After lusting after this car as long as I can remember, I finally bought the BMW M3 today! It is a fully loaded '08 coupe with about 30k miles on it. It is in my favorite color combo, interlagos blue and silver novillo leather with aluminum trim. I am going to die on the inside until the car is on my driving lot on Wednesday! Anyway, I asked the dealer if they knew what custom work was done on it and they claimed that they have no way of knowing. That being said, what can I do to find out what custom work has been done on it?



Also, this car being about 3 years old with approx. 30k miles, anyone know of any problems I should be looking out for?

Thanks.

[Showroom pic]

 

That is a Dinan carbon fiber intake.

Dinan has a long history of being the exclusive aftermarket supplier to BMW- until the recent introduction of BMW Performance. I encourage you to check out their site.

Dinan is perhaps the most reliable and trustyworthy aftermarket supplier for BMW. For years, the dealers have honored the warranty with Dinan parts installed.

You may also look at the exhaust tips to see if "Dinan" is etched into the tips. They also offer cam kits, suspension, superchargers (your car does not have one installed), software upgrades, and minor cosmetic bits. The cam kit and software are tought to tell unless the labor install is logged at a dealer. Dinan puts a sticker on each of the shocks/struts which may be seen from looking into the wheel well. Also, they used yellow or blue springs for a number of years, IIRC.

I owned a 3-series a while back with an adjustable Dinan StgII suspension package. It was the perfect combo of stiffness with everday driveability.

 

Congrats on your aquisition. That blue is a great color

 

Beautiful! Congrats

 

It's a Dinan product. No other way of knowing any other mods unless they can provide any receipts from previous owner, or put you in contact with the previous owner.

The cars are pretty darn bulletproof. We've got over 40k miles on one and nothing has gone wrong, and it's the first MY. It's about to be replaced however.

The typical crappy BMW interior finishes have made their way onto the car, but nothing major.

 

Seriously? Wtf?

You lust after an $80k BMW M car as long as you can remember and have no idea what/who Dinan is?

 

I thought the same thing brother.

I was expecting to see some really hard to identify stuff.

Also, just the air intake in carbon seems a bit orphaned.

Strange post.

 

Thanks for the congratulations, guys.

I believe Dinan is the only brand that doesn't break BMW warranty when modifying cars? I actually knew about the brand Dinan as a tuning company before but I have never tuned any cars myself and I did not recognize the carbon fiber intake. This is also my first BMW.

 

That's kind of like missing a massive nose zit on prom night.

It kind of sticks out.

Are you sure this is your car??

 

Congrats on your new purchase. Car looks amazing, enjoy.