Hi guys, looking to purchase, plus a few questions

[Geesus]

Hi guys,

I've recently relocated with my family from New Zealand, currently living in South West London (SW14) and working up in Leavesden, near Watford.

I'm on the hunt for a nice CSL, still can't make my mind up on colour, sub 60,000 miles preferred and ideally around 40,000 miles.
Happy if it has decent bolt on upgrades such as brakes, suspension etc as I would be aiming to head to the Nurburgring and Spa annually and also a couple of local track days near London per year.

I made a trip to the Nurburgring back in 2008 (August/September from memory). I stayed in Adenau at a small hotel called Hotel An Der Nordschleife and there were two grey CSLs at our hotel. Plates were 'JBNY S' and 'GO CSL' I think. I was with a few fellow E30 M3 owners.

A couple of questions if I may.
- Are there Isofix brackets or the bolt holes for the brackets in the back seats (for a child seat)
- What does Business CD Stereo mean?
- Is there an allowance for a 3.5mm stereo jack for iPod connectivity or any outputs in the back of the stereo?
- I'm 6'3" will I touch the roof at all with/without a helmet on?
- I see a couple of advertised cars for sale that have an warranty work carried out, vanos, diffs, rear floor pan etc. Should I be worried about cars that don't mention this work?
- Should I aim for a car with a BMW warranty?
- What we're all the 'options' from the factory? Are some more desirable than others?

I quite like these two private sellers cars

Grey
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/bmw/e46-m3-00-06/stunning-csl-in-near-mint-condition/3091991

Black
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/bmw/e46-m3-00-06/bmw-3-series-e46-m3-csl-bmw-warranty/3055652

I'm sure more things will spring to mind. Cheers guys.

[LeinsCSL]

You'll have loads of room. I can just about fit in my E30, but the CSL is a lot bigger so long as you have the seats adjusted to the lowest setting

Business CD is the rubbish standard E46 one, but you won't be using it much anyway

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about options, although some people may prefer climate, radio and Xenons if you ever want to sell on. Quite a few have the factory deletion of the "155mph" restrictor - handy when your mate decides he wants to teach a 1M a lesson on the 'Bahn :hahaha:

[Mark CSL]

Hi guys,

I've recently relocated with my family from New Zealand, currently living in South West London (SW14) and working up in Leavesden, near Watford.

I'm on the hunt for a nice CSL, still can't make my mind up on colour, sub 60,000 miles preferred and ideally around 40,000 miles.
Happy if it has decent bolt on upgrades such as brakes, suspension etc as I would be aiming to head to the Nurburgring and Spa annually and also a couple of local track days near London per year.

I made a trip to the Nurburgring back in 2008 (August/September from memory). I stayed in Adenau at a small hotel called Hotel An Der Nordschleife and there were two grey CSLs at our hotel. Plates were 'JBNY S' and 'GO CSL' I think. I was with a few fellow E30 M3 owners.

A couple of questions if I may.
- Are there Isofix brackets or the bolt holes for the brackets in the back seats (for a child seat)
- What does Business CD Stereo mean?
- Is there an allowance for a 3.5mm stereo jack for iPod connectivity or any outputs in the back of the stereo?
- I'm 6'3" will I touch the roof at all with/without a helmet on?
- I see a couple of advertised cars for sale that have an warranty work carried out, vanos, diffs, rear floor pan etc. Should I be worried about cars that don't mention this work?
- Should I aim for a car with a BMW warranty?
- What we're all the 'options' from the factory? Are some more desirable than others?

I quite like these two private sellers cars

Grey
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/bmw/e46-m3-00-06/stunning-csl-in-near-mint-condition/3091991

Black
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/bmw/e46-m3-00-06/bmw-3-series-e46-m3-csl-bmw-warranty/3055652

I'm sure more things will spring to mind. Cheers guys.

Welcome
The black car you were looking at was DEREK,s old car he owned it for 7 years send him a PM :thumbs:
Link to Derek
http://www.cslregister.com/forum/member.php?u=143

[mattCSLnut]

Hi guys,

I've recently relocated with my family from New Zealand, currently living in South West London (SW14) and working up in Leavesden, near Watford.

A couple of questions if I may.

Q- Are there Isofix brackets or the bolt holes for the brackets in the back seats (for a child seat)
CSL has proper ISOFIC points/brackets for kiddy seats

Q - What does Business CD Stereo mean?
It's the stock OE Sound system fitted to most CSLs although a few left the factory without one

Q - Is there an allowance for a 3.5mm stereo jack for iPod connectivity or any outputs in the back of the stereo?

No factory 3.5 mm AUX but you can buy a cable that plugs into the back of the Business CD where a 6 CD changer connector usually plugs into on a regular E46 M3. I have one on mine and it work a treat. eBay has some options :thumbs:

Q - I'm 6'3" will I touch the roof at all with/without a helmet on ?
No problems there :thumbs: as long as the driver seat is set at it's lowest setting. If not you'll have to manually re position the 4X bolts that hold the seat base to the frame with a spanner.

Q- I see a couple of advertised cars for sale that have an warranty work carried out, vanos, diffs, rear floor pan etc. Should I be worried about cars that don't mention this work?

Definitely Yes re: rear floor pan cracks, but otherwise so & so ... although at this age most well looked after CSL should have/would have at the very least had one Diff & replacement Clutch under their belt ;)

Q- Should I aim for a car with a BMW warranty?

Not necesseraly as the BMW Warranty these days is not what it once was with more & more parts N/A or on massive back orders :banghead: Better to look for a CSL that had a well exercised BMW Warranty in the past 10 years :thumbs:

Q- What we're all the 'options' from the factory? Are some more desirable than others?

That's a bit objective ... some like "Option-less" cars, others like me wanted A/C & Business CD as the bare minimum but then there are people who must have fully optioned cars with: Comfort Screens, rear parking sensors and Xenons.

Cheers guys.

[Geesus]

Thanks Matt, great reply.
What are comfort screens mate, tinted glass or some sort of roller blind?
I'll be happy with some kind of RCA outputs on the back of the CD player. Obviously not keen on drilling and holes or removing the factory unit.

[MCSL]

Not necesseraly as the BMW Warranty these days is not what it once was


In what way would you say "not what it once was"? Cars with a few mods and BMW Mondial refusing to pay?

[Neil M]

Thanks Matt, great reply.
What are comfort screens mate, tinted glass or some sort of roller blind

Two types of screen were fitted to the CSL; the conventional green stripe to the top, the 'comfort' screen was a selectable option when ordered new.
It has a visible lilac cast in sunlight and reflects both UV light and heat, hence the 'comfort' name. ;)

[mattCSLnut]

Thanks Matt, great reply.
What are comfort screens mate, tinted glass or some sort of roller blind?
I'll be happy with some kind of RCA outputs on the back of the CD player. Obviously not keen on drilling and holes or removing the factory unit.

No worries mate :thumbs:
As Neil mentioned there are 2 different types of windscreen that were offered on the CSL, the "comfort screen" being the more expensive option which incorporated " Rain sensor " ... unnecessary extra weight if you ask me ;)
As for the iPhone/iPod connectivity, the plug-in cable option is as simple to instal as it sounds without the need to drill anything and totally reversible :thumbs: Since the CSL does not have a CD multi changer in the boot, the OE "Business CD" unit has a free space for the before mentioned plug in iPhone cable. This will allow you to play your tunes trough the AUX mode on the OE head unit. Here's a pic of mine which I fed from the back of the OE head unit into the upper centre console storage compartment where I keep it when not in use. :thumbs:

[mattCSLnut]

In what way would you say "not what it once was"? Cars with a few mods and BMW Mondial refusing to pay?

No, not completely refusing to pay out but just the fact that BMW are themselves running out of CSL specific parts and a lot of bits are on back order or no longer available.
Have you been following Billy's thread re: BMW Mondial Warranty claim, waiting nearly 2 years for a replacement engine all because BMW have no cams available :banghead: BTW he is not the only one in the same predicament :banghead:
Another problem is (and has been for a while) majority of BMW main dealers just haven't a clue how to put in the claim successfully on behalf of the customer + Mondial are becoming stricter with modded CSLs then they use to be.

[MCSL]

No, not completely refusing to pay out but just the fact that BMW are themselves running out of CSL specific parts and a lot of bits are on back order or no longer available.
Have you been following Billy's thread re: BMW Mondial Warranty claim, waiting nearly 2 years for a replacement engine all because BMW have no cams available :banghead: BTW he is not the only one in the same predicament :banghead:
Another problem is (and has been for a while) majority of BMW main dealers just haven't a clue how to put in the claim successfully on behalf of the customer + Mondial are becoming stricter with modded CSLs then they use to be.

Hi mate,

Yes, must say the lack of certain CSL parts is slowly becoming a worry and definitely poor show from BMW. I mean how hard is it to produce cams for example!? That i admit has been a pisstake for some owners.

The Mondial warranty so far has been superb for me. Elms have also brilliant. My CSL is 100% standard though. Fingers crossed for the future of our CSL's and 'warranty'.

:beer:

[shimmy]

Hi mate,

Yes, must say the lack of certain CSL parts is slowly becoming a worry and definitely poor show from BMW. I mean how hard is it to produce cams for example!? That i admit has been a pisstake for some owners.

The Mondial warranty so far has been superb for me. Elms have also brilliant. My CSL is 100% standard though. Fingers crossed for the future of our CSL's and 'warranty'.

:beer:



+1

Can't fault Elms here, even up to my latest engine rebuild in June 2014 at 103k miles. I've been treated no different to having a new £100k car claim and even better with the type of curtesy cars I've been given.

[mattCSLnut]

Hi mate,

Yes, must say the lack of certain CSL parts is slowly becoming a worry and definitely poor show from BMW. I mean how hard is it to produce cams for example!? That i admit has been a pisstake for some owners.

The Mondial warranty so far has been superb for me. Elms have also brilliant. My CSL is 100% standard though. Fingers crossed for the future of our CSL's and 'warranty'.

:beer:

Elms (Camborne) are the exception to the rules :thumbs: as they know how to request claims through BMW Mondial with a few good years of practice under their belt ;)

[Clubber]

Welcome to the register Ollie !

You found the mecca for all things CSL. My advice would be to find the car with the best documented service history and go as low mileage as possible with in your budget, both in terms of resale value and running costs.

In either way CSL is an epic car ! Can't wait to meet up this summer at the ring again with our CSL's this time :finga:

Cheers bro,

[CraigMillwardCroft]

Welcome to the mad house, which ever colour you go for enjoy :thumbs:

[shimmy]

Welcome to the mad house, which ever colour you go for enjoy :thumbs:

.....but you will enjoy SG more.

[Trawler]

.....but you will enjoy SG more.

Only because you will spend longer behind the wheel for each lap completed. :hahaha:

[CraigMillwardCroft]

Only because you will spend longer behind the wheel for each lap completed. :hahaha:

:hahaha::hahaha::hahaha: