i/caa551c5-19e9-46e5-b146-577a536c7302-m?1335573956

The ZHP will replace my Mini as my main DD, though my M Couple will nearly split duties. Glad to have found this great resource, thank you Marcus and all that bring us the Mafia!

[webster]

very nice and congrats!! funny...i too bought my previously CPO'd Ci w/ exactly 51k on the clock. we'd love to hear more details about the ZHP and any plans you have, mod wise, for any of your cars :)

oh and btw...love the TiAG and silver cube trim. get some gloss black kidneys and painted/clear reflectors and she will look purrrfect :)

[Hermes]

Congratulations on the beautiful car and welcome to the forum

[GMATT]

Welcome.......................And nice choice of color and style:)

[kayger12]

Freaking beautiful car-- and silver cube, ftw!

Welcome to the Family.

[danewilson77]

Welcome

[elric]

Welcome to the family!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Welcome to ZHPMafia.com.

[zhpnsnv]

Welcome!

[KevinC]

Thanks for the welcomes everybody! As for mods, the car will likely remain bone stock - I love it as it sits. I have already ordered the UGDO from Ebay to add immediately. The car already has xenons, Bluetooth/BMW Assist, and lumbar support. I have the full list of how it's configured, but it doesn't show Premium package, so I'm not sure how/why it has some of that stuff? But I'm obviously glad it does. I've also ordered a set of genuine cocomats, which I've had in my last several cars and are an absolute must for me.

I'm ASSuming that at 51k miles the stock shocks are probably pretty well shot. Is there a Bilstein HD or Sport that's a proper direct replacement for the stock suspension setup? I have a set of HD's in the garage that are about to go on my (43k mile) M Coupe.

Funny trivia: my car's build date is 7/30/05. Back then, that very month, I'd been stalking a new Audi S4. The local dealer had a couple of them in stock, including one they'd equipped with BBS wheels, that was freaking beautiful. But the only one that was optioned exactly as I'd have required was yellow, and there was no way I was driving an S4 that looked like a taxi. They were desperate to unload it, and one day after my ZHP rolled off the line (and the last day of the month.. the reason I remember all this is it's my birthday), the sales guy calls me and basically says "we give up - what's it gonna take to get a deal done today? The boss wants it gone today, name your price." There was NO price I was willing to pay for that thing, so I passed. Besides, I'd just taken a test drive, and decided that the thing was a heavy pig and was ready to look elsewhere. I priced out a new E90 330i sedan and ordered one - after first pricing an E46 M3 and almost fainting at the bottom-line price. What I did NOT know at the time, was that the standard E46 coupe was still in production and orderable, or that the ZHP package even existed. Had I known, I'd have been all over a ZHP as I'm much more of a coupe guy. So in the end, almost 7 years later, I've found "my" car, which had just rolled off the line the day before an S4 was attempted to be shoved down my throat. Funny how things work out sometimes, eh?

[kayger12]

Very cool story. Our cars rolled off the line less than two weeks apart.

[Johnmadd]

Welcome. Nice car.

[mimalmo]

Welcome. Stock shocks are probably OK unless they're leaking. Instead, I'd look at replacing the diff fluid, coolant, FCAB's and new VANOS seals.

[Ryans323i]

Welcome and Congrats. Can't wait for you to have her in your driveway!

[static667]

Welcome to the Mafia! Sweet ride.

Sent via Tapatalk 2 on my hacked Fascinate.

[johnrando]

Both are great stories. Welcome to the family and congrats on getting such a nice car. IIRC, ZHPs don't have premium packages as the packaging basically supersedes that.

[elric]

:roundel
Welcome to the family.

[jayjay_dee]

Welcome to the family....

[M3TA5IN]

Welcome, nice find!

[echo46]

Very nice whip, welcome.

[onepercent]

She's a beaut! We are nearly twins, only I have Black Cube trim and Alcantara wheel/gearshift liner/e-brake liner.

Great collection of cars you have.

[KevinC]

Here's a nice shot of my "other" car, right after a detail & paint correction last spring...

http://2.zz.s3.amazonaws.com/i/6685074a-af8a-4704-a1b0-5590d521b784-l?1329616939

And here's my Mini, which is for sale, being replaced by the ZHP...

http://1.zz.s3.amazonaws.com/i/6d01f87e-63d5-40ac-a6ce-83cedbbac66f-l?1329617267

[danewilson77]

:drool

Pants tight.

[echo46]

Love that blue.

[KevinC]

Great news out of Florida tonight! The car is finally being picked up from my buddy tomorrow, I should see it in a week to 10 days. Getting a car out of Florida is difficult right now, because apparently it's snowbird retreat season, so a ton of cars are heading northward. Hitching a ride westward has been tricky.

[KevinC]

Better news today! The guy is heading west today, and I'm his first stop - could be here as quickly as 3 days. Huzzah!!

[kayger12]

Awesome. Looking forward to pics.

I wish this was sent with a Galaxy S3

[johnrando]

Great news, looking forward to the results. If it's not covered transport, you might want to be prepared for a dirty looking car. Don't sign the paperwork until it's off the truck and you've had a chance to check it out (look inside the trunk for the spare, etc).

[KevinC]

Car is here, paint correction done over weekend, cocomats are in, new ZHP knob to replace worn original, new A-pillars received but not yet installed, new side markers (both dead and water inside) on the way, new Homelink mirror on its way back from day/night function repair. Here's tons of new pics linked in my sig below. Loving the ZHP experience thus far!

[johnrando]

That is tons. Looks great!

[cakM3]

Kevin,

Welcome to the family! You have a nice collection there :thumbsup Love that steering wheel! :drool

[Oli77]

Very nice cars indeed. Welcome

[Pip]

Great cars! Welcome.