[mssVT98]

Originally Posted by Anthony1s

Also am afraid any ice scrapping against the paint and scratching it.

I don't have friends, so no. But my mechanic will let me store it at his garage. He charges $25 a day, so I might do it only when it snows until he can put the PPF back on.

Don't really want to spend money on paint correction after the car was painted. Would rather try to prevent any damage. It's like I'm dumping more and more of my own money into this car for an accident I in no way caused.

Why not just leave the snow on it if you're not driving it anyway? A nice blanket of snow is pretty good protection against most anything. And I can't imagine ice damaging paint... if ice is sliding off your car it's because of the very slick layer of water under it, which would naturally protect the paint. I'd just let it all melt.

I hear you, I'd be paranoid too. I don't have a garage either, which is why I got the whole car PPF'd. But I picked mine up in November and didn't get PPF until the following spring, and there was no damage over the winter. Granted, it didn't have fresh paint, but I'd be more worried about bird droppings than snow. Can you cover it with the new paint or is that a no-go?

[Anthony1s]

Originally Posted by mssVT98

Why not just leave the snow on it if you're not driving it anyway? A nice blanket of snow is pretty good protection against most anything. And I can't imagine ice damaging paint... if ice is sliding off your car it's because of the very slick layer of water under it, which would naturally protect the paint. I'd just let it all melt.

I hear you, I'd be paranoid too. I don't have a garage either, which is why I got the whole car PPF'd. But I picked mine up in November and didn't get PPF until the following spring, and there was no damage over the winter. Granted, it didn't have fresh paint, but I'd be more worried about bird droppings than snow. Can you cover it with the new paint or is that a no-go?

I am driving it. Maybe you have me confused with OP... If I leave the snow on, it melts during the day and turns to ice at night. And the ice is a PIA to get off. That's when you have to take out the chipper and chip it off, which risks damaging the paint. Plus it's not good to leave on while curing the new paint as it prevents off-gassing.

[JimmyS]

I just got back home from 2 months of work travel and I got the warning about my battery being low. So, would recommend finding a way to get some charge into the battery.

I dont drive mine in the Chicago winters since the ally ground clearance when it snows is a challenge. Sat on a battery tender all last winter and had no issues.

[pal]

OP, just drive the car every couple of weeks on a nice clear day and bring it back in right after. That’s the easiest and simplest solution. I’d also bump up the tire pressures to minimize flat spots. I’ve driven MPSS tires in below freezing and through slushy snow every now and then (not on this car) and they’ve been fine.

[dvas]

Originally Posted by TheAMackAttack

Hi all - I live in a condo building with an underground garage. Since I spent a boatload on my CPO M2 and then PPF and ceramic coating, I'm opting not to buy winter tires / wheels this year. Due to this, I'm expecting that I won't be able to drive my M2 for several months and it will just sit in my garage, which is owned by my building but is operated by Standard Parking (who also use the garage to park cars for nearby businesses and events). While the garage has assured me that we can tuck the car away and cover it for as long as I want, it doesn't sound like they can guarantee me an outlet to plug a trickle charger in, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to store the car for several months without the battery dying.

• - How long will a battery in our M2's last just sitting there?
  - Is simply disconnecting the battery for the duration of the winter a viable option? All threads on this forum seem to suggest that it's not recommended...
  - If the battery is disconnected, how do you open the trunk or hood to re-install or re-connect everything when spring finally comes?

I apologize if this belongs in another section, I just wanted to get as many eyes on it as possible. Had no definitive answers from all of the searches I ran...

Last year I left my car in an unheated but covered storage unit for 4 months. Didn't touch the car all winter and it started right up in the spring without issue. I plan on doing the same this year.

[mssVT98]

Originally Posted by Anthony1s

I am driving it. Maybe you have me confused with OP... If I leave the snow on, it melts during the day and turns to ice at night. And the ice is a PIA to get off. That's when you have to take out the chipper and chip it off, which risks damaging the paint. Plus it's not good to leave on while curing the new paint as it prevents off-gassing.

Ah, yeah, sorry about that. Disregard then. I don't have a solution for your situation.

[champignon]

Why are (some) of you people treating an M2 as if it is some sort of museum collectible? I have a 1M, which IS a collectible, and I don't drive it in the winter, but then I have a bunch of cars and it's just cheaper to put Stabil in the tank, cut back on the insurance, and hook it up to a tender, to wait out the winter. I don't have snow tires for it, which would cost me more than the usage I would get out of it would be worth (to me).

But an M2? No one with a brain thinks these cars are, or will ever be, collectible.

Put snow tires on the thing in winter, and drive it all year. It's just a car.

[10"]

Originally Posted by champignon

Why are (some) of you people treating an M2 as if it is some sort of museum collectible? I have a 1M, which IS a collectible, and I don't drive it in the winter, but then I have a bunch of cars and it's just cheaper to put Stabil in the tank, cut back on the insurance, and hook it up to a tender, to wait out the winter. I don't have snow tires for it, which would cost me more than the usage I would get out of it would be worth (to me).

But an M2? No one with a brain thinks these cars are, or will ever be, collectible.

Put snow tires on the thing in winter, and drive it all year. It's just a car.

Agreed. In modern "car culture" everybody seems to believe their mass produced production car will sell on Sothebys for $12 million when the reality is that they are simply missing out on a lot of experiences while sheltering their cars from harm...the biggest waste of car ownership, IMO.

All that saving and sheltering won't save cars from depreciation. Half of these people trade their cars in and they end up in some filthy national dealer wholesale auction house parking lot getting spit on while some sketchy dealer picks it up for a mass discount anyways; getting thrown onto a flatbed tow truck dusty and dirty only to be coated with armor all by the dealership who purchased it. Furthermore getting purchased by someone who abuses it daily. so much for all the sheltering and detailing, huh?

Think less. Drive more. Live more.

[Anthony1s]

Originally Posted by champignon

Why are (some) of you people treating an M2 as if it is some sort of museum collectible? I have a 1M, which IS a collectible, and I don't drive it in the winter, but then I have a bunch of cars and it's just cheaper to put Stabil in the tank, cut back on the insurance, and hook it up to a tender, to wait out the winter. I don't have snow tires for it, which would cost me more than the usage I would get out of it would be worth (to me).

But an M2? No one with a brain thinks these cars are, or will ever be, collectible.

Put snow tires on the thing in winter, and drive it all year. It's just a car.

I don't see what you're talking about. It has nothing to do with protecting car because I think it will be worth tons of money in the future. It's about minimizing damage from daily driving to cut down on repair costs, as well as saving time by not having to clean it as much.

[champignon]

Originally Posted by Anthony1s

I don't see what you're talking about. It has nothing to do with protecting car because I think it will be worth tons of money in the future. It's about minimizing damage from daily driving to cut down on repair costs, as well as saving time by not having to clean it as much.

Look at the bright side; if you drive it in the winter, you will be giving all those over-confident SUV drivers running on all-seasons, something to aim at in a snowstorm.

[TheAMackAttack]

Originally Posted by champignon

Why are (some) of you people treating an M2 as if it is some sort of museum collectible? I have a 1M, which IS a collectible, and I don't drive it in the winter, but then I have a bunch of cars and it's just cheaper to put Stabil in the tank, cut back on the insurance, and hook it up to a tender, to wait out the winter. I don't have snow tires for it, which would cost me more than the usage I would get out of it would be worth (to me).

But an M2? No one with a brain thinks these cars are, or will ever be, collectible.

Put snow tires on the thing in winter, and drive it all year. It's just a car.

Hey pal, not sure if your comment was directed at me, but that isn't the point of this thread. I live in a large city, take public transportation to work and went 7 years without a car here so it's clear I don't need a car on a day-to-day basis no matter what. In fact, the M2 is a vehicle I'd like to keep in my own collection for a very long time and that is why I have a vested interest in making sure it ages gracefully. I still have a '92 Z28 with 40k miles sitting at my family's house in PA to back that statement up.

Even knowing that fact, I'm still willing to drive it in the winter months but am opting to defer the purchase of winter tires/wheels until next year because I've already spent a lot of money in the past few months on down payment and PPF/ceramic coating. All I'm trying to do is figure out how to make sure the car starts in March if I can't/don't drive it from now until then... shaping up to be a cold winter as it's been sitting in the 30s most days here already.

[Anthony1s]

Originally Posted by TheAMackAttack

Hey pal, not sure if your comment was directed at me, but that isn't the point of this thread. I live in a large city, take public transportation to work and went 7 years without a car here so it's clear I don't need a car on a day-to-day basis no matter what. In fact, the M2 is a vehicle I'd like to keep in my own collection for a very long time and that is why I have a vested interest in making sure it ages gracefully. I still have a '92 Z28 with 40k miles sitting at my family's house in PA to back that statement up.

Even knowing that fact, I'm still willing to drive it in the winter months but am opting to defer the purchase of winter tires/wheels until next year because I've already spent a lot of money in the past few months on down payment and PPF/ceramic coating. All I'm trying to do is figure out how to make sure the car starts in March if I can't/don't drive it from now until then... shaping up to be a cold winter as it's been sitting in the 30s most days here already.

I've argued with him in the past. I dunno what his agenda is. He always makes gross assumptions and takes things way out of context to try to prove a point that the way he does things is how things should be done. I dunno if he does it for attention, or because he's angry at the world, or what.

[champignon]

Originally Posted by Anthony1s

I've argued with him in the past. I dunno what his agenda is. He always makes gross assumptions and takes things way out of context to try to prove a point that the way he does things is how things should be done. I dunno if he does it for attention, or because he's angry at the world, or what.

The point is that BMWs (with almost no exception) depreciate rapidly. This includes M-cars, however the depreciation is not quite as fast, and they may hold onto some more residual value (but not a whole lot) after even 10 years.

BMWs are full of expensive parts that break and that need to be repaired or replaced even if the car isn't driven that much. It's not uncommon to own a BMW that is 5 or 6 years old, out of warranty, and that costs as much to fix as it is worth (for example, evaporator failure in a 1-Series, which many owners are now facing, which will effect me also on my 1M as it is failing now, although the 1M, is still worth fixing).

I'm just encouraging people to use their expensive cars that are not collectible, because use them or not, they won't be worth much later, and might as well get your money's worth out of them.

That is all.

[Fear-Mongrel]

Back to the topic at hand...

I thought this was a good issue to bring up and I've been following along. I can't point to any specific threads now, but it seems like I've seen a hundred threads over the last couple of years of car research about battery drainage in modern cars, so many so that I'd considered it a foregone conclusion that you couldn't just park these cars for months and let them sit. Not just BMW, but Lexus, Audi, etc., and not a function of poor design but just all the electronics and Internet apps and iPhones communicating with cars, etc. I'm surprised to read that people are leaving these for months and then finding they start right up.

For anyone that does want to save a little money, this is the battery tender that BMW puts its logo on:

https://www.amazon.com/CTEK-56-864-A.../dp/B006G14FK8

We found one on eBay for under $50. It's literally the exact device BMW sells for $145, but without their logo.

[longbeachbluem2]

TheAMackAttack Last year I went through a similar debate for my first winter. I have two garage spaces in Boston (which I know is ridiculous...work harder so my cars can live better) and I debated leaving the car in the building garage for the winter. The only problem was lack of electricity and the fact other residents' cars (way nicer and more expensive than mine) were incredibly dusty after sitting for not that long. I decided that for a minimal fee, it was better to store outside the city in a heated garage with a trickle charger on a lift (filled tank, put in some Stabil, inflated tires more, parked on wheel mats, chocked tires, left it in neutral and covered the exhaust pipes). My insurance company allows me to remove collision while keeping comprehensive without turning in my plates, thus saving most of the premium. The cars not an investment, but it's nice not having to worry about it during the winter. My 0.02

CTek Quick Connect Trunk Wiring - https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...7#post23863557
M3 Winter Storage - https://www.m3post.com/forums/showth...Winter+storage

[TheAMackAttack]

afwares - Yes I totally agree. I searched long and hard and the only conclusions I could draw were that people thought simply dis-connecting the battery, like you can do on an older car, was NOT a good idea for a M2 and that most people either drive their cars year round or have access to a power outlet to plug a battery tender into. My building's garage definitely does have power outlets throughout, but it sounds like they can't promise me the use or access to one.

Originally Posted by longbeachbluem2

TheAMackAttack Last year I went through a similar debate for my first winter. I have two garage spaces in Boston (which I know is ridiculous...work harder so my cars can live better) and I debated leaving the car in the building garage for the winter. The only problem was lack of electricity and the fact other residents' cars (way nicer and more expensive than mine) were incredibly dusty after sitting for not that long. I decided that for a minimal fee, it was better to store outside the city in a heated garage with a trickle charger on a lift (filled tank, put in some Stabil, inflated tires more, parked on wheel mats, chocked tires, left it in neutral and covered the exhaust pipes). My insurance company allows me to remove collision while keeping comprehensive without turning in my plates, thus saving most of the premium. The cars not an investment, but it's nice not having to worry about it during the winter. My 0.02

CTek Quick Connect Trunk Wiring - https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...7#post23863557
M3 Winter Storage - https://www.m3post.com/forums/showth...Winter+storage

Very helpful, thanks for posting. Also, how did you just happen to find a heated garage that only accepts BMWs?!

[///M TOWN]

Originally Posted by JimmyS

I just got back home from 2 months of work travel and I got the warning about my battery being low. So, would recommend finding a way to get some charge into the battery.

I dont drive mine in the Chicago winters since the ally ground clearance when it snows is a challenge. Sat on a battery tender all last winter and had no issues.

I plug in my charger every other Sunday night.

Works wonders with no issues at all.

Strong battery at all times.