I have come to the conclusion that if stuka isn't complaining something is wrong

 

never measured the paint thickness of my BMWs. i don't have much problem with the durability with BMW but Audi. Audi paint is worse imo.

on the side note, i do notice poor paint spray job on my Silverstone E60 M5. on the sunny days u can see uneven metallic patches on all the panels. giving u feeling of difference thickness of paint was applied.

 

Well, it's not that I don't like the M3. It's that I know I should have insisted on the DCT because I had a nagging feeling that the clutch was going to suck as badly as the 996 Turbo.

As far as the paint goes, that's not just the M3, but ALL BMW's.

Going from 160 to 120 is a big downgrade in terms of thickness, and as my sub 300 mile M3 can attest to, really lowers the durability of the paint.

We basically didn't get the car clearbra'ed before driving off the showroom because we weren't sure if we were going to keep it. Despite the sucky clutch, there are many positive things that we have pretty much decided to keep the car and will get it clearbra'ed schedule permitting.

I will have a review up at some point. Right now we are busy getting last minute things done before heading to Taiwan for a few weeks.

 

In all seriousness, we were looking for a modern version of E39 M5, and the E90 M3 came closest of all the decent powered RWD sedan with non autotragic tranny.

So, it is more of a general comment on cost cutting in terms of paint, and pussification of clutches by all manufacturers.