BeemerFanatic
Events Organiser
That’s not a garage. It’s a 1 bed apartment. Looking good Llew. Cant wait to see the end result
-
Read the WELCOME ALL BMWFANATICS post.
Llew's F90 M5
- Thread starter TurboLlew
- Start date
TurboLlew
Honorary ///Member
Slowly edging towards completion.
Lights and plugs are in and the ceiling is done, but the walls are just primered. Working on final colour which should be here tomorrow along with drainage and paving of the front. I've already completed the paving around the back and in some of the front, but had to wait for various things to be completed and for the guys to clear everything from the build so we could essentially pave where all the material and rubble was sitting. We had some torrential downpours earlier and nothing flooded so that's a good sign, but drainage is a must.
You can spot the wall colour tester in some of the pics on the right of the entrance.
There were some delays on the door manufacturing and hopefully that also won't have to wait. Touch and go for this week, but at this point I think I've gotten quite far for this year. The floor is going to wait until next year since we have a contractor shutdown from Thursday in the estate and I don't really want to rush it. To be honest I am still not 100% between the epoxy and tiles.
the 16 downlighters work in terms of intensity... 6500K colour temp works too. They are split into the 'main' 12 which cover the cars and another 4 which are at the workspace. There's provision for additional lights (either strips or hex later...) inside and the outside lights are on another circuit.
Lights and plugs are in and the ceiling is done, but the walls are just primered. Working on final colour which should be here tomorrow along with drainage and paving of the front. I've already completed the paving around the back and in some of the front, but had to wait for various things to be completed and for the guys to clear everything from the build so we could essentially pave where all the material and rubble was sitting. We had some torrential downpours earlier and nothing flooded so that's a good sign, but drainage is a must.
You can spot the wall colour tester in some of the pics on the right of the entrance.
There were some delays on the door manufacturing and hopefully that also won't have to wait. Touch and go for this week, but at this point I think I've gotten quite far for this year. The floor is going to wait until next year since we have a contractor shutdown from Thursday in the estate and I don't really want to rush it. To be honest I am still not 100% between the epoxy and tiles.
the 16 downlighters work in terms of intensity... 6500K colour temp works too. They are split into the 'main' 12 which cover the cars and another 4 which are at the workspace. There's provision for additional lights (either strips or hex later...) inside and the outside lights are on another circuit.
MoouSlowly edging towards completion.
Lights and plugs are in and the ceiling is done, but the walls are just primered. Working on final colour which should be here tomorrow along with drainage and paving of the front. I've already completed the paving around the back and in some of the front, but had to wait for various things to be completed and for the guys to clear everything from the build so we could essentially pave where all the material and rubble was sitting. We had some torrential downpours earlier and nothing flooded so that's a good sign, but drainage is a must.
You can spot the wall colour tester in some of the pics on the right of the entrance.
There were some delays on the door manufacturing and hopefully that also won't have to wait. Touch and go for this week, but at this point I think I've gotten quite far for this year. The floor is going to wait until next year since we have a contractor shutdown from Thursday in the estate and I don't really want to rush it. To be honest I am still not 100% between the epoxy and tiles.
the 16 downlighters work in terms of intensity... 6500K colour temp works too. They are split into the 'main' 12 which cover the cars and another 4 which are at the workspace. There's provision for additional lights (either strips or hex later...) inside and the outside lights are on another circuit.
Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk
Spanky
Well-known member
That looks incredible! Stuff of dreams for sure.
Perhaps, if you haven't already, checkout AMMO NYC & AMMO NYC Studio - I know he went through various floors before he found one that really worked.
Here's a nice overview of the entire setup.
Perhaps, if you haven't already, checkout AMMO NYC & AMMO NYC Studio - I know he went through various floors before he found one that really worked.
Here's a nice overview of the entire setup.
TurboLlew
Honorary ///Member
So I wanted to have the space 'closed' at least by the end of the year. It was touch and go but this arrived yesterday...
Nothing more happening this year except for some tidying up inside (and moving some things in). I can only clean it in a couple of days.
Will be paving next year. The back section is already done but I wanted to have a look at it at this sort of stage to make a final call.
Nothing more happening this year except for some tidying up inside (and moving some things in). I can only clean it in a couple of days.
Will be paving next year. The back section is already done but I wanted to have a look at it at this sort of stage to make a final call.
Love the doorsSo I wanted to have the space 'closed' at least by the end of the year. It was touch and go but this arrived yesterday...
Nothing more happening this year except for some tidying up inside (and moving some things in). I can only clean it in a couple of days.
Will be paving next year. The back section is already done but I wanted to have a look at it at this sort of stage to make a final call.
Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk
TurboLlew
Honorary ///Member
Brief update: There is some minor stuff to finish off like the cutting of pavers, cleaning, final fitment for cameras etc. but it is pretty much done. The only thing outstanding is the floor (tiles/epoxy/rubber debate), but I will live with the concrete for a while before deciding. It's a large outlay that you can't easily change afterwards like some of the other items.
I thought about doing fancier pavers. The ones I initially wanted were working out at over R275K! But after looking at many houses on my morning runs, looking at how they weather and age as well as how it would be used, simplicity won out in the end... even if it isn't the fanciest. They are ordinary concrete cottage pavers from Infraset.
There is a steep angle from the driveway and with our recent rains, I invested a lot into drainage across the entire front of the house. The garage was no exception.
The charcoal pavers match up reasonably well with the cheap black bevel bricks that I have around the rest of the house
Of course I can now look after my cars properly again and fill the empty slot (this year sometime I hope LOL)
Many of the fanatics reached out to me here and in other places: A summary of things I learned and things that were done:
Electrical: The cost for accomodating redundancy is VERY low when you are building. Laying an extra 50m of conduit and having your electrician pull wires to blanks is much easier and cheaper than realising afterwards that you need to chase into walls or stuff on the surface. Similarly use outside weatherproof boxes strategically as sources of network, power and comms 'out of' the house. this saves you having to let other contractors into your house to find the 'path of least resistance' that will irriate you into the future since they decide that "oh this is normal" and drill a hole through an extremely visible portion of your house because it saves them 15 mins of using their brains... I fortunatley have good SPs except for fibre. Metrofibre and Vodacom send people that wouldn't qualify to unblock an open drain with their hands.... let alone deal with fibre issues.
There are many tools that come with schuko plugs and none of them are 'real' grounded schuko. I made sure to have this available on all the walls and there is a fairly cost effective Owesto 'strip' that can be configured with a mix of 2 pins, shucko and 3 pins.
I configured 4 zones for the lighting: outside, inside car space, inside work space at the back and outside floods for the back and side. this helps manage power because even though we have solar, with a few days of continuous rain and Eskom shenanigans, you still do need to watch your usage, especially into the night.
I have made provision for future lighting upgrades for panels and hex lights - there are blind boxes to accommodate feature lighting on each side and wiring run to the slab boxes for future use as well. I do feel the downlighters will be just fine for some time to come - something I was very worried about
Quality of Life features
Air - There's a spot on the side to accomodate an air compressor and in future a permanently mounted pressure washer. I went through the exercise of looking at chasing air into the walls or surface mounting it across the whole garage. For this kind of space, best for me was to allow for a regulator to sit on the inside, plumbed through the wall with just a long hose. I don't use it often enough that I would need the convenience of having it on every wall. Ditto for vacuum - my big "R2D2" karcher can reach all the cars without me having to unplug and replug so it didn't make too much sense to leave room for vacuum ports on the walls.
Water
You may spot the lack of a water source inside the garage. Just inside the white door is a double steel sink to prep chemicals, wash up etc. and there is storage space behind that for my detailing supplies. The idea was to keep the inside fairly empty. If I need water inside I have access via the sliding door or glass door at the back which both have taps and drains just outside.
The reason for this is more of a personal one: I had SO MANY GUYS cut into water pipes during the renovation that I don't want to take the chance with all my cars, equipment and electrical stuff sitting inside. Water can be more trouble than it's worth and it didn't make sense with three sources (front rear and side) with a double sink and two outside drains.
If you don't have a similar set up, a double sink at the bank will help alot and again isn't an expensive thing to add while you're building.
Drainage
There is a fairly long drain with a trap embedded into the concrete floor. It's only a 50mm pipe - not much more needed for this kind of application and there is some attenuation within the drain itself. This is a must for cleaning the garage as well as bringing cars in to dry. I can imagine washing a car in here if push came to shove, but that's not really the intention with it (again with the electrical stuff not far away). The floor is very thick so this could be done with the right angle to get the water out. You may have to accomodate for a section to be thicker if you're not planning to do a uniformly thick layer.
Outside drainage is another thing to factor in - there is a pad for washing but also drains in front and to the side with 110mm pipes and attenuation drains too. The last thing you want (especially with our recent unpredictable weather) is to end up with floods or excessive erosion which can impact the building/structure.
Door
The door looks great... but it is heavy AF because of the kind of glass used and has a Digi 1000 Newton motor. It also needs heavier duty springs, more bracing etc. I will report back on keeping a black glossy thing clean... but you can imagine
. I have not regretted it though, just that you need to know what you're in for and you are paying the price for what is purely an aesthetic thing.
Network/Connectivity
I have a Ubiquiti unifi setup, but this applies to anyone I guess. There are many reasons to run ethernet each wall as well as have an access point inside. I have Five runs into the garage: Two to points on the wall (it goes to a patch panel in the rack so can be for anything), 2 to cameras (inside and for the driveway) and one to the AP
Architectural features:
I have new appreciation for the engineering that goes into some of this stuff. There are some elements that you look at when talking to the architect and think: yeah those are simple and would look great. The one such item was the concrete eyebrow across the front of the house... BEFORE you sign off on plans and submit, make sure you have an idea of what it will cost to bring all the 'non-standard' things to life. In my case, if the eyebrow was hanging off the roof OR it was extending into the garage as part of the ceiling it would have basically cost a fair bit less than it did to have it 'floating' with engineered steel beams as you see it now. No regrets though. in the grand scheme of the overall project, it was not material and the rest did come in on or below budget.
Last one: this side door will never get old LOL - but I do wish I'd done a stacker instead of a slider here. No regrets since this is one of the nicest features: I make my coffee in the morning and have a view of the car
I thought about doing fancier pavers. The ones I initially wanted were working out at over R275K! But after looking at many houses on my morning runs, looking at how they weather and age as well as how it would be used, simplicity won out in the end... even if it isn't the fanciest. They are ordinary concrete cottage pavers from Infraset.
There is a steep angle from the driveway and with our recent rains, I invested a lot into drainage across the entire front of the house. The garage was no exception.
The charcoal pavers match up reasonably well with the cheap black bevel bricks that I have around the rest of the house
Of course I can now look after my cars properly again and fill the empty slot (this year sometime I hope LOL)
Many of the fanatics reached out to me here and in other places: A summary of things I learned and things that were done:
Electrical: The cost for accomodating redundancy is VERY low when you are building. Laying an extra 50m of conduit and having your electrician pull wires to blanks is much easier and cheaper than realising afterwards that you need to chase into walls or stuff on the surface. Similarly use outside weatherproof boxes strategically as sources of network, power and comms 'out of' the house. this saves you having to let other contractors into your house to find the 'path of least resistance' that will irriate you into the future since they decide that "oh this is normal" and drill a hole through an extremely visible portion of your house because it saves them 15 mins of using their brains... I fortunatley have good SPs except for fibre. Metrofibre and Vodacom send people that wouldn't qualify to unblock an open drain with their hands.... let alone deal with fibre issues.
There are many tools that come with schuko plugs and none of them are 'real' grounded schuko. I made sure to have this available on all the walls and there is a fairly cost effective Owesto 'strip' that can be configured with a mix of 2 pins, shucko and 3 pins.
I configured 4 zones for the lighting: outside, inside car space, inside work space at the back and outside floods for the back and side. this helps manage power because even though we have solar, with a few days of continuous rain and Eskom shenanigans, you still do need to watch your usage, especially into the night.
I have made provision for future lighting upgrades for panels and hex lights - there are blind boxes to accommodate feature lighting on each side and wiring run to the slab boxes for future use as well. I do feel the downlighters will be just fine for some time to come - something I was very worried about
Quality of Life features
Air - There's a spot on the side to accomodate an air compressor and in future a permanently mounted pressure washer. I went through the exercise of looking at chasing air into the walls or surface mounting it across the whole garage. For this kind of space, best for me was to allow for a regulator to sit on the inside, plumbed through the wall with just a long hose. I don't use it often enough that I would need the convenience of having it on every wall. Ditto for vacuum - my big "R2D2" karcher can reach all the cars without me having to unplug and replug so it didn't make too much sense to leave room for vacuum ports on the walls.
Water
You may spot the lack of a water source inside the garage. Just inside the white door is a double steel sink to prep chemicals, wash up etc. and there is storage space behind that for my detailing supplies. The idea was to keep the inside fairly empty. If I need water inside I have access via the sliding door or glass door at the back which both have taps and drains just outside.
The reason for this is more of a personal one: I had SO MANY GUYS cut into water pipes during the renovation that I don't want to take the chance with all my cars, equipment and electrical stuff sitting inside. Water can be more trouble than it's worth and it didn't make sense with three sources (front rear and side) with a double sink and two outside drains.
If you don't have a similar set up, a double sink at the bank will help alot and again isn't an expensive thing to add while you're building.
Drainage
There is a fairly long drain with a trap embedded into the concrete floor. It's only a 50mm pipe - not much more needed for this kind of application and there is some attenuation within the drain itself. This is a must for cleaning the garage as well as bringing cars in to dry. I can imagine washing a car in here if push came to shove, but that's not really the intention with it (again with the electrical stuff not far away). The floor is very thick so this could be done with the right angle to get the water out. You may have to accomodate for a section to be thicker if you're not planning to do a uniformly thick layer.
Outside drainage is another thing to factor in - there is a pad for washing but also drains in front and to the side with 110mm pipes and attenuation drains too. The last thing you want (especially with our recent unpredictable weather) is to end up with floods or excessive erosion which can impact the building/structure.
Door
The door looks great... but it is heavy AF because of the kind of glass used and has a Digi 1000 Newton motor. It also needs heavier duty springs, more bracing etc. I will report back on keeping a black glossy thing clean... but you can imagine
. I have not regretted it though, just that you need to know what you're in for and you are paying the price for what is purely an aesthetic thing.Network/Connectivity
I have a Ubiquiti unifi setup, but this applies to anyone I guess. There are many reasons to run ethernet each wall as well as have an access point inside. I have Five runs into the garage: Two to points on the wall (it goes to a patch panel in the rack so can be for anything), 2 to cameras (inside and for the driveway) and one to the AP
Architectural features:
I have new appreciation for the engineering that goes into some of this stuff. There are some elements that you look at when talking to the architect and think: yeah those are simple and would look great. The one such item was the concrete eyebrow across the front of the house... BEFORE you sign off on plans and submit, make sure you have an idea of what it will cost to bring all the 'non-standard' things to life. In my case, if the eyebrow was hanging off the roof OR it was extending into the garage as part of the ceiling it would have basically cost a fair bit less than it did to have it 'floating' with engineered steel beams as you see it now. No regrets though. in the grand scheme of the overall project, it was not material and the rest did come in on or below budget.
Last one: this side door will never get old LOL - but I do wish I'd done a stacker instead of a slider here. No regrets since this is one of the nicest features: I make my coffee in the morning and have a view of the car
Madejagsie
Member
Great write-up as usual Llew. As one who only recently got garages, I imagine that you can't wait to get the cars clean again. Agree with the stack door. Also allows you to get relatively large items in and out without having to use the main (powered) door.
Really love those wheels on the m5.Brief update: There is some minor stuff to finish off like the cutting of pavers, cleaning, final fitment for cameras etc. but it is pretty much done. The only thing outstanding is the floor (tiles/epoxy/rubber debate), but I will live with the concrete for a while before deciding. It's a large outlay that you can't easily change afterwards like some of the other items.
I thought about doing fancier pavers. The ones I initially wanted were working out at over R275K! But after looking at many houses on my morning runs, looking at how they weather and age as well as how it would be used, simplicity won out in the end... even if it isn't the fanciest. They are ordinary concrete cottage pavers from Infraset.
There is a steep angle from the driveway and with our recent rains, I invested a lot into drainage across the entire front of the house. The garage was no exception.
The charcoal pavers match up reasonably well with the cheap black bevel bricks that I have around the rest of the house
Of course I can now look after my cars properly again and fill the empty slot (this year sometime I hope LOL)
Many of the fanatics reached out to me here and in other places: A summary of things I learned and things that were done:
Electrical: The cost for accomodating redundancy is VERY low when you are building. Laying an extra 50m of conduit and having your electrician pull wires to blanks is much easier and cheaper than realising afterwards that you need to chase into walls or stuff on the surface. Similarly use outside weatherproof boxes strategically as sources of network, power and comms 'out of' the house. this saves you having to let other contractors into your house to find the 'path of least resistance' that will irriate you into the future since they decide that "oh this is normal" and drill a hole through an extremely visible portion of your house because it saves them 15 mins of using their brains... I fortunatley have good SPs except for fibre. Metrofibre and Vodacom send people that wouldn't qualify to unblock an open drain with their hands.... let alone deal with fibre issues.
There are many tools that come with schuko plugs and none of them are 'real' grounded schuko. I made sure to have this available on all the walls and there is a fairly cost effective Owesto 'strip' that can be configured with a mix of 2 pins, shucko and 3 pins.
I configured 4 zones for the lighting: outside, inside car space, inside work space at the back and outside floods for the back and side. this helps manage power because even though we have solar, with a few days of continuous rain and Eskom shenanigans, you still do need to watch your usage, especially into the night.
I have made provision for future lighting upgrades for panels and hex lights - there are blind boxes to accommodate feature lighting on each side and wiring run to the slab boxes for future use as well. I do feel the downlighters will be just fine for some time to come - something I was very worried about
Quality of Life features
Air - There's a spot on the side to accomodate an air compressor and in future a permanently mounted pressure washer. I went through the exercise of looking at chasing air into the walls or surface mounting it across the whole garage. For this kind of space, best for me was to allow for a regulator to sit on the inside, plumbed through the wall with just a long hose. I don't use it often enough that I would need the convenience of having it on every wall. Ditto for vacuum - my big "R2D2" karcher can reach all the cars without me having to unplug and replug so it didn't make too much sense to leave room for vacuum ports on the walls.
Water
You may spot the lack of a water source inside the garage. Just inside the white door is a double steel sink to prep chemicals, wash up etc. and there is storage space behind that for my detailing supplies. The idea was to keep the inside fairly empty. If I need water inside I have access via the sliding door or glass door at the back which both have taps and drains just outside.
The reason for this is more of a personal one: I had SO MANY GUYS cut into water pipes during the renovation that I don't want to take the chance with all my cars, equipment and electrical stuff sitting inside. Water can be more trouble than it's worth and it didn't make sense with three sources (front rear and side) with a double sink and two outside drains.
If you don't have a similar set up, a double sink at the bank will help alot and again isn't an expensive thing to add while you're building.
Drainage
There is a fairly long drain with a trap embedded into the concrete floor. It's only a 50mm pipe - not much more needed for this kind of application and there is some attenuation within the drain itself. This is a must for cleaning the garage as well as bringing cars in to dry. I can imagine washing a car in here if push came to shove, but that's not really the intention with it (again with the electrical stuff not far away). The floor is very thick so this could be done with the right angle to get the water out. You may have to accomodate for a section to be thicker if you're not planning to do a uniformly thick layer.
Outside drainage is another thing to factor in - there is a pad for washing but also drains in front and to the side with 110mm pipes and attenuation drains too. The last thing you want (especially with our recent unpredictable weather) is to end up with floods or excessive erosion which can impact the building/structure.
Door
The door looks great... but it is heavy AF because of the kind of glass used and has a Digi 1000 Newton motor. It also needs heavier duty springs, more bracing etc. I will report back on keeping a black glossy thing clean... but you can imagine. I have not regretted it though, just that you need to know what you're in for and you are paying the price for what is purely an aesthetic thing.
Network/Connectivity
I have a Ubiquiti unifi setup, but this applies to anyone I guess. There are many reasons to run ethernet each wall as well as have an access point inside. I have Five runs into the garage: Two to points on the wall (it goes to a patch panel in the rack so can be for anything), 2 to cameras (inside and for the driveway) and one to the AP
Architectural features:
I have new appreciation for the engineering that goes into some of this stuff. There are some elements that you look at when talking to the architect and think: yeah those are simple and would look great. The one such item was the concrete eyebrow across the front of the house... BEFORE you sign off on plans and submit, make sure you have an idea of what it will cost to bring all the 'non-standard' things to life. In my case, if the eyebrow was hanging off the roof OR it was extending into the garage as part of the ceiling it would have basically cost a fair bit less than it did to have it 'floating' with engineered steel beams as you see it now. No regrets though. in the grand scheme of the overall project, it was not material and the rest did come in on or below budget.
Last one: this side door will never get old LOL - but I do wish I'd done a stacker instead of a slider here. No regrets since this is one of the nicest features: I make my coffee in the morning and have a view of the car
. I have not regretted it though, just that you need to know what you're in for and you are paying the price for what is purely an aesthetic thing.If you ever sell it I'm calling first dibs on them.
Sent from my SM-S906E using Tapatalk
Looking amazing! My brain can't compute the space in these two pics 😅
TurboLlew
Honorary ///Member
F90 was in for some noisy brakes (they cleaned everything and chamfered the pads) as well as a distinct clicking sound at full lock. This was remedied with some grease in the bearings and checking the friction discs previously installed but time will tell if this has worked or not. I could still hear a bit of a noise albeit much improved. Any future F90 owners reading this to diagnose a noise it is NOT the same as the noise that is rectified by fitting that friction disc. It's tough to diagnose because AWD cars tend to make strange noises in general and especially at sharp angles. My STI for instance sounded like it had a broken diff in some circumstances.
As with all M cars there is a huge amount of brake dust that finds its way behind the shield and I guess inside everything that can't be reached with a pressure washer. I don't have many pics from this exercise but here we go
it is tyre time once again and @deago.parts@abmbmw came to the party on pricing for a new pair of fronts for me. Will be fitting soon. The P Zero Corsa is available as an option that won't void your motorplan (there were no stickier options on the F10). My rears have a fair bit of life in them so I was not wanting to go through the added expense of a full set to convert to the Corsa's. For my use case, the extra mileage will be more beneficial (I have no real complaints with the PS4S) and there are no real traction issues with the F90 either.
I know everyone is looking for a suitable service advisor since Hevashan's departure and I had great experience this time with Clyde Kemp. Comfortable to use him in future.
While at the dealer I couldn't help but drive this Z4 M40i... and promptly fall in love with the colour combo. Really made me feel like the good old days of my S2000. They have a pair in this spec... both 2023 models, one early with a couple of thousand km and one late with 77km (basically brand new - just plan activated in December).
There is a lot to love with the B58 in this package. it was also surprisingly comfortable and 'familiar'.
One thing I absolutely didn't like was the slab screens of every new car on the floor... even the new 5er... You are in for 1.4M for a 520d. The front has hints of E60 to it, but the back lacks character. Some strange design decisions... but I guess it could have been worse.
I really can't say anything tugged at my heart strings except for this Z4.
Anyway I am off to Cape Town next week - hopefully I won't be too tempted to stay indefinitely
As with all M cars there is a huge amount of brake dust that finds its way behind the shield and I guess inside everything that can't be reached with a pressure washer. I don't have many pics from this exercise but here we go
it is tyre time once again and @deago.parts@abmbmw came to the party on pricing for a new pair of fronts for me. Will be fitting soon. The P Zero Corsa is available as an option that won't void your motorplan (there were no stickier options on the F10). My rears have a fair bit of life in them so I was not wanting to go through the added expense of a full set to convert to the Corsa's. For my use case, the extra mileage will be more beneficial (I have no real complaints with the PS4S) and there are no real traction issues with the F90 either.
I know everyone is looking for a suitable service advisor since Hevashan's departure and I had great experience this time with Clyde Kemp. Comfortable to use him in future.
While at the dealer I couldn't help but drive this Z4 M40i... and promptly fall in love with the colour combo. Really made me feel like the good old days of my S2000. They have a pair in this spec... both 2023 models, one early with a couple of thousand km and one late with 77km (basically brand new - just plan activated in December).
There is a lot to love with the B58 in this package. it was also surprisingly comfortable and 'familiar'.
One thing I absolutely didn't like was the slab screens of every new car on the floor... even the new 5er... You are in for 1.4M for a 520d. The front has hints of E60 to it, but the back lacks character. Some strange design decisions... but I guess it could have been worse.
I really can't say anything tugged at my heart strings except for this Z4.
Anyway I am off to Cape Town next week - hopefully I won't be too tempted to stay indefinitely
TurboLlew
Honorary ///Member
Just past 52000km. Honestly, I don't think I'll buy the new m5 (I know I said this about the F90 as well but I REALLY can't see it happening when I could realistically buy a 'real' supercar which is the next thing I want). I already extended the plan to May 2025 and will likely do so again to 2026. I don't see the need to add power to it and the mods that I wanted to do (suspension and exhaust) I've done via M Performance parts.
The plan is to keep the F90 and do a few things (as I did with the F10) to keep things interesting. One of these will be coming soon in April (oil service time) when I plan to do the LCI tail light retrofit (this is an official BMW retrofit kit).
I thought about buying an LCI Comp but most of them are missing all the options I am looking for and they come with a dash that I don't like as much as the one in my 2019. eg: I saw one today that ticked many boxes but had no B&W or soft-close doors for instance. I also prefer the front light design on the pre-LCI. If I think about one thing to change it would be the tails, just for the refreshed darker & 3D look. I know these are mods you never get your money back on but then I am also not spending +1.2M to buy the same car over again
Unfortunately, the question of what next is a very difficult one to answer. In terms of sedans/family vehicles the M5 is the one that feels like it was designed for me. I felt the same with the F10 as well. To some degree this question also applies to my Alfa as I can't afford a 458 Speciale or GT2 RS. The "what next" for me requires the powerball or euromillions right now I'm afraid.
What abt the Mercedes AMG GT63..it trumps the F90 in the looks department..really a special looking hulk of a car with class to boot. It's almost equal to the M8 in terms of performance depending on which youtube video you get good hold of. 52k mileage leaves you with alot of time to decide.Just past 52000km. Honestly, I don't think I'll buy the new m5 (I know I said this about the F90 as well but I REALLY can't see it happening when I could realistically buy a 'real' supercar which is the next thing I want). I already extended the plan to May 2025 and will likely do so again to 2026. I don't see the need to add power to it and the mods that I wanted to do (suspension and exhaust) I've done via M Performance parts.
The plan is to keep the F90 and do a few things (as I did with the F10) to keep things interesting. One of these will be coming soon in April (oil service time) when I plan to do the LCI tail light retrofit (this is an official BMW retrofit kit).
I thought about buying an LCI Comp but most of them are missing all the options I am looking for and they come with a dash that I don't like as much as the one in my 2019. eg: I saw one today that ticked many boxes but had no B&W or soft-close doors for instance. I also prefer the front light design on the pre-LCI. If I think about one thing to change it would be the tails, just for the refreshed darker & 3D look. I know these are mods you never get your money back on but then I am also not spending +1.2M to buy the same car over again
Unfortunately, the question of what next is a very difficult one to answer. In terms of sedans/family vehicles the M5 is the one that feels like it was designed for me. I felt the same with the F10 as well. To some degree this question also applies to my Alfa as I can't afford a 458 Speciale or GT2 RS. The "what next" for me requires the powerball or euromillions right now I'm afraid.
If I won the lotto and could spend R5bar ..would do the new Aston DB12 ..the interior finally caught up with the price tag.
TurboLlew
Honorary ///Member
I drove the GT63 at Gerotek at one of Merc's events - at proper speeds too. Of all the Mercedes cars the only one that impressed me was the AMG GT-R (and I guess the GLS63 just by virtue of a brick doing what it does LOL). Looks are subjective - The proportions don't flatter it in person IMHO. Mercedes likes to make things that look good in pictures... this includes the impression of high-quality materials when in reality you sit with some pretty shocking issues as an owner. I'd sooner buy a used Continental Flying Spur for a little bit more... Mercedes pricing with a few options is that crazy... Bentley is (to me) the actual thing that people are expecting out of a Mercedes (that old Merc class/quality feel). Either way pointless spending that much on super sedans.
I guess the speed and power also becomes irrelevant and you are really chasing some significantly different experience beyond a certain point.
I also drove the SL43 AMG at Kyalami for the launch and it REALLY didn't impress for a near R3M thing... looks amazing though. Apparently there is a software update that fixed the integration between the hybrid system and petrol motor but I still can't imagine it is going to set my heart ablaze.
After dealing with Merc service these past few years I doubt we will be putting ourselves through that torture with something even more complicated. Same applies to (almost) everyone I know who owns a current generation Mercedes and some family and friends experience the same even on higher end models. She is someone who refused to even test-drive a peasant F30 or G20 in prior generations
My wife's car is off plan at the end of this year (and at R65K to extend it for time only that isn't going to happen) - A replacement is actually overdue. Been waiting for a few things to line up to get the ball rolling on that one.Either way like you say loads of time to decide - I also have kids that are growing up at a rapid pace and my need for space has probably peaked at this point
so true..Merc in pictures VS reality are two separate concepts altogether. Only two models I have found worthy for Merc are the Amg Gt 63 and C63s. There is a C63s sitting at Merc Mombela with 9km mileage for 1.35m..a 2018 though..got the price down to 1.28m..the 2020-2022 prices have now shifted to 2bar for obv reasons.
Sabretooth tiger
///Member
Do it, we have awesome driving roads.Anyway I am off to Cape Town next week - hopefully I won't be too tempted to stay indefinitely
TurboLlew
Honorary ///Member
With 53000km racked up and another year passing by, it was time for the F90s annual service.
For those interested and with many cars coming off plan here are some costs that may be indicative (Usually the cash prices are a bit higher than what Motorplan is billed, but then discounts also apply at certain branches and over certain periods):
Labour for the basic oil service was R315, R371 for an oil filter and R1310 for the oil itself (Motorplan costs ex VAT).
Microfilter service: R210 in labour ( ) and R1883 for the microfilters/carbon canister
I was not happy with the noise on full lock that was previously attended to and they fitted new revised friction plates to the front wheels.
This involved:
Removal and replacement of the front discs: R1261 in labour (12 units)
Friction discs: R1566
Inner Hex Bolt: R51
Plastilube: R23
Testing: R315
Again, not sure what out of plan would have cost but this was on the invoice and covered by Motorplan
For those interested and with many cars coming off plan here are some costs that may be indicative (Usually the cash prices are a bit higher than what Motorplan is billed, but then discounts also apply at certain branches and over certain periods):
Labour for the basic oil service was R315, R371 for an oil filter and R1310 for the oil itself (Motorplan costs ex VAT).
Microfilter service: R210 in labour (
) and R1883 for the microfilters/carbon canisterI was not happy with the noise on full lock that was previously attended to and they fitted new revised friction plates to the front wheels.
This involved:
Removal and replacement of the front discs: R1261 in labour (12 units)
Friction discs: R1566
Inner Hex Bolt: R51
Plastilube: R23
Testing: R315
Again, not sure what out of plan would have cost but this was on the invoice and covered by Motorplan
