Over the past two, or so, years I've been on a mission to acquire a BMW 1M. In theory it sounds simple enough but when you're dealing with someone thats as particular as me and a car as rare as the 1M — only 739 US units for public consumption — it gets tough.
Originally, I was looking for an unmolested, no nav Alpine White car with manual seats. After spending 24 months not finding a low mileage example that was priced realistically, I found two perfect black examples. Both had less than 30,000 miles.
Turns out one of the vehicles was a Canadian car that still had a Km/H instrument panel. Though I was reassured that the paperwork all checked out, I walked on that one. The second car was a seemingly super clean example and the owner was cool when we spoke for about 10 minutes. I set up a pre-purchase inspection via an independent shop — the local BMW dealer was booked out for approximately two weeks — the guy flaked on me, never to be heard from again.
At the point of frustration, I just wanted to make a deal already. So, I did the next best thing to getting a 1M. I decided it was time to acquire an M2.
I called up who I'd consider the best BMW salesperson in the New York Tri-State, Manny Antunes of BMW Manhattan, and we signed the papers on January 23. As of now I am in a holding pattern waiting to find out if I get an April build. I will know by the end of the month.
That said, I've had some mixed feelings pre and post deal and was curious on the Spies take:
Should I have stuck out the search for the 1M of my dreams or was it a better move to just get an all-new vehicle under warranty and call it a day? In addition,
are there any OTHER vehicles that you would have cross shopped?What say you, Spies?