The Certified Pre-Owned Debate

["Pete Kraus" <Pete_Kraus@xxxxxxxxx>]

When I bought my '95 M3 in August, I looked at Certified Pre-Owned cars
from various dealers.  In general they were more expensive (expected)
but tested no better and sometimes worse than the privately-owned
vehicles I was considering.  The quality of BMW dealer service in my
area may is iffy, but I had to weigh that against the potential expense
of buying the wrong non-warranted car.

The car I decided to purchase was from a private party.  It is a well
cared for, though not babied, specimen with 50K miles.  My mechanic, who
is a BMW specialist,  give it a thumbs up.  It's a fabulous driver (I
need not belabor the point with this audience).  I'm more than satisfied
with my decision.   

There was one Certified car I would have bought in July had it not been
beyond my budget.  I saw it before and after it went through the
certification inspection.  To the eye, not much difference.  It was
clean to begin with, but they did not fix any of the minor cosmetic
blemishes.   It seemed seriously overpriced, even for a '96, but the
salesman promised to work with me.  The dealership ended up standing
firm.   Four months later it still sits on the dealer's used car lot.

Can someone help me with some M3-related questions?  Since I joined BMW
CCA and subscribed to this list, I've seen occasional references to
early-build US-spec M3s.  Were there spec upgrades to the '95s later in
the production run?   What constitutes an early build?  Mine came off
the line in July '94, which sounds early for a '95 model.  But weren't
US-spec '95 M3s available even earlier, possibly by spring '94?  

Pete

'95 M3

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