If you’re chasing some power, yeah, it’s worth it

330i with b48 is a great commuter car with enough power to feel quick but it will never feel very fast

More is not always better, get what suits your actual driving style

Buckets are absolutely useless unless you’re tracking

In the M2/M4 you don’t even see the rear carbon fiber since theyre coupes, so the eye candy isn’t even all that pronounced

The gigantic ball sack squashed square in the middle of the seat is also detrimental to leg space and stretching

Ingress and outgress is a chore and no matter how many people say that you will get used to it, you never will

Are they cool? Yes. Are they functional? If you track, definitely. Are they necessary for a daily driver you maybe bring to a semi amateur track day once every 2 years? Lol fuck no

And unlike the GT4 where not getting the buckets lowers re-sale value, with the M2 it doesn’t matter as much. 90% of Ms I see don’t have them.

If you have a hard on for the carbon you’ll never see just buy m performance or aftermarket rear carbon fiber shells for regular m seats.

Long story short, if you don’t track aggressively and you’re not self conscious about not looking great flexing on instagram, get the normal seats. The amount of copium from people that specc’d them and don’t have the courage to admit they suck is shocking. They suck for daily driving

Define new engine though? BMW factory new engine, low mileage second hand engine from a breaker, refurbished old engine, random eBay engine with dubious history

As for the rest, it’s a new car with high mileage so it’s most likely mostly highway miles. This means that suspension components (while definitely with wear) should not have excessive wear that warrants instant repair

Only thing is re-sale, because already at 160.000km people avoid it because of potential maintenance nightmare. If you put another 100.000 miles on it in your ownership, after that it’s a car that will have little to no re-sale value

Because texture both in terms of sight and touch plays heavily on perception of luxury

Look at the original n55 M2, the whole dashboard is industrial plastic. It’s one of those things that made the interior feel premium budget at best. They revised the dashboard material on the Comp and on the G87, still cheap feel, but it makes it a bit more luxurious.

Presumably if economies of scale production throughout the supply chain starts gaining momentum, costs should fall

The game changer will be when there is an affordable aftermarket for refurbished batteries for used cars, because as things stand, one has to be financially suicidal to buy any EV with more than 5 years at anything above pennies

BMW (and maybe Mini)

It’s the only car brand I can source every single component from, from bolts and gaskets to fuel pumps and turbos.

It’s also the brand with the strongest DIY community (for the more popular models) with abundant video and forum material

If you have access to ISTA+ and NewTis you also have a direct bible to OEM workshop information

I’ve tried Mercedes, Audi and Nissan and both the digital resources and aftermarket pales in comparison. Nothing more frustrating than having to bring it to a shop to get your stuff done.

I work an administrative office job, with BMW I can safely consider myself a decent mechanic, I’ve learned so much from the community. You don’t get the same with other brands.

Content is on all levels of different quality though

You have your pros that show perfect angles and provide all the torque specs

You have your motivated DIY which gets 90% correct and any mistake gets called out in the comment section

Then you have Joe jerk off that films on his cellphone with no light and makes a bunch of mistakes, sometimes big ones, they only mention after they screwed up. No editing, just one shot shitshow.

The last one is why you need dislike button back in YouTube.

Ultimately as an avid DIYer, you also need some experience to follow the guides. Basic stuff like removing connectors, unbolting certain bolts hoses or any of that stuff, looks very easy on a video done by a professional, but you really need personal experience too to figure stuff out.

5 years ago I struggled removing mirror caps, now I’m changing turbos, fuel pumps, coilovers, electrical work etc. I really prefer videos. Guides are often all over the place and nooby

For BMW

1. Bimmerpost, babybmw, z4-forum and various other non English forums are still pretty active and good for info

2. Full of YouTube videos for DIYs

3. Facebook - engine or car specific groups

Instagram and Reddit are only good to share news and bragging rights, not the platform for DIYers

I don’t think the situation is that dire for BMW, especially if you have access to newTIS workshop manual, know how to navigate realoem and know where to find guides.

If anything, YouTube video material is actually a lot better than them forum DIYs. Between clueless people and crappy/nooby guides, it’s a lot harder to decipher than a video where you see hows it’s done. Maybe I’m a visual learner idk, but forums have been so-so