Llew's F90 M5

[TurboLlew]

very well put... and if you have a friendly service advisor you can get a lot more benefit from that year extension. case in point on my M2C, had taken it for brake fluid check and the service advisor as the name suggest in the truest form said we can make an argument to have the disc and pads changed with a little finesse and the language they know to BMWSA. The car has those M sport brakes and the discs and pads are well over the price of the extension which becomes a no brainer.! pay forward like your said I can't imagine any after market warranty ( under correction) that would be ok with a R34k bill coming their way without them combing through the t and c and coming back with a amount that will barely cover the labour. I have had nights scrolling through FB market place looking at a E46 M3 and dilusionally a E60 M5 but I sanity prevails and I know the M tax will rip me a new one! but I guess it also speaks to the kind of person. I kid you not I have seen F10 M5 with normal 540i disc brakes with caption "no money to spend". and that's just something clear as daylight to see, who know where else corners were taken and maintaining the car.. it is M tax for a reason

Don't worry, you are not alone looking at E46s and V10s. I am often tempted but finding clean ones has become too difficult. They are also far less forgiving than the newer ones in terms of keeping them going as well as restoring them because they are that bit more exotic. Many have found this out the hard way spending more than clean ones cost in the end.

The number of cars with dodgy maintenance and repairs that are even visible in compressed pictures is crazy as well!

 

[TBP88]

Don't worry, you are not alone looking at E46s and V10s. I am often tempted but finding clean ones has become too difficult. They are also far less forgiving than the newer ones in terms of keeping them going as well as restoring them because they are that bit more exotic. Many have found this out the hard way spending more than clean ones cost in the end.

The number of cars with dodgy maintenance and repairs that are even visible in compressed pictures is crazy as well!

Every V10M5 just seems like a headache. I was on a run and trailed a V10M6 and obviously it's a bit of a boat through corners, but it still sounds great and 500hp in an NA car at the coast is a fair chunk of grunt.

A very cool car it certainly remains. E46M3 is far less of an issue (and to beat my endlessly broken drum, Z4Ms are probably an even better proposition, more exotic look and feel, a bit more edgy to drive and all of them are manual, not the best manual, but a pretty decent one IMHO anyway).

 

[Sibonelo]

Every V10M5 just seems like a headache. I was on a run and trailed a V10M6 and obviously it's a bit of a boat through corners, but it still sounds great and 500hp in an NA car at the coast is a fair chunk of grunt.

A very cool car it certainly remains. E46M3 is far less of an issue (and to beat my endlessly broken drum, Z4Ms are probably an even better proposition, more exotic look and feel, a bit more edgy to drive and all of them are manual, not the best manual, but a pretty decent one IMHO anyway).

the sound of that V10 is enough to make your consider parting with your hard earned randela 's .. those Z4M's are spectacular machines but I have mastered the English yet to justify to Head office ( the better half) why a 2 door limited boot space old car makes logical sense... lol

 

[TBP88]

the sound of that V10 is enough to make your consider parting with your hard earned randela 's .. those Z4M's are spectacular machines but I have mastered the English yet to justify to Head office ( the better half) why a 2 door limited boot space old car makes logical sense... lol

Haha, perhaps. Don't wanna derail threads but a Z4MC boot is very decently sized. Sure the kids aren't coming with for the holiday, but you and the missus can do a 10day trip with a decent stack of luggage in there.

 

[TurboLlew]

Barely even had a chance to say goodbye as this happened so quickly, but the Benz has left the garage...




With motor plan ending in December this year, it was time to go. We had no intention of spending Ferrari-level money extending the plan any further and I think my wife was also just tired of it.

What spurred this on was the X5 40e that was on sale here as well (and totally not people fitting 24's to their SVRs or acquiring X3 30ds every other week ): We felt it was going to be more of a liability having a barely-used third car that I needed to sell in case similar kinds of deals popped up. We tried WBC, Wheelie and looked at potential trade offers from Land Rover and BMW. There is a fair whack of deal assistance on Ranges at the moment but they are not exactly 'inexpensive'. I am fairly sure we would be able to negotiate that amount in discounts anyway.

Ultimately, we decided not to rush into a deal on either an X3/5 or a Range and went the Wheelie route to sell the car outright. They were in the ballpark of what we were looking for, taking into account the car's history and condition. Dealer showed up, inspected the car and then paid settlement + paid us the balance based on the price agreed (pretty fair). This happened in my driveway within probably 30 mins... and then off went the C200. I also got to see the tool that they use to look at the accident history... not very detailed. It has the total amounts as well as the dates and VIN, but that is about it.

WBC was an absolute joke to deal with... they were 45 minutes late and then another 45 minutes of inspections later they came in with some ABSURD offer. There was a time that BMW would send you to WBC for a better offer. Can't see how that would happen nowadays. They literally have a vehicle for sale with more mileage and worse spec listed for double the price on their site. According to them they have a database they compare to of what they have paid for 'these cars' . I also think they were comparing an out of plan pre LCI car with low spec to one with almost every box ticked and LCI.

As for the car itself, reflecting on now 5 and a bit years of ownership:

1. Carlo (ex BMW) as our service advisor and subsequently head of customer services at Merc Bryanston is probably a large reason for us continuing to keep the vehicle as long as we did
2. Mercedes quality leaves a great deal to be desired and I look at my Alfa (a vehicle many ridicule for quality) vs. the Mercedes (supposedly the best or nothing) and even my super light, cost-saved Alfa had fewer quality issues than the Merc when I look at things like how the leather held up, the quality of rubbers and plastics, the rate at which things have aged etc.
3. Mercedes HQ customer service is absolutely horrendous: You are first treated as though you're actively destroying the vehicle even for issues that are common enough that they are 30 pages long on overseas forums. I feel SO SORRY for the dealership staff who resort to sending or showing screenshots of their interactions with HQ before pretty straightforward claims are authorised. If not for that you'd think they were the incompetent ones or trying to avoid having things changed. I have previously shown everyone the numerous things that Mercedes said were caused by me washing the car... anyway it is what it is.
4. The car was mechanically reliable and did exactly what you want of a 'wife's' car or 'mommy' car. It is soulless and quiet and just generally excellent at being an innocuous appliance for the majority of the time. It also fared quite well in accidents (front fender and rear ending) with fairly minimal damage (all things considered) in both instances.
5. Trade in values given that the vehicle is now a generation old are not terrible (WBC notwithstanding). Mercedes are giving very generous trade ins (as well as RR) but that is because there is obviously a ton of fat in their pricing for new vehicles! Unfortunatley, you cannot buy a new Mercedes at this point in time despite them giving excellent trade in values. They are priced at levels that defy all logic. At 1.8M starting price for a GLE in '20d' equivalent and 2.1 for a 30d 'rough equivalent' they are in brand new 260kw Porsche Cayenne territory. A 30d X5 starts at 1.7M by comparison. It is nearly 25% more expensive like for like (and then options take this further). Throw in the experience of having to deal with Mercedes aftersales support and it's a hard no for most who own current generation Mercedes vehicles. All manufacturers are skimping where they can, but Mercedes have been cost-saved to the point that they now 'feel' noticeably lower quality which is a problem. With 700 set to lose their jobs at Mercedes, it appears people are voting with their wallets on this one... Apart from treating you like a pauper on one hand, the sales guys also do outlandish things like try to justify fake things as 'better' and even worth more (case in point wood and leather). I had one ABSOLUTE MORON ask me why I think real leather is better because I am mistaken LOL. Same guy couldn't operate the touch controls properly and was fighting with them throughout the test drive. If you have a W204 or earlier (or equivalent) I think you've got the last of the lower end Mercs of decent quality and worth owning long term. They may not be much to look like and not as pretty of an interior in pics, but the quality on offer is better... You can still buy S classes and GLS SUVs that are what you'd expect from a Merc but the pricing of those is (again) outlandish and closer to 'true' luxury or performance sedans and SUVs from Bentley or at this point even Lamborghini if you will take a higher mileage RSQ... I mean Urus.

In terms of the shopping list:

BMW: X3/X5 30d and X3M Comp
Range Rover: She can't decide whether these are too big or not but basically these tick loads of her boxes in terms of luxury and simplicity
Range Rover Sport SVR/Some variant
Porsche Cayenne S or GTS (or an older Turbo but I remember Mr Y mentioning that these are not covered for as long as 'pureblood' Porsches). the Macan is definitely too small for the duty required.

There is no traffic or high mileages to consider - needs to be school run, family (and hound-friendly) fun. Obviously the range rovers give me heart palpitations thinking of things that may go wrong out of plan, but it's also not exactly my car


Oh and also I tiled my garage finally

 

[stephen]

Seems like Mercedes is taking a page out of BMW's customer service book these days. They seem to be OK with chasing away loyal customers. WBC is just an absolute joke with trade ins.

Consider having a look at the Swede's too. Volvo's electric offerings are proper quick and tick the boxes of what you're looking for. I cant speak for other dealerships however I've had nothing but amazing service at Volvo Hillcrest here in KZN (for my 22 XC60). As I get older this is definitely becoming a larger part of what I consider when purchasing a vehicle. Although, I can only imagine Porsche leads the way in this department.

Garage looking 🔥

 

[jld010]

Can concur..WBC have become an absolute joke with trade ins..wont paraphrase your section of the post but reads exactly the same. They offered 750k for my 2019 F82...SMG Durban offered 840k..(yes the F90 itch is itching). Gave the same lame reply with regards to market prices etc.but they were selling a 2017 with 80k mileage for 790...with comments to boot!!

 

[MR_Y]

X5 30d simple answer
Cayenne S V8 is pretty good, but even though I am a Porsche fan, my brain says BMW X5....

 

[Mytfine]

X3M Comp, they are a cracking piece of kit and looks the part too.

 

[TurboLlew]

As requested a few more pics now that it is finally a bit cleaner:

As you go along you find new things to neaten or rearrange.

You will see a nice Firi/Dimensions supplied solar setup in some of the pics. This has been keeping us load shedding free... but has probably paid for itself already in terms of reduced power bills. @FiRi@Rennzport
The hotwheels thing is from GShift @gavsadler
The construction was done by @Neven

The door is the thing that a lot of people comment on and is a big feature... however I would avoid a glass door if you're embarking on a project like this in future. Now that it is here and working finally it's great. However, you need a much stronger motor... the guys fiddled alot getting the springs right, extra reinforcement and I feel they did a lot of R&D at my expense (in time rather than cost)... For privacy purposes these are also not transparent panels so if I had to do this over, I would probably have gone for the aluminium clad doors that are just as 'expensive' but probably would have been a lot more straightforward to install and get right.

In terms of the floor so far so good. I went with a 1190 x 590 tile (strange size don't recommend this if you want any other pattern than what I've gone with here). It is porcelain and rectified. Most importantly it says it is rectified ON THE BOX and not claimed by the tile salesman. Check and double check when tiling especially if you want thin grout lines. The lines here are 2mm and I could probably have gone 1mm even. Installed them using Tal Gold Star XL adhesive with Tal Bond instead of water used to mix it. This was not a cheap exercise and you could probably get a way just fine with any regular adhesive and water (especially with a smaller format tile), but the improved properties were worth it for me for the purposes of garage use.

I initially wanted an epoxy floor and I feel I'd have ended up with the same issue as the door above. Great thing that everyone loves and which looks great in pics but which you end up regretting. A BASIC epoxy floor can be done for about the same price as tiles. Those fancy floors can cost more than double. That in and of itself didn't put me off... what put me off was how every epoxy floor owner has stories about it lifting, peeling, changing colour/opacity etc. and the mission of getting it redone. Alot of that is in the prep and contractor you use. I just was not up for it after looking at it. I may do this in a lower traffic area one day when I have another project.

When the day comes for me to do more serious work on the cars, I will use rubber or izitrax for that area

The sliding door here opens into a 'wash bay' or 'wash pad' with water supply, power supply, paved and with decent drainage.



I have some die cast cars on either side of the door - this is all giving me an idea of what kind of feature lighting I am going to need as well as how the final display cabinets and workspace at the back is going to need to be designed and lit. I already know I am doing lighting in the skirtings. I do think I will be doing a variation of hex/patterned lights from Firi at some point more for daytime use TBH. At night its actually fine. I've made provision for both feature lighting and ambient lighting when wiring the place up.




I still have some cabinets and things but these will be replaced with proper displays - working with another fanatic on that. These are just a fraction of the die cast cars/legos/collectibles that I have. That is another project for another day though. I have the preliminary renders and costs for it but I have also had to switch gears to do water backup so that is temporarily on the back burner.

The windows and the sliding door are a must - especially during the day - in that they let a lot of natural light in and I sometimes work or take calls in the garage. I had initially wanted Legrand fixtures but ended up getting something similar (Onesto) that was pretty much the same in concept and had the 'real' Shuko plugs (with ground pins) that a lot of my stuff somehow has. It is also modular and each element can be swapped out. So far it has held up very well (I use all the sockets quite frequently)



I ran quite a few polls to get views on the 'long' wall it is still a work in progress but getting there. I have a selection of tracks. The company that produces them is working on a MotoGP set and will be doing a set of SA tracks as well. I have left space for these for the future. I will take a wider shot when the skirtings are also in.



The entire wall is meant to somewhat resemble the train station (Welcome to Limbo aka Mobil Ave) from The Matrix Revolutions with the map on one side (the tracks) and the sign (there is a sign shop in Verulam called Image Printers that did this for me and sent it to me with templates and instructions for installation)

 

[Greenz]

Absolutely stunning!

I'd be spending a lot of time in there for no reason lol

 

[Mytfine]

My company does installations on gates/garage doors. These glass doors are a freaking nightmare sometimes and the motors are so sensitive that if you dont have the spring rates just right they are forever giving shit.

My 2c, when it starts giving issues, the most analogue strongest motor is the Gemini, throw that in you should fine.

Its an awesome man cave though with stunning toys, im a little jealous, ok maybe alot.

 

[jld010]

More pics of Mjolnir

 

[Benji]

Epic garage! Now the process starts to get it dirty and untidy

 

[///M Individual]

Wow the garage came out absolutely stunning Llew! Well done!

 

[Mytfine]

Im a tool whore, when im big i want a Snap on trolley set🤣

 

[TurboLlew]

So with a space of that size and with the frequency that dust (especially in our dry winter) ends up in the garage, it was not feasible to keep it perpetually clean. Adding the equivalent space of a small 2 bed apartment was also not particularly fair on my helper... even if it is 'just' mopping.

Of course my first port of call was to go with a Karcher robot vacuum/mop but pricing is fairly high, with the consumer model at around R8K and R13K for the pro model. I was also wondering about units with larger water reservoirs and other features since I'd never used one of these myself

One of my mates had bought a unit during lockdown and barely used it so kindly gave it to me to try out for a few days: Turns out it fit my use case perfectly, so I ended up getting it from him.



Setup and Automation:
Setup is simple. There are two tanks: One is a combo vacuum and water tank, the other is a plain vacuum tank. There is one spare brush and one spare mop microfibre but it is easy to find kits for this inexpensively.

The app works well but does require registration. Once in, it is easy to set up automation. The unit builds a map the first few times it is used. I have it set to vacuum every other day at 11pm. So far it has worked just fine.

Pathfinding & height
I had no issues with it finding its way underneath the M5, 4C or my mate's visiting Toyota 86
No issues navigating around objects but it did (on the higher vacuum level) pick up a microfibre I'd left on the floor (it sent me a message about being stuck... the cloth itself didn't stop it but clumped up and blocked its path at the 4C side skirt ). I found it had also picked up a piece of plastic that was from one of my LED skirtings I am trying out... this long and narrow packaging wrapped around the brush. My fault on that front but it didn't cause any issues.
It did try to escape once (probably my fault as I thought I set the boundary at the garage door).
There is a bump sensor, tilt sensors and a LiDAR unit (the goodie sticking out at the top which is not present on some models) that make sure it doesn't break anything (or break itself). the unit is quite robust and did eventually make its way around things I'd left out to be in its way on purpose.
The unit has not failed to find its way back to its little dock and will also charge itself if it starts to run low on battery and then resume whatever it was doing.


View attachment WhatsApp Video 2024-07-09 at 20.32.23.mp4 View attachment WhatsApp Video 2024-07-09 at 20.33.32.mp4


Vacuuming
This unit has 2.1KPa of suction power. For tiles in the garage and the type of dirt coming in (leaves, flowers, pollen, dust, small stones, sand/dust) it is perfectly fine. There are units with 4Kpa but at the same time for my use case this will never be working on thick carpets. Medium setting has been fine. If I cared about noise even the low setting would probably be good enough for this. There is a small radius that it is obviously unable to get to but not a big deal. You can see this below in the corner. Not a biggie as R2D2 (my giant Karcher Pro unit) will have that sucked up in half a second when I'm vacuuming the cars




Mopping
You still have to use detergent and 'normal' mopping maybe once in 2 weeks. You can't use detergent in this unit at all - strictly water. This is not really a replacement for actual 'cleaning' but it does pick up a heck of a lot of dirt on the microfibre pad as part of this process. It is a little like a snail, injecting a bit of water onto the pad, leaving a bit of a trail and then going over it in a more 'zig zag' pattern than the vacuuming. Effective at keeping it looking perpetually 'fresh' but not a replacement for a deep clean IMHO. Mopping (of course) takes significantly longer than just vacuuming.


View attachment WhatsApp Video 2024-07-09 at 20.06.44.mp4


What would I recommend?

For a few grand this was a no brainer to buy used. I have no doubt there are a number of these units sitting collecting dust from folks that thought it would be more useful to them in their flats/houses than it actually was. The batteries (should you need them for these 'sitting' units) are fairly easy to find as are the replacement spares and filters.

If I had to buy a unit new for garage use, this is probably the way I'd go with Lidar, similar brush system, better suction and battery. The water tank on mine was sufficient for the full garage on the high water use setting.



This is the difference between mine and the new equivalent replacement (approx 7-8K): I feel like the 'high frequency sonic vibration' thing is likely to not really be a huge deal. The same limitations apply in terms of detergent use and it is not going to replace (as mentioned above) a 'real' deep clean. Obviously for garage use mapping multiple floors is irrelevant to me but may be something one of you is after. Battery life I've mentioned above. I have no doubt you could max out the suction & water injection with the battery below for the 80/90 square space of a quad garage. The suction difference is (IMHO) irrelevant as you aren't even really using the max setting for a hard floor on the smaller unit. If you had carpets this would matter more.



Anyway enough reviewing. Hopefully this was helpful.

 

[Sabretooth tiger]

Damn bro. This is stunning

 

[modocrat]

The bots are taking over, ruuuuun

Awesome stuff Llew.

 

[sash]

Nice additions, definitely dream garage right there.