Editors' Favorite Number Five: 2002 BMW M3

It's missing a fog light in that pic. C'mon...

*tattoo

An instant favorite and an instant classic!

so the M3 gets 2 of 5 slots?

I hope the number one slot is the Aura, because it's such a good car.

I hope the Grand Caravan shows up! Failgate FTW!! What about the totalled Commander? That was brutal.

This was one of my favorite long-termers. You really got what you paid for, and you paid about a $15K premium over 2 years for the honor (depreciation and higher service), over a Datsun G35 6MT. Not that these are in the same league, but both cars will be used exactly the same way in traffic and track days. This was a great case study of the price of entry and the whole experience. But I also respect what my Datsun does for so little cash. With the savings, you could build a very nice Miata track warrior. If your wife would approve such a thing!

Some say Sadlier has a BMW themed living room others say he once offered to sell his house just to buy a M3.

Sorry I just had to do Clarkson for this post.

I still think that either the GT40 or the Focus will show up on this list.

Hybris , let me try to improve on that...

Some say when he snores at night, one can hear the echo of an E46 at idle, and that if he'd been at at Limerock, Maximum Bob would have retired much sooner....all we know is....

I'd take the E46 M3 over the E9X- and I still prefer the E30 M3 over them all...

"This was one of my favorite long-termers. You really got what you paid for, and you paid about a $15K premium over 2 years for the honor (depreciation and higher service), over a Datsun G35 6MT. Not that these are in the same league, but both cars will be used exactly the same way in traffic and track days. This was a great case study of the price of entry and the whole experience. But I also respect what my Datsun does for so little cash. With the savings, you could build a very nice Miata track warrior. If your wife would approve such a thing!"

I find it hard to believe that a used M3 lost that much more in value than a new G35/7 over 2 years of ownership given rate of depreciation is most at begining of life and these cars should have very comparable depreciation rates. Specifically it's hard to believe the premium was 15K when you consider much of the "maintenance" on the M3 was upgrades or the result of hard use (tires, brakes,ec.) which would be true of any car. Now it could be they were lucky and had no major events ... so there is a much greater outlier risk with a car out of warranty. I'm just not buying a 15K difference in new vs used here.

Curious to see if the v8 m3 will beat this one out. I still think the e90 330i is the better car 95% of the time... The e46 m3 is nice and then some, but at that depreciation PLUS maintenance, it cost edmunds nearly as much as a new car.

IL Editors, you're going to spoon-feed us the results one day at a time?? Lame!

+1 "IL Editors, you're going to spoon-feed us the results one day at a time?? Lame!"

I think IL's editors are running out of content as they're doing the "one at a time" with two things at once ("editor's favorite BMW's" and "what new family cars we've bought"). C&D is starting to occupy more of my car-reading time due to these kind of silly journalist tactics.

+2 "IL Editors, you're going to spoon-feed us the results one day at a time?? Lame!"

Agreed. This isn't really new content. Just put up the list your team voted for and some cool pictures. No need for this to drag out all week.

@T10, the article says repairs alone were $4,500, and the car depreciated $13,000. And, I'm talking used cars, not new. I agree it's an apples to oranges comparison, because the Datsun is more of a competitor to the 330i. Still, in the mad world of car enthusiasts, you could get a lightly used G35 with 298 hp and build a track monster Miata for the price Edmunds paid for the 2002 M3. That's one man's idea of an opportunity cost!