Car #12 2001 BMW 7 Series (E38) 728i *BMW Individual Spec*

 Car #12 2001 BMW 7 Series (E38) 728i *BMW Individual Spec*

So, I am very excited and proud to present my latest purchase:

A 2001 E38 BMW 728i in BMW Individual Spec (Paint colour is Mora Metallic) of which there were only ever 198 7 Series' painted in Mora Metallic from factory and only 30 as a 728i meaning this car is a 1/30 and VERY Rare, with this car being a 2001 (end of production) it could well be one of the last to ever roll out of the factory in this colour. It was also this generation of 7 Series that Tupac was killed in aswell as it being a bond car in the film Tomorrow Never Dies.

The car has an immaculate chauffeur spec cream interior with purple piping that matches the stunning paintwork and sits on original Alpina B12 wheels, this beautiful example has covered just 97,000 miles in 24 years and only ~11k miles between 2010-2025.

I always promised myself once i had gotten myself a garage, I'd buy an older classic car to drive in the summer months and this is it.

 

Car #11 Mini Cooper S R56

 Car #11 Mini Cooper S R56 - Name: Lucy

Well, this was a bit of a weird one..

I was scrolling through eBay one day and saw this for bidding ending soon after, so i put a bid in for £1800 and won it! A 57 reg R56 Cooper S with i think 83k on the clock and it was only up the road.

Went and had a look (kind of had to buy it as we'd won the auction) had no real purpose for it but it seemed a good buy at the time, gave the car to my partner to replace her awful Ford Focus.

The mini has turnt into a bit of a Triggers broom situation, We've had it 2 years and in that time it has had the following: Refurb gearbox, new clutch, new fuel pump and a host of other bits not to mention the work it had before my ownership, Its an okay car, very fun to drive (as all minis are) and suits my missus' needs currently.

House Move! New home for the cars!

 

A new home! After quite some time we have moved into our new home, a 3 Bed Semi with a double garage..

Hoping to be able to turn the garage into a small home workshop with the ability to work on my own cars!

This however means that the C43 will be up for sale in the new year with my eyes being set on something older and a bit more of a classic feel to it.

I'll upload a garage picture once we've managed to get it spruced up!

10 Cars in, whats the costings?

So here we are, 10 cars in and 28 years old.

After some feedback on the blog, i thought I'd try and put together a costings post i.e. what i paid what i sold for (if i can remember, but I'll try if not they'll be approx.)

A lot of my car sales are private sales because i dont really do PXs

I must add that not a single one of these cars have ever been purchased with finance, contrary to popular belief..

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Car #1 2001 Peugeot 106

Purchased: £500 (Private Purchase)

Sold: £350 (Private Sale)

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Car #2 2004 Mini Cooper 1.6

Purchased: £1800 (Private Purchase)

Sold: £2250 (Private Sale)

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Car #3 Volvo C30 2.0D

Purchased: £3000 (Private Purchase)

Sold: £2500 (Private Sale)

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Car #5 Volvo C30 T5

Purchased: £6000 (Private Purchase)

Sold: £4250 (Private Sale)

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Car #6 Volkswagen Golf GTD

Purchased: £10,500 (Private Purchase)

Sold: £10,500 + £2000 (for the Audi S3) (Private Sale)

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Car #7 Audi S3 8V

Purchased: Effectively £12,500 (Private Purchase)

Sold: £18500 (To WBAC)

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Car #8 Mercedes A45 AMG (W176)

Purchased: £25,000 (Dealership Purchase)

Sold: £18500 PX

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Car #9 BMW M4

Purchased: £24,995 (Dealership Purchase)

Sold: £21,000 (Private Sale)

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Car #10 Mercedes C43 AMG Estate

Purchased: £21,750 (Private Purchase)

Sold: TBC

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Total Spent: £106,050

Total Sold:£75,850

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Net: -£30,200 

For 8 years of driving, thats £3775 per year cost

I reckon people have hobbies that cost more than that p/a....

Car #10 Mercedes C43 AMG Estate

 Car #10 Mercedes C43 AMG Estate - Name: Fraser

So following on from my last post regarding practicality and the M4 came this car, the C43 Estate.

Back to private sales for this one because i couldn't find a decent example of a Premium+ C43 Estate from any dealers at all, travelled to somewhere in London for this one again (i forget where, but very close to Tottenham's training ground)

With a 3 litre 6 cyl V6, this car certainly has some poke to it, but nowhere near the M4, but has more of the practicality element to it, big boot for festivals, dog guard for the dog and it has 5 seats!

I've not spent a lot of money on this so far, as I'm not sure i actually connect with it enough to want to spend money on it, I've had all 4 wheels refurbed in Metallic Silver and 4 new Accelera PHI/PHI-R tyres.

I have also installed the facelift rear diffuser with quad pipes for that more sporty feel to it, the MPG is okay i get around 25mpg around town and mid 30s on a long run (usually airport runs)

Circumstances in my life now dictate that we are moving closer to our immediate family and i will soon have a double garage which means i am weighing up the idea of getting an older car that i can work on myself and store away because i'll be doing even less miles than i currently do (i'll be doing a whats next/dream cars post next up which will offer more detail on this) 

  

Car #9 BMW M4 (F82)

 Car #9 BMW M4 - Name: Zoe

So on from a world of FWD & AWD Cars, we move onto something proper RWD baby.

After learning of the fate that the A45 would soon succumb to, its potential gearbox issues and me getting a promotion at work i thought what better way to seal a promotion than to buy myself a new to me car.

Similar to the A45 i spent a fair while looking for a nice example but again only finding 'Birmingham spec' cars, until i stumbled on one from a dealership called 'Hamptons of Surrey' very regal i know, this place had it all.. Ferraris, Rolls Royces, Porsche's you name it, they had it and for someone from my background and childhood to even step foot into a dealership like this was a big deal for me really.

Traded the A45 in with them and got a respectable amount of money back from it, i probably overpaid for this M4 at £24,995 but it was just a sort, with only 39k miles on the clock and full service history it had to be done.

Purchased it and the drive home was something else, utterly amazing or as BMW would describe it, the Ultimate Driving Machine, i took this car to meets, shows and all sorts, I could not stop taking pictures of the darn thing, the body lines, the interior, the 437m style wheels were just wonderful.

Soon came the modifications, carbon spoiler lip, carbon diffuser, carbon interior panels what not, again it was given the best treatment not at BMW mind you because I'm not a fan of main dealer servicing instead it was maintained by a local chap down the road from me who owns Jacks Motor Works, they specialise in BMWs.

Now my partner and i are festival goers, campers & adventurists, my partner owns a mini it was about 4-5 months into this purchase i began to realise the true impracticality of this car. It had a carbon fibre roof that could not hold roof rails (and therefore a roof box) without being drilled into, so we ended up 3 of us going to a music festival gear and all in the M4 (terrible idea) car wheel span in the mud, boot was rammed and no one had bugger all leg room, it was this seed that led to its inevitable sale but not before i did some skids and burnout or two.

The car was an absolute minter, unreal condition, amazing paintwork and a spotless interior this is still my favourite car to date.

      

Car #8 Mercedes A45 AMG (W176)

 Car #8 Mercedes A45 AMG - Name: Victoria / Vicky

Right then, following on from my S3 and we really do have the bug for speedy cars now and we are still working from home with minimal shifts required in the office meaning that a fuel bill is still not an issue.

So after making a few quid in profit from my Audi S3, i decide i need something faster and 4 doors, i was looking out for an A45 for quite a while as again, its a little bit different to the conventional S3 / Golf R / M140i / RS3 Gang, but most of the examples i could find were shall we say 'Birmingham Spec'.

A dealership kept cropping up on forums that know their stuff on A45s and specialised in them, this would turn out to be my first ever dealership purchase from Church's Performance in a village of butt fuck nowhere, i must also add this was my first ever AUTOMATIC.

The A45 i found had the 'Aero Pack' which means spoiler, canards and what not the full works shall we say, i think it set me back about £25,000 at the time and had about 40k miles on it. Modifications were few and far between on this because it had everything already if that makes sense? I had a new android unit installed for Car Play, Waze and the rest of it, couple of cosmetic bits such as the premium shifter and an alcantara steering wheel.

The car went like shit off a shovel, handled amazingly, fantastic car, okay MPG (talking mid 20s, very early 30s) attracted a bit of attention and most importantly had bucket seats

Video here

Unfortunately, had i done my research properly before i purchased, i'd have known that the pre facelift A45s are susceptible to a gearbox failure, it just happened that i noticed the starting symptoms (gearbox crunch when entering reverse on cold starts) of this before it would happen (the repair bill would likely have been north of £7,000 from MB)  and so she went into part exchange.

 

Car #7 Audi S3 8V

 Car #7 Audi S3 8V - Name: Philomena

Right then, this is where it starts to get a bit juicy, you can start to tell my career trajectory from the cars that proceed this and lack of expenditure compared to salary income.

I had the Golf GTD at the time and i had just got a new job working as a civil servant, lockdown was in swing and we had just bought our first house within reasonable commuting distance to my work and therefore a petrol bill was a pill i was willing to swallow once more.

I put the GTD up for sale and a gentlemen that worked for the ambulance service, this gentlemen was essentially in the opposite situation to me, was driving all over and needed something more economical so he proposed a swap, i was initially dubious but test drove the car and all was well, it was remapped and had an upgraded clutch to compensate for this, the work was done by Northloop Autohaus before i owned it i believe.

I got the S3 and by jove was it quick 300bhp (without the map) and about 370bhp with the map on, baring in mind my previous cars topped the power charts at 230bhp with the Volvo, i soon had the map removed as the insurance didn't know and it was FAR too quick for me at the time, this unfortunately started the bug that i am now caught in of buying fast cars.

I was so immensely proud of this car at the time, pop up media screen, manual gearbox, QUAD exhausts and some decent noise. She got the works and treated to full Audi service history in my ownership, she wanted for nothing until the end of my ownership where she wanted it all....

Towards the end of my ownership she required a new water-pump (common issue on these 8vs) and potentially a new gearbox/clutch and i didn't wanna spend this sorta money on here anymore due to boredom setting in.

This is where it starts to get interesting money wise, as i mentioned this car was part of a swap deal involving the |£10,500 golf gtd, i put £2000 (iirc) to this deal leaving me £12,500 deep, i sold it to WeBuyAnyCar during the lockdown-ish times when the price of used cars was through the roof due to the semi-conductor shortage, meaning i got around £18,500 back for this car leaving me in profit!

This car was also the inspiration behind my first private plate purchase of S13 AOR, which has a little bit of a double meaning, the last half being my initials and the first being somewhat representative of the car S13 (S3) and 13 being my favourite number and the day of my birth.

 

Car #6 Volkswagen Golf GTD

 Car #6 Volkswagen Golf GTD -  Name: Rufus

Back to boring, back to a diesel.

This car was again me going back to sensible, because my other half and her family had moved towards Plymouth the journeys in the T5 from East Devon to nearly Plymouth were ridiculous with that exhaust and the 2.5ltr being VERY thirsty.

This was bought from a garage in Totnes, but not through the garage if that makes sense, so we are still on private sales at this point, Car was okay, did what it needed to do covered miles, had a bit of poke.

Didn't really modify this (again i didn't connect with diesels) my first touch screen stereo car mind you (until it froze and VW had to fix it) it was probably at that point i fell out of love with it.

Car #5 Volvo C30 T5

 Car #5 Volvo C30 T5 -  Name: Pauline

Right then, this thing was juicy.

So some background to this one, after getting incredibly bored of driving diesels i wanted to be back in something petrol but this time with a bit of go to it but still okay for the insurance premiums of a young chap (Because it had a Volvo badge instead of its partner in crime the ASBO Ford Focus ST - after-all they share the same platform)

At the time i was still working for this airline but had decided to move in with my grandparents in east Devon for a couple of reasons a) A shorter commute b) to start saving for a house, What better way to save for a house than to buy a 5 cylinder 2.5ltr turbo? Bought from an Author in London somewhere & he gave me his private plate which is still on the car now!

I've only really connected with petrol cars hence the lack of modifications to my previous diesels, so this thing got a couple of bits before i got bored.

Modifications include:

Plasti-Dipped rear bumper for a more aggressive look

A Full Cat-Back custom made 3" stainless steel exhaust system by Tony Kellow. (££££)

Drilled & Grooved Brakes

Uprated driveshafts (known issue on these and Focus ST's)

I might add that this exhaust was absolutely RIDICULOUS and was obnoxiously loud both inside and out, this car also spawned by love for detailing.

  

 

Car #4 Skoda Fabia VRS

 Car #4 Skoda Fabia VRS (Limited Edition) - Name: Janet

What a terrible idea this car was, don't get me wrong went like sh*t off a shovel (in accordance to what i had already driven at the time) with it being rumoured that the legendary PD130 Engines in these cars were making more power from the factory than Skoda actually quoted and the platforms very well known tuning ability through the likes of DarkSide Developments, i thought there we go lets plow some money into this thing.

How wrong i was, handled like a boat , interior was like a grandads car and my missus now brands it as the worst car I've ever owned. Don't get me wrong, very torquey & quite nippy but safe to say this car didn't last long.

Interesting fact, this car was sold to a young lad that probably bought it for the same reasons i did and it is now listed as stolen on car checks.