[trey100]

Originally Posted by dubzz24

I feel you'll lose the least by purchasing an OG M2. You should be able to pick one up for around $40-42k when the time comes, and looking at recent M car depreciation trends, it'll probably be worth around $25k in 3 years. $15-17k over 3 years is well under your budget, but have you driven the car yet? I'd say that's the first step; see if you even like the car. I personally preferred the driving characteristics of the OG M2 over the F80/82, although the M3/M4 do have a little nicer interior and a smoother ride with the dynamic dampers.

No I haven't. The dealerships near me don't currently have one. I'm 6 months away so I figure before then I will get a chance to drive one. I wouldn't be surprised if I like the dynamics even more. I'm more concerned with living with it long term in consideration of being a 2-door and the lower quality interior. I sat in a 2 series and it is definitely more intimate in there. But I agree that it probably will be the least expensive way to go and I get to try something new while staying in the M family. Curious to see the delta between 2016 M3's and 2016/7 M2's with similar miles 6 months from now.

[LuvMyE92]

Lots of questions from the OP. Lots of options too. I have just a few thoughts:

- I find that the M2 interior is just fine. I like the exposed CF, and I don't find fault with the plastics. Note that I also have a full cow 750i and I've owned several 911s and lots of BMWs in the past, so I know nice interiors. They have to cut costs somewhere.
- I was shopping M3s when I decided to get the M2. I didn't do it to save money. 'nuf said.

[Transfer]

Whatever you buy, the amount of miles you drive is going to cost you $$$. Lease vs buy doesn't really matter. You're paying depreciation based on miles either way. In the used market you're going to put a car into 100k miles quickly and lose warranty almost immediately. So I guess I'm not sure why you don't just buy out your lease and get an extended warranty or CPO? Will the lease-end value be less then residual buyout? If you want an M2 or M2C that's different and both are great cars but I would argue OG M2 might feel like a downgrade compared to M3 unless you just want smaller size. New M340i probably shouldn't be on your radar if you are hooked with M cars and based on recent pricing reveal, it's gonna be spendy.

[trey100]

Originally Posted by Transfer

Whatever you buy, the amount of miles you drive is going to cost you $$$. Lease vs buy doesn't really matter. You're paying depreciation based on miles either way. In the used market you're going to put a car into 100k miles quickly and lose warranty almost immediately. So I guess I'm not sure why you don't just buy out your lease and get an extended warranty or CPO? Will the lease-end value be less then residual buyout? If you want an M2 or M2C that's different and both are great cars but I would argue OG M2 might feel like a downgrade compared to M3 unless you just want smaller size. New M340i probably shouldn't be on your radar if you are hooked with M cars and based on recent pricing reveal, it's gonna be spendy.

I don't plan on driving any car into the ground. I don't want to deal with an aging car regardless of warranty (and those warranties are not cheap anyway). So even if I bought a 100k mile warranty for big $, in 3 years when that warranty is up, I need to go sell it as a high mileage vehicle.

So in any case if i did keep my car I would sell it by then. From my experience selling 2 cars of the same year (say 6 years old), one with 100k miles and one with 60K miles is a big difference in what you can get and also the number of interested parties you can attract. So the idea is to try not to pass that threshold. Oddly enough a lower mileage 2016 M3 will probably fetch just around the same $44k that my buyout is. So effectively for the same money, I would trade in my car and buy a car with say 20k miles. In 3 years, that car is 6 years old and say 65k miles. Still could fetch decent money. Being at 95k miles like my car would if i bought it, will kill the resale. Hence the reason why I wouldn't buy my M3.

The way leases work, if I drove only 10k miles a year, the buyout residual would only be about $2,000 more. So for $46k I have a 30k mile car and in that case, I would definitely buy my own car out knowing I could sell the car in 3 years for a decent amount.

[dubzz24]

Originally Posted by trey100

I don't plan on driving any car into the ground. I don't want to deal with an aging car regardless of warranty (and those warranties are not cheap anyway). So even if I bought a 100k mile warranty for big $, in 3 years when that warranty is up, I need to go sell it as a high mileage vehicle.

So in any case if i did keep my car I would sell it by then. From my experience selling 2 cars of the same year (say 6 years old), one with 100k miles and one with 60K miles is a big difference in what you can get and also the number of interested parties you can attract. So the idea is to try not to pass that threshold. Oddly enough a lower mileage 2016 M3 will probably fetch just around the same $44k that my buyout is. So effectively for the same money, I would trade in my car and buy a car with say 20k miles. In 3 years, that car is 6 years old and say 65k miles. Still could fetch decent money. Being at 95k miles like my car would if i bought it, will kill the resale. Hence the reason why I wouldn't buy my M3.

The way leases work, if I drove only 10k miles a year, the buyout residual would only be about $2,000 more. So for $46k I have a 30k mile car and in that case, I would definitely buy my own car out knowing I could sell the car in 3 years for a decent amount.

Warranties aren't cheap, but depreciation really slows down after the 3 year mark even if you're piling on the miles. I don't know if it's an option for you down there, but BMW CPO warranties carry unlimited mileage here in Canada and are pretty reasonable. When I bought my 1 year old OG M2 a couple weeks ago I got a quote for a 7 year (from original in-service date) unlimited mileage CPO bumper-to-bumper warranty and it would have been $6k (CDN). If I went with the CPO I'd be driving a 1 year old car with a better-than-new warranty (6 years left and unlimited mileage) for $10k less than original MSRP.

The biggest reason I didn't go for it is that I don't tend to keep my cars more than a couple years as I like to switch things up. Cars for us enthusiasts are a mostly emotional purchase and we like throwing our money at these highly enjoyable depreciating assets