Thread: BMW M6 - reliability, maintenance, general consensus?

Hey guys - I've been thinking about getting an M5 or M3 for the past few months, but I just found an M6 for sale locally in Interlagos Blue. It's a 2006 model with 60k miles, but it also has an extended warranty through 2015 or 120k miles. I was planning to wait till later this year to buy, but I thought that extra warranty on this one was a nice little perk.

I've never really owned anything fancy as far as cars go, I ended up buying a house pretty soon after college and just kept driving a normal car. What should I expect for yearly maintenance on these? I'd imagine even general things are a bit pricier on an M-car that originally cost around $100k. Are there any items to look out for or have checked specifically during a dealer inspection? Is the '06 model a decent year even though it was the first model year for the M6 coupes?

Any thoughts in general on the M6's? It sounds like a fun car with the V10 and SMG, and would most definitely be a massive upgrade over anything I've driven in the past. I was mainly looking for an M5, but this one just popped up and caught my attention.

Thanks for the input!

btw - is there any trick or way to search for two letter words on the forum? It makes it hard to search for past threads when the words are M6, M5, M3, S4, etc...

How much you picking it up for? They are expensive to maintain if something breaks and you don't have a warranty. Mine has been reliable (06, has 67k miles, owned for about 8K miles). Also, it is not easy to search for m6's. It is a pain.

Oil, gas, and tires is the only maintenance I had to do on mine. Except for a headlight going out which was about $300.
If you do get one you should buy my exhaust I have in the garage, I miss the sound of it.

I've owned 2 E64 M6's. A 2007 (still have it) and a 2008 (traded it for a 2012 X6M). I haven't had any repairs to do but the 2007 just went out of its OEM maintenance period (I have an extended warrantee) so I had to pay for the recent oil change myself. It was $320.00. Seemed a bit pricey to me, but I guess the oil itself is fairly specialized. The tires are pretty pricey too, and don't seem to last too long. But all in all...it sure is a fun car to drive.

320 for an oil change is just silly. It shouldn't cost nearly that much. The oil is about 13 dollars a quart and it is just as easy to change the oil in these cars as it is in any other car.

I would like more details on the warranty, who is it through because BMW doesn't offer a 120K warranty, is their a deducible for repairs?

I found it on Craigslist with an asking price of $33k, which seemed towards the low end but not unreasonable if he was looking to sell quickly. I haven't seen it yet other than a few cell phone images and emails back and forth, so I'm planning to go check it out this weekend since he's nearby.

No major details on the warranty yet, but I did find that the CPO warranty only covers to 100k on the BMW USA website. Although he did mention that it is a Bumper-to-Bumper warranty through BMW. Maybe it's something that our local dealer offers? I'm not really sure.

If it seems to be in good shape after seeing it in person, I'm planning to bring it to the local BMW dealer to do a detailed inspection. I'll ask about the details on the warranty from the dealer to make sure I get something more concrete and on paper.

It sounds like maintenance is typical for them, just costs a bit more than your average vehicle. I'm hoping everything will check out with it after I see it!

Yeah, most CPO BMW warranties go to 7 yrs 100K, (which is 50,000 miles and 2 years longer then the standard warranty). The warranty the guy is explaining sounds like its a goes for 9 years, that has to be a third party, and those warranties are worth their weight in paper (useless), there such a hassle usually to have anything done. Give us more details as they emerge with this vehicle, but I would say you might be better getting a new less expensive to maintain vehicle if its going to be your first high end car, like a regular 650i from 2008.

With BMW's regular 4 yr/50,000 mile warranty just about everything is covered and its regarded as one of the best warranties in the business; you get a low oil level, they will top it off, your windshield wiper is making streak marks, they will replace it, your tail light fills with water, new one, etc etc. I have had a new steering wheel because the area where you hold the wheel began to fade a little.

Originally Posted by GoHokiesGo

I found it on Craigslist with an asking price of $33k, which seemed towards the low end but not unreasonable if he was looking to sell quickly. I haven't seen it yet other than a few cell phone images and emails back and forth, so I'm planning to go check it out this weekend since he's nearby.

No major details on the warranty yet, but I did find that the CPO warranty only covers to 100k on the BMW USA website. Although he did mention that it is a Bumper-to-Bumper warranty through BMW. Maybe it's something that our local dealer offers? I'm not really sure.

If it seems to be in good shape after seeing it in person, I'm planning to bring it to the local BMW dealer to do a detailed inspection. I'll ask about the details on the warranty from the dealer to make sure I get something more concrete and on paper.

It sounds like maintenance is typical for them, just costs a bit more than your average vehicle. I'm hoping everything will check out with it after I see it!

33k seems very very low for an IB with 60K in good shape with a warranty. If it checks out, buy it.

Pretty bulletproof for me 3 years and 18K miles

See some of my for sale threads and turn it into a beast