M8 AND 8 SERIES
❯ M8 Comp GC - My First M Car and my First Lease!
❯ M8 Comp GC - My First M Car and my First Lease!
| 11-28-2020, 05:06 PM | #1 |
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M8 Comp GC - My First M Car and my First Lease!
Long post. As promised, I want to share some of the details of the car and I have a few questions I'd like to get answered before delivery. Please read to the end of the post.
2021 M8 Comp GC: Motegi Red w/ Midrand Beige interior due to hit VPC - New Jersey Dec 8. Likely P/U at dealership later into the week of Dec 14. Been following progress w/ BMW Genius. On the ship Manon. Haven't been delving into the ship's manifest for VIN. Knowing dates of start and end of production, when left Bremerhaven and scheduled to arrive at VPC are close enough for me. My history w/ BMW is 3 - 5 series all "bought" as custom build at start of new body style starting 2004. W/ 4 door sedans, I opted for reasonably conservative colors: 2 Mediterranean Blues and 1 Gray. I believe the M8 and other GT/sports cars cry out for bright, bold colors. For M8 color choices, Motegi Red checks all the boxes for me w/ Aventurin Red #2, more of a classic color rather than bright and bold. I actually prefer Sunset Orange out of the 8 series but the choice is a close call. I thought Motegi Red would be a fairly unique choice but I've now seen a number of M8s live and on this forum w/ the same colors inside and out. Still looks WOW. The build: I made no compromises here. I got exactly what I wanted at the dealer I wanted. *2021 M8 Gran Coupe *Motegi Red Metallic *20" Style 813M wheels *Midrand Beige Full Merino Leather *Carbon Fiber Trim *Competition Package *Comfort Seating Package *Driving Assistance Package *Driving Assistance Professional Package *M Compound Brakes w/ Red Calipers I've thanked Wolfman64 (long time ski buddy Wolfgang, I called Wolfie, so that's what I will friendly refer to him as) before for his help in this process. Wolfie also asked me to post some details of the negotiation process so other members can see. MSRP - $148,645 Discount - $6,779 Incentives - $5,000 ($3K-loyalty, $1K-flagship, $1K-OL Coupon) Negotiated Selling Price - $136,866 Lease for 36 months/7500 miles Residual - 54% MF - .00100 (the buy rate was .00082 - see below) DAS - $3,400 Monthly Payment - $1,789 pre-tax, $1901 w/ 6.25% sales tax BMW CCA Post-Sale Rebate - $1500 8% off MSRP. I see other posters talking about 10% off. I wanted to do business w/ the local dealer, 8 miles away, where I've bought 2 previous cars. I'm comfortable w/ the CA and SA. The Service Manager and I grew up on different ends of the same street in 2 different cities in what is now the inner suburbs of Boston. Both of us came from modest circumstances to make something of ourselves. The dealership group consists of 9 luxury car brands which organizes monthly rallies on Sunday mornings. Cut to every other month due to COVID-19. Last rally in October was to see fall foliage on the North Shore ending up in Stage Fort Park in Gloucester. Next nearest dealer is in downtown Boston 45 minutes away in normal traffic, who knows how long in worse traffic. The convenience, my time, the advantages above, in my opinion, are worth the $41/month or $1,476 over the life of the 36 month lease (need to consider time value of money here) in paying above the MF buy rate. You gotta pay to play. I'm sure I will enjoy the M8. I have other interests which take up a significant portion of my time. I don't want to spend all kinds of time commuting to another dealer. Since this is my first lease, I want to ask you posters how you look at the economics of adds, mods w/ a 3 year lease vs amortilzing the cast of those adds, mods over a longer time w/ a bought car I would typically keep for 6-7 years. Starting out, I have a similar mindset to posters like JDS and FBMWWINS that prefer to add, mod a bought car vs a leased one. Let my hear from you posters on this issue. I keep in mind the need to return the adds, mods to as delivered condition at lease end. There are some items I am willing to add, modify to the car even though I'll only have it for 3 years because it's subjectively important to me: *I've always added a dashcam to my cars. However, I'll try the drive recorder option even though it does not include a parking mode. I feel reasonably safe w/o it cause I rarely park on the street in urban areas. At home the car is garaged. *Film wrap the front end. Intend to track the car roughly 10X/year. I figure this is part of the increased maintenance in tracking the car. I could repair the damage from rubber debris, stones, etc. just before lease turn in but I want to drive a car in pristine condition all the time. *JB4 engine tune. W/ all these adds, mods - how do I get back to as delivered condition at lease end? Need to install winter/all season tires as soon as I P/U the car. I had been using all seasons on my 2017 540i xDrive including skiing at Wildcat. I've been skiing for going on 60 years and have never put on snow tires and have never been stranded due to the conditions. Now I wouldn't go out in a 3' snow storm either at home or in ski country. Packed snow - fine. Over Pinkham Notch in moderately heavy snow - fine. I've got enough friends, relatives in ski country where I can stay over another night if necessary. I realize my 540i xDrive does not have anywhere near the HP and torque as the M8. Is that reason enough to go to winter tires? Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ tires are available in the OE staggered setup (Pilot Sport A/S 4 are not available in the staggered setup) but Michelin is curiously not clear if they recommend the 3+ tires for the car. The only winter tires Michelin clearly recommends for the car is Pilot Alpin PA4. I've seen other posters use Pirelli Sottozero Series II. What do you posters recommend? What's your take on a square setup w/ different size wheels front to rear? After all that, I need to decide whether to buy winter/all season tires and have my trusted mechanic do the changeover 2X/year or buy a tire/wheel package. The MB salesman where I test drove the AMG GT 63 was telling me that for winter/all season tires his lease customers typically went the tire only route vs bought cars were more liable to do the tire/wheel package. What's your take here? Whatever I go w/ I'll take the 5 series skiing. I'm concerned w/ ground clearance w/ the M8 in ski country. Insurance packages at delivery. Enhanced Maintenance - I'm thinking of this w/ tracking the car. Normally includes wear items (brake pads/rotors and w/w blades). Based on your experience, what do you think is the lowest price I can negotiate it down to? No to all other insurance packages. Whew! That was a really long post. Once I got started I couldn't stop. |
| 11-29-2020, 03:51 AM | #2 | |
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For tires, there are many choices but it come down to whether you want run flat or not, and all season or winter sets. If you're looking winter run flats, the Pirelli Scorpion are the only choice in my opinion. For me personally, I'd stick the stock setup and switch the summer tires for regular all season non-run flats. And I'd also get the coupe Vs the gran coupe for track. And declining all the insurance and sales offers for stuff you can't use or want. At the end of the lease, put the summer stock tires back on and return the OEM clean set of tires. Unless you're sure you need winter tires, then swap back and forth. |
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| 11-29-2020, 08:19 AM | #3 | |
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As of the exterior and interior car mods, i always add things and change the look of the car , like adding spoiler or carbon fiber parts that u can always remove and sell later at a decent price (the same for jb4 u can sell it later also) As of tires i just installed the winter sottozero 2 and they are quiet and comfortable , i am not sure about the snow performance yet given it did not snow yet where i live There is No option of all season for our cars, if u use the same factory size tires 275/35 and 285/35 20 "wheels (The michelin As 3+ does not have the correct load index (104) in the 285 /35 20 setup (only available in 100) I checked all all season tires and never found one that fits so went with the pirelli sottozero 2 Hope that helps and congrats on ur car (i have same color combo in convertible form) |
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| 11-29-2020, 02:02 PM | #4 |
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First of all congratulations on your great new ride! I like that color so much that I actually went to see an M8 three weeks ago some 100 KM away from my home because I wanted to see it in person! (not buying an M8 now). And I liked it. In fact, depending on sunlight and lighting conditions in general, my current sunset orange M850i isn't too far off and they are somewhat "similar". That said, great specs as well. You buy an M8 NEW and then you want to do things properly which you did and got all the relevant stuff onboard.
 When it comes to "to tune or not to tune...." there may be, or are, many contrasting opinions. Ultimately there is always a risk associated with tuning, but todays 'modern" tunes, whether it's JB4 (piggyback), BM3 or other flash ecu tunes, are quite "safe" and operate within the allowed parameters as to not overstress engine components. Of course, the user/driver should wisely choose the appropriate tune/map based on standard components or eventual hardware modifications made in order to squeeze as much juice as possible from it. Driving style ultimately affects the engine too. Is it detectable? Yes, if BMW wants they could detect or read into it that the car is or was tuned. However, with a self-service ECU tune (you flash over OBD2) it is good practise to erase it and overwrite the DME 2 ECU with the original (stock) software BEFORE taking the car in to BMW for service. I always did this with my cars and never had any issues on BMW side. Of course they may have not gone that "deep" and with their latest ISTA Software many sustain that there is an automatic "tune detection" which will blacklist the car and void that portion of the warranty....I am not a fan of piggybacks and prefer an ECU flash tune like the BM3 by PTF all the way. It's for sure easier and quicker to reflash the DME back to stock and relock it (ALL happens via software) than uninstalling the piggyback everytime you need to. Personally I wouldn't want to mess with it. But others may see it differently of course. Of course if your DME is locked (as with all models produced after 07.2020 (some say 04.2020 even), and no solution is available yet for unlocking the newly "safe-locked" DMEs by Bosch, a piggyback may be your only alternative. As far as tires go, I would stay away from runflat ones for obvious reasons. If you need winter ones, my advise is to buy a dedicated set of wheels (complete set is usually cheaper and there may be offers) and take the ones that are onboard. After 2-3 season you change them and can opt for another set of tires. On my previous cars, I have had Michelin PA4, Nokian and Pirelli Sottozero and found the Nokian ones to be the best in heavy snow and ice (Nokian = Made in FINNLAND.... for a reason they are good as a winter option). On my recent previous cars (also XDrive models), I always had a staggered winter tire setup and never had any issues - kept of course everything within specs just like for the summe ones (wheel width / height / offset etc.). I think on an 8 series especially a staggered setup looks way cooler than a square setup but ultimately the latter will give you the best grip during harsh winter conditions especially. If the winters in your area are light, then it will make much less of a difference and I would not worry about staggered vs. square in that case. I cannot say much about the lease because I have never leased a car here, let alone in the US where different numbers and conditions may apply. This is one's own very personal choice and I guess there is more than one or two reasons for leasing a car. As I have stated in another thread, I have plenty of reasons NOT to lease. Of course, as others already said, you can undo and/or uninstall most if not all the stuff you retrofitted or applied to your ride. Yes most of the components may be resold decently but here in my area for example the price, costs for undoing all the things goes to the moon courtesy of the high labor costs (180 CHF x hour labor....). Unfortunately I have no friends to do that for me so I am always forced to go to a carshop and they have similar prices here as the BMW official dealers. |
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| 11-29-2020, 02:57 PM | #5 |
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First off, Congrats on your new car!
Re. the usual lease topic... We used to buy cars outright but given the rapid speed technology changes we like to switch out cars every 2 years or so. Depreciation and lease cost vary greatly by brand and model, so in some rare instances it would be better to buy (G-Wagon, several 911's) but BMW's are definitely in the lease category. High depreciation and extremely attractive lease rates (high RV, low MF) offer deals that can't be matched by a purchase. Leases don't create a lot of restrictions on mods IMO. You pay to play wether the car is leased or owned. If you blow-up your engine via mods, BMW will not cover you either way. A good relationship with your SA or dealer will have a bigger impact on what is covered or not. When it comes to mods, some make sense even if leased. Suspension, exhaust, etc. Easy to remove if needed and labor is not that pricey. Hardware can easily be sold to forum members. Likely the same for CF add-ons. Even on a purchased car most mods reduce the resale value of the car, not increase it so it makes sense to remove them. PPF seems like a no-brainer but we decided to not bother for the duration. I like full car applications only and it seems too much for a car that we just drive for a while and then return. No need to remove PPF (clear film). We use the Pirelli Sottozeros and the car is a better winter car than our SUV with All-seasons. We have snow for 5 months a year so that matters. Look forward to some pics and your first impressions once delivered. The car is pretty quick in stock form so it might just do the trick without a JB4. If not, limeypride is your guy to squeeze the most power out of your M8GC  |
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| 11-29-2020, 08:38 PM | #7 |
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re: BOLD::
"We use the Pirelli Sottozeros and the car is a better winter car than our SUV with All-seasons. We have snow for 5 months a year so that matters." PAY ATTENTION, get the Pirelli Sottozeros and use them every winter. |
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| 11-29-2020, 09:27 PM | #8 |
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Before AWD was a thing with BMW M cars I drove my M cars all winter in snows. Handled better in snow than FWD with all seasons and AWD cars without snows. Went through everything and never got stuck. I long since left the cold weather but snows are a must if you live where it snows iMO
Dedicated snow tires are a game changer
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| 11-30-2020, 10:41 AM | #9 | |
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| 11-30-2020, 12:06 PM | #10 | |
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| 11-30-2020, 12:22 PM | #11 | |
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