Hello everyone!
I've been around for some time but never got to introduce myself.
My name is Daniel, I'm from Romania and I am a proud owner of a Topaz blue BMW Z3 1.9i born in December 2001 (at the dealership they consider it a 2002) with only 88.000kms on the clock.
Now for the story ... Everything started on 9th of April this year. Until this date I was only looking around for Z3s and just thinking that some day I will get one. Didn't really find anything I like near me so I was not in a rush. On 9th of April I posted my first message on the forum, the sale section, asking if anyone knew a decent Z3 I could look at, I was considering going outside Romania to get it.
On that date, @Zeti , my fellow Romanian (to whom I am grateful for everything, without him I would not own a Z3 today. THANK YOU!!!!! ), contacted me and started to tell me the story of his Z3 and what should I look for when searching for one. I told him I found one near the seaside in Romania but I was a little skeptical to go and look at it (450km away). He encouraged me and on 13th of April I was on my way to see it. Everything went well but I was not yet decided, due to the strange story of the car.
The car was originally sold in Italy, back in 2001, and had only 1 owner there (leasing company and owner on the papers). 3 years ago, the owner came to Romania together with a Romanian woman and after a short while, something happened and he left. The car remained in Romania and it was unregistered from Italy (on the papers now the Romanian woman above appeared).
During this 3 years the car was never registered in Romania and it stayed in a closed garage. No drive, and no nothing done with it. Only occasional start of the engine (as the owner said).
Hearing this story I was almost thinking of the usual stories with car sellers in Romania, "It belonged to an old lady, used only to go shopping in weekends", and usually those cars are wrecks, with manipulated odometer and hidden defects, or even worse, totaled cars that are repaired and then sold as "no accident" cars.
I called Zeti the next day and told him the story, he saw the picture better than me and told me to go get it, it's the real thing. (after showing him some photos). So I did, on 20th of April I took one of my close friends and drove there (I could not drive 2 cars on return). Changed all the oils and did a rough inspection on brakes and everything else in that same day before driving the 450kms back.
And so, starting from 20th of April I am the proud owner of a BMW Z3
Now the improvements begin.
The car didn't have fog lights and roll hoops from factory so I had to retrofit them.
Fog lights I found in Romania, took them from somebody dismantling an e39, seems they are the same, and the smaller covers and the switch for them from @spurs fan in a coupe (Thank you!!)
To be continued in the next post ...
I've been around for some time but never got to introduce myself.
My name is Daniel, I'm from Romania and I am a proud owner of a Topaz blue BMW Z3 1.9i born in December 2001 (at the dealership they consider it a 2002) with only 88.000kms on the clock.
Now for the story ... Everything started on 9th of April this year. Until this date I was only looking around for Z3s and just thinking that some day I will get one. Didn't really find anything I like near me so I was not in a rush. On 9th of April I posted my first message on the forum, the sale section, asking if anyone knew a decent Z3 I could look at, I was considering going outside Romania to get it.
On that date, @Zeti , my fellow Romanian (to whom I am grateful for everything, without him I would not own a Z3 today. THANK YOU!!!!! ), contacted me and started to tell me the story of his Z3 and what should I look for when searching for one. I told him I found one near the seaside in Romania but I was a little skeptical to go and look at it (450km away). He encouraged me and on 13th of April I was on my way to see it. Everything went well but I was not yet decided, due to the strange story of the car.
The car was originally sold in Italy, back in 2001, and had only 1 owner there (leasing company and owner on the papers). 3 years ago, the owner came to Romania together with a Romanian woman and after a short while, something happened and he left. The car remained in Romania and it was unregistered from Italy (on the papers now the Romanian woman above appeared).
During this 3 years the car was never registered in Romania and it stayed in a closed garage. No drive, and no nothing done with it. Only occasional start of the engine (as the owner said).
Hearing this story I was almost thinking of the usual stories with car sellers in Romania, "It belonged to an old lady, used only to go shopping in weekends", and usually those cars are wrecks, with manipulated odometer and hidden defects, or even worse, totaled cars that are repaired and then sold as "no accident" cars.
I called Zeti the next day and told him the story, he saw the picture better than me and told me to go get it, it's the real thing. (after showing him some photos). So I did, on 20th of April I took one of my close friends and drove there (I could not drive 2 cars on return). Changed all the oils and did a rough inspection on brakes and everything else in that same day before driving the 450kms back.
And so, starting from 20th of April I am the proud owner of a BMW Z3
Now the improvements begin.
The car didn't have fog lights and roll hoops from factory so I had to retrofit them.
Fog lights I found in Romania, took them from somebody dismantling an e39, seems they are the same, and the smaller covers and the switch for them from @spurs fan in a coupe (Thank you!!)
To be continued in the next post ...
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