This being my second BMW (first being my 08 135i), I figured I'd start a build thread since I regretted doing it with my last.
I found my way into this 2015 435i GC by way of fortunate timing and fate.
I recently sold my AW 135i which was my baby. I loved her to death. Perfectly modded, always brought a smile to my face, and never let me down. Sadly, I had to sell her for earnest money on an investment property. It hurt.
I didn't want to leave the platform, but newer tech in the later models, and now having a 5 year old, I needed something more practical. I began looking at the following:
2013 F10 M5
2012 Panamera Turbo
2015+ 435i Gran Coupe
The practical and responsible part of me eventually ruled out the former two and settled on the latter. So my search began. I started on Autotrader, with a 500 mile radius of my BMW devoid area of South Dakota, expecting to find one in Denver. I found one. ONE. A black 2015 with 47K miles and they were firm on it's 35.5k price tag (according to them, it's Dinan exhaust was the reason lol). This was a private seller, and not CPO mind you. NEXT.
With a trip to Las Vegas ahead of me, I started looking within 500 miles of there. Jackpot. About 40 results (2015/16 w/ less than 30k miles) popped up. I quickly narrowed those down by whether or not they had M packages.
That left about 20. Next we went with color. Black, white, or silver. This narrowed the list even further down to 5. After that, I began running VINs through a decoder website to make sure the specs were what I wanted.
Adaptive LED, HUD, HK sound, higher speed limiter, etc.
This narrowed it down to 2 vehicles. A white one in Riverside CA, and a black one by private owner in Crown Valley.
The white one sold while I was on the flight to Vegas
and the black one was taken down a day later. It was either budge on the options, or budge on the color. There were strangely TONS of blue ones available.
As I reloaded the saved search (this time in CarGuru app) I found a Glacier Silver one in Santa Ana that had JUST been put on the site. It looked great, 21k miles, carbon mirrors, black grills, 20" Style 624's, stunning at first glance.
I held my breath as I decoded the VIN, being sure that it would be lacking some crucial option like comfort access. The results came back and I grinned. Fully loaded besides leather. Easily the one thing I can live without.
I had my brother, who lives in Mission Viejo, drive down the next morning and give it the look over and test drive. He facetimed me while there and everything was excellent!
I nervously sat in Vegas for the next two days praying nobody would snatch it up and on my last day there, I made the call to the dealer. I told them it was my brother that came by, and I said that if the numbers looked good with financing, I would fly out to SoCal instead of back to South Dakota, and pick up the car.
It took them a minute to run the numbers, and I was literally at the airport with my flight back home boarding in an hour, when they called back and said they could meet my numbers. I swapped my flight from South Dakota to Orange County, and two hours later, I was staring at the face of this gorgeous piece of engineering.
Switching flights meant I only had Friday night in Cali, and then Saturday and Sunday to drive the 1400 mile / 20 hour trip home. It was 7pm when I got to the dealer. I approached the car with eagle eyes, it wasn't a CPO, so I knew I had to do my due diligence with inspecting it. Sure it's under warranty, but still, Carfax only catches so much.
I opened all the doors, popped the hatch and hood, and went to work. I'm an aircraft mechanic by trade, so I do thorough inspections regularly and not much misses my gaze. Everything was pristine.
My optimism started to fade when I went in the idrive and found the message "Oil measurement inactive". Inactive? How do I ensure theres oil in this thing? It also said it required the oil serviced within the next 500 miles. Being 8pm now, taking it to BMW was a no go. I texted my friend who was a master mechanic for BMW, but he was busy at the time. I then scoured the forums for this error. The results eased my tension. Normally either a bad sensor (which would be replaced under warranty) or a chewed/damaged wire. I'll take those odds.
I went ahead with the purchase, crossed my fingers in hopes I could get an appointment at Irvine BMW in the morning, and that all would be good for the trip home.
I received the response from my friend the tech around 11pm that night and he echoed the forum results, bad sensor or wire. I told him that I would take her to BMW Irvine in the a.m. and he replied "That's where I work now!" "What time you coming in?" My face lit up, as I hadn't seen him since he worked on my 1 series in Las Vegas. Needless to say, he got me in bright and early in the morning. Damaged wire fixed, and oil change good to go.
The trip had been successful and I was beyond ecstatic. I decided to drive down to San Diego for a quick visit with an old coworker before leaving back to South Dakota.
And then the unthinkable happened.
I was leaving a gas station outside of Camp Pendleton, and in the middle of a curve/on ramp, I see the face of a Dodge Challenger coming in hot and tight on the inside of the curve. I immediately knew he was over the line, and instincts yanked the wheel right as fast as I could. I barely had any speed as I just left the gas station, so the car couldn't drastically change course, and I heard the faint swish of him catching my rear quarter panel.
I immediately stopped, and looked in my review at him continuing around the curve. I couldn't believe he was running. I threw the car in reverse, and upon turning around, a passerby told me he went into the gas station. I pulled into the gas station to barely catch a glimpse of him continuing through the gas station and into a Denney's parking lot. I caught him and screamed at him to park it.
Cops called, report filed, info exchanged, heart broken.
I know it's just a car. I know we are not injured, but damn. I just put insurance on it a few hours earlier.
I ended up leaving a lot later obviously, and so the trip home was nothing notable, except the enjoyment of becoming acquainted with my new love. And the 32 MPG.
Leaving Vegas
Wyoming
So that's the story. From here on out, I hope to update regularly with what mods are soon to come. En-route are JB4, VSRF DP's, Charge Pipe, and FMIC.
Looking forward to the new adventure, even if it's started out a bit shaky.
Flaws and all. $2.6k in damage if anyone is wondering.
Current State:
