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Owning a BMW X3 M40i in the US

15th April 2022, 09:04 by Ananth Iyer

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It made sense for me to look at a car with better boot space and rear seat space as a family car and I seriously started looking at the X3 M40i instead of the M340i

BHPian fusionbang recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

BMW X3 M40i

Likes

Exterior Looks
Brilliant Engine (B58) with an amazing gearbox (8ZF)
Luxurious (coming from a highlander) interior with Cognac seats
Compact yet spacious cabin and boot space
Panaromic Sunroof
Adaptive LEDs with Matrix LED lights and auto high beam technology
12 speaker Harmon Kardon audio with iDrive 7.0

Dislikes

Pricey, almost touching the X5 range
Bumpy ride (Especially with RFT tires)
Some features like sunglass holder, 360 deg camera, Adaptive Cruise Control missing as standard at this price point
No scuff plates for rear doors
Wireless charging should have been standard
Comes with summer tires as standard with a staggered setup, being in east coast have to spend another grand to have a set of winter tires or change them to all season tires.

Background

I was happily munching miles with my 2019 Toyota Highlander V6 AWD for almost 3 years and I was liking it for its butch looks, easy maintenance, Toyota reliability and good resale.

Even though it was a 8 seater SUV, it was a pleasure to drive and it could munch miles all day without breaking a sweat. I never had plans to change anytime soon, till I was sure about my visa situation and the time I would be in US.

A meet with some of the TBhpians here in Midwest and a trip to the ultimate driving experience/M track days from BMW changed my thoughts completely and made me think again to buy a BMW while I am here in US, which is definitely not affordable for me back in India. The phrase "You live only Once" was always running in the back of my mind.

I started evaluating the market value of my 3 year old highlander and due to covid the used car market was on a high and I was able to fetch 31000 USD (including tax credit) for a 29000 miles run car, which was not bad considering I had paid 36000 USD in 2018. Hence decided to let go of this car with a heavy heart and take a plunge on the BMW.

Which BMW?

One of the main reason, to start thinking about BMW was the M340i of our fellow BHPian nikhilarni which I got to drive on one of our meets and I was impressed the way it behaved especially on corners and the exhaust note, which were music to the ears. I was owning a 2018 330i earlier and the 245 horses it delivered was itself powerful enough for me. After experiencing the 380 horses on the M340i made me fall in love with the BMW all over again.

Initially started looking at the M340i's available and spoke to few dealers but the prices quoted were exorbitant and there were no discounts available with any dealer nor from BMW. Also the prices were almost touching the price of a premium luxury SUV. While I was researching on the M340i's, came across couple of X3 M40i's at the same price range and thought of giving it a shot as well, considering both come with the same engine. However, was skeptical because the driving pleasure you get from a sedan is completely different from a SUV.

I have a 6 year old and it would be the only car in the household and I had to think through the practicality before deciding. It made sense for me to look at a car with better boot space and rear seat space as a family car and I seriously started looking at the X3 M40i. Also, if I settle here in US, may be I will look at adding a M car in my garage (may be M3)

Below points made me go with the X3 M40i over M340i:

1. Commanding view of the road (those bold bonnet lines )

2. Easy on the back & knees for longer drives

3. Spacious 2nd row, especially with the kid growing older

4. Easy access to boot and spacious compared to the 340i

5. Panaromic Sunroof (my son loves it)

6. Similar features as M340i

7. Perfect Family Enthusiast car

Buying and Dealership Experience:

Finding a car on the lot, like it was before here in US was not an option anymore due to this pandemic and the chip shortage across the world. I had to literally call each and every dealer to check if there was a car available and the deals available if they have one.

All the dealers closer to me were out of stock and there were no new cars expected anytime soon. One of the reason for the low stock along with chip shortage was because LCI model was due shortly and the dealers had sold almost all pre LCI models they had in stock.

However, I started looking on cars.com with a radius of 200 miles so that I can pick it up and drive it home. Anyway I had my highlander to be traded and I was okay driving to the dealer within that range. There were only few cars available within 200 miles and I reached out to most of the dealers for the deals and discounts available.

Every dealer quoted almost the MSRP and the lease amount was also way beyond my budget. The market had completely changed compared to one year back, when there were better deals were available. Now it was not even close to what my friends got earlier. And few dealers wanted me to visit them to talk and finalize the deal.

One day, I visited a dealer in Maryland (BMW of Owning Mills) which was around 60 miles away from my place since they had one car available and it almost had all the options I wanted. Only after reaching there I realized that they had added a markup value of 3000$ along with unnecessary add-on like ceramic coating and nitrogen filling.

I was unhappy with the SA not being upfront, which could have saved my time and fuel going all the way from Philly. However, the SA spoke to his manager, also evaluated my highlander and gave a good trade in value on the car. Still I was not willing to go ahead with it and wanted to negotiate on the markup and additional add ons.

Spoke to the manager and he was willing to let go off the markup value but there is nothing much he could do on the coating and nitrogen, because it was already on the car. It was almost closing time for them and there was some back and forth discussions and still something was not adding up in the calculations. There were some discussion with the Finance guy as well to try and match up my budget, which I was not willing to cross. It took a couple of hours of my time to come up with a number and the SA was getting the car cleaned up and filled with fuel for me to take the car home. This is all without a decision made on the finances and if I am going ahead with the purchase or not.

Finally the finances did not add up and I had to walk away from the dealership, spending 3 hours of time almost till 9PM EST.

Some pics of the car which I almost had my hands on. It was one of the best looking cars in all black (just how I preferred). I was looking for a black or white car only, no other colors.

So my search continued and it was a hard job finding a car in my budget and with the options I wanted. I traveled to different dealerships up to New York to find a car and all in vain. One of the dealer was willing to build one for me and it would take almost 6 weeks for the car to arrive. But my family was in India and I wanted to give them a surprise by picking them from the airport in new car, so that option was ruled out too.

One day I was just browsing cars.com and came across this car which a dealer had just posted and the dealer was not far enough from my place. I immediately rang them up and found that the car is available and had just arrived in the lot. Also informed them that I would be visiting them shortly. Visited the dealer, took a quick test drive and it had almost everything I wanted and hence booked it on the spot.

Also, I was having a 1000$ voucher from BMW from the track event I attended in Indianapolis, which was honored and also gave a good trade in value for my highlander. Everything fell in place as expected and I was ready to bring home the beautiful White Wolf.