Used F80 6MT prices in Bay Area

[germ]

I have been looking for a used 6MT F80 with reasonably low mileage.

There aren't many for sale, maybe 2-3 at any given time. Typically 2018 with ~50k miles. They are priced at 52-54k from brokers or other brands dealerships, so without any real warranty. But I'm talking stock cars, modified ones can be had for less--not much interest in those.

Kelley Blue Book private party value is 45-47k, with max. range another 2k on top of that, and retail is another 1k maybe. Strong dependence on mileage and model year. Example, a 2016 is 3k$ less, and 70k miles is another 4k$ less. JD Power and Edmunds are even lower. Trade-in values are 42-44k$, and I don't believe they bought them for more than that.

They have been sitting on lots for months, but they are not lowering the price to near KBB. I wonder why this discrepancy. I guess they think someone will pay those prices at some point. I am in no hurry so I can wait.

But am I being unreasonable? Maybe there's something I am missing? Should I just bite the bullet or look at cars thousands of miles away?

Or maybe spend a little more and go for a G80?

[9M71]

I have a 18 m3, 6mt, 26k miles and was offered high 50s by someone browsing the forums. There are peculiar buyers willing to pay the right price for the car, and even into g80 territory.

Unfortunately most of the f8x’s on the market now are racking up the miles and/or clapped out. The clean examples are only getting rarer.

[BigFatRaccoon]

I would keep the search and be willing to travel. I was looking for over 9 months myself specifically for clean title only manual f80s that were never tuned and across the nation there's only like 20/25 for sale at any given time. Cut that in half for whatever options/spec you want and you're down to a handful to choose. As mentioned above these cars are driven a lot so finding low mileage will only get harder as the years go on.

With mine, I saw the car go up randomly on Craiglist in the Bay Area with some iPhone pics and I had to jump on it with a deposit and get the PPI scheduled within the first 48 hours or else some kid was going to buy it underneath me and stage 2 it. Bought a one way to SFO and drove it back up to Seattle the same day (with a detour around Sonoma raceways to shake the car down with 0 problems) trouble free.

[itsnotjerez]

I would recommend expanding your search to neighboring states or even SoCal. You are correct in saying that there aren't ever much for sale at once. I bought mine from Reno because I was running into the same issue as you being from a nearby area. Everything over by Stevens Creek seems to be a bit overpriced so I broadened my filters to reach Washington, SoCal,Texas, etc.

[germ]

Guys, thanks for the insights. It is amazing the effort some of you went through to get an M3.

Update: a couple of the high-priced M3s have sold (or at least have disappeared from the listings). So the strategy of waiting it out does not seem to work. I guess they were bought by the same people who pay dealer markups. Another possibility is that the seller withdrew the listing (I have learned that many of those cars are offered in consignment).

G80 is attractive as a long-term purchase. But it's significantly more $. I have to consider whether I should spend that kind of money.

[Aust1nYellow]

My car only has 58500 miles, how does that compare to you guys. It’s a 2016 one owner no accident car.

[TR930]

34k miles on my 2016 6MT, carbon roof, Indiv colors. I think mods are OK if the mileage is low and NO E85 (tunes) have ever been run through it. Alot of mods are upgrades to weaker factory parts like shifter, TMIC, cooling, suspension, diff bushings, etc. Cosmetic stuff can always go back to factory look.