Different people have different definitions of “cheap”. For instance, if you were to ask me if a $59,000 car is cheap, I’d say no, obviously. Ask Bill Gates and he’d call that same amount pocket change. However, even I, a neanderthal, can see that this 2003 E46 BMW M3 CSL is very cheap.
With an asking price of $59,000 USD, the M3 CSL is a downright steal. That might not seem cheap for a 15 year old car, but most M3 CSLs cost upwards of $100,000. So just shy of $60k is cheap for one. Why is it so cheap, you might ask? Well you wouldn’t know by looking at it.
This specific 2003 BMW M3 CSL is actually in incredibly good shape. There are no visible blemishes, the interior looks perfect and it has a long and detailed maintenance history. So it seems to have been maintained very well. The paint is superb and the interior is immaculate. So you wouldn’t guess from looking at it that this would be one of the cheapest M3 CSLs you’ll find. If not the cheapest.
But you’ll start to realize why once you’ve seen its mileage. With 87,452 miles on the odometer, this M3 CSL has been drive. A lot. And that’s actually something that makes me smile. The M3 CSL wasn’t built to be a garage queen, it was built to be a driver’s car that’s meant to be driven and driven hard. So whoever owned this car drove it the way it was meant to be driven.
However, with just over 80k miles, its value starts to drop quite a bit. It’s not that 80,000 miles is a lot for a 15 year old car. In fact, that’s typically good. But as such a rare and collectible car, 80,000 is a bit too much for most collectors. Plus, that 3.2 liter engine is a very high-strung one and so is the rest of the car. So it’s not outside the realm of possibility for this car to have some problems in the near future. Expensive problems.
Still, though, it’s one of the single greatest driving cars in the history of the automobile and it can be had for less than a brand-new BMW M4. That’s hard to pass up.
[Source: Classic Driver]
