[rothwem]

I'd like to take a minute to DIY how I did the manual transmission swap in my E91 BMW.

Step 1:

Search the internet like a fool.

Step 2:

Fly out to dealership 500 miles away

Step 3:

Buy car

Step 4:

Drive it back

[Bluewater328iT]

So, you bought an E91 manual tranmission car to replace your automatic E91? Congrats! You will enjoy it. That's what I did when I sold my E46 wagon and got an E91.

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by Bluewater328iT

So, you bought an E91 manual tranmission car to replace your automatic E91? Congrats! You will enjoy it. That's what I did when I sold my E46 wagon and got an E91.

Haha yea basically.

[hassmaschine]

nice! but finding an MT E91 in the first place can be impossible. So you also got lucky.

[rothwem]

So I cleaned the automatic wagon up yesterday to put her on craigslist. I took some pics, and damn, she looks great. Its going to be hard to let her go...

[tlow98]

Congrats!

How'd you end up with pre lci sport rims on your lci auto?

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by tlow98

Congrats!

How'd you end up with pre lci sport rims on your lci auto?

I used to have a 2006 sport package E90. I bought a spare set of wheels to put all seasons on, and put some sticky summer tires on the other set. The all seasons went on the fronts, and the summer tires went on the rears. When I sold the E90, I kept the rears and they sat in my shed for a while. The style 285s that came on it were so bent they were practically square, so I swapped the 161s on.

With that said though, the new wagon has practically new OEM runflats, I might put those on the auto wagon before I sell it. People hate the way runflats ride, but freak out when a car doesn't have them. I don't need people lowballing me over non-oem tires.

[tlow98]

Totally true about people's opinions regarding run flats. I was in a similar situation when I bought my e91 - nearly new RFTs came with it. I haven't had a good enough reason to change them (i.e., I'm cheap) and after 15k miles I still hate the feel.

Good luck with sale of your e91! She's a stunner in that blue.

Also, stats on old car, miles, etc..?

New car is 09 and old one 10+ eh!? That rack difference is a tell for us e91 stalkers, haha.

[hassmaschine]

I ditched our E91's RFTs when I put snow tires on the original (and extremely ugly) 16" wheels, and got the same sport wheels on the blue car above with some nice summer tires on them.

still think it's ridiculous BMWs no longer carry a spare. yeah, you can get AAA etc - but you're still waiting at least 1-2 hours for a tow truck to arrive, and if it's really busy, maybe longer. On the other hand, I could swap a spare on the side of the road in 15 minutes. Fix a flat isn't going to do shit for you if you hit something that takes out a sidewall (or in the case of non RFTs, leaves a hole big enough that it just comes right out the other end, as has happened to me).

[tlow98]

Agreed. BMW gets to include less equipment and makes a deal with the devilish tire companies. Guess it was all about their bottom line.

I like the 16" wheel design on the LCI cars, I just wish they were 17s as the 16s just look comically small.

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by tlow98

Totally true about people's opinions regarding run flats. I was in a similar situation when I bought my e91 - nearly new RFTs came with it. I haven't had a good enough reason to change them (i.e., I'm cheap) and after 15k miles I still hate the feel.

Good luck with sale of your e91! She's a stunner in that blue.

Also, stats on old car, miles, etc..?

New car is 09 and old one 10+ eh!? That rack difference is a tell for us e91 stalkers, haha.

Thanks for the good luck vibes! Its a great looking car, honestly, I like the color combo a little better on the blue car than the new one. Good catch on the years, the blue car is a 2011 with 114,000 miles on it, and the new one is a 2009 with 80k.

As for the no spare thing...I think its kinda weird. There's that compartment under the trunk that is blocked by the muffler. Its almost like the engineers had the car designed for a spare, then when they built the car, they found the exhaust too loud so they made the muffler bigger, cut into the spare compartment and said, "Scheisse! Ver do ve put ze spare?" and decided on runflats after that.

[bmwerdna]

I have a manual E91 xDrive and it's great fun; I'm glad you found one too!

[redEYEjedi]

haha nice!

I'm on my 2nd E91 also! My first was a manual from the factory. 2nd one is in the process of being a manual, with an N54..

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by redEYEjedi

haha nice!

I'm on my 2nd E91 also! My first was a manual from the factory. 2nd one is in the process of being a manual, with an N54..

N54 swap? You're a madman! You going RWD or xDrive?

[rothwem]

Well I figured I'd update this thread since the swap is complete having sold the automatic car.

I sold the automatic wagon for $13,158 last week. I bought it in October 2015 for 17,900, so that makes for $4742 in realized depreciation for the automatic wagon. I owned it for 13 months, so that makes it effectively like a ~$365/month lease. For a used car with 100,000 miles on it. I'm not going to lie, that stung like a motherfucker, and I probably would've just manual swapped the car if I knew the value was going to drop through the floor like it did. Its probably due to the high miles though, it fell into a dead zone in the market where it was too expensive for an impulse buy but too old for people to finance.

I also overpaid I think, even though the NADA clean retail was over $18k when I bought it. Like they say in real estate, "You make money when you buy" and I bought wrong.

Ah well, no worries, it was a learning experience. I'm not selling my '09 for a long ass time. In the meantime, I put my hitch and my style 161s on the new wagon:

[redEYEjedi]

Originally Posted by rothwem

N54 swap? You're a madman! You going RWD or xDrive?

Removing the xDrive and making it RWD. I'm here in Socal so we're lucky if we even get rain nowadays so no xDrive is no problem for me.

Originally Posted by rothwem

Well I figured I'd update this thread since the swap is complete having sold the automatic car.

I sold the automatic wagon for $13,158 last week. I bought it in October 2015 for 17,900, so that makes for $4742 in realized depreciation for the automatic wagon. I owned it for 13 months, so that makes it effectively like a ~$365/month lease. For a used car with 100,000 miles on it. I'm not going to lie, that stung like a motherfucker, and I probably would've just manual swapped the car if I knew the value was going to drop through the floor like it did. Its probably due to the high miles though, it fell into a dead zone in the market where it was too expensive for an impulse buy but too old for people to finance.

I also overpaid I think, even though the NADA clean retail was over $18k when I bought it. Like they say in real estate, "You make money when you buy" and I bought wrong.

Ah well, no worries, it was a learning experience. I'm not selling my '09 for a long ass time. In the meantime, I put my hitch and my style 161s on the new wagon:

As long as you're happy with the purchase, it's still a decent buy lol.

On another note, yes and no for the "you make money when you buy" comment. Property appreciation here in LA can be pretty crazy. With that said, just helped a friend negotiate a property appraised for 905k with purchase price @ 849k. Glad he'll be making money on the buy AND sell side!

[tlow98]

I thought you could easily finance up to a 9 year old car typically? Maybe I've got my facts wrong. Depreciation or just lost money in general can certainly happen on the short term ownership of a used car. The original owner probably lost something like 8-10k on the first year they owned, so that should help you sleep at night :-)

Glad you're enjoying the new beast

[F30lolz]

Originally Posted by tlow98

I thought you could easily finance up to a 9 year old car typically?

There are credit unions that will finance cars no matter what year/mileage. My old credit union in NY hvfcu.org does just that. Not sure if Pen Fed does the same.

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by tlow98

I thought you could easily finance up to a 9 year old car typically? Maybe I've got my facts wrong. Depreciation or just lost money in general can certainly happen on the short term ownership of a used car. The original owner probably lost something like 8-10k on the first year they owned, so that should help you sleep at night :-)

Glad you're enjoying the new beast

The age of the car generally depends on the credit union, but at least with mine, the interest rates start climbing as the car gets older. At my credit union, for example, 2009-2014 cars are financed at 2.14%, and 2006-2008 cars are financed at 3.64%.

Not that most car buyers are that savvy--most people think, "new car, finance, old car, cash". Unfortunately, I think my 2011 was grouped into the "old car" category.

[hassmaschine]

We sold our 2003 Subaru (with 200,000 miles!) to a lady who got a loan for it (not all that long ago either). I thought she was crazy but I was just glad to be rid of it.

I bet if your auto wagon had been a manual, it wouldn't have depreciated as fast. I wouldn't worry too much about your 6mt car, there will always be demand and as we know, the supply is extremely limited.

[krhodes1]

Nice swap!

Is your new wagon SGM, or is it Tasman Green? Looks gray in some pictures and like it could be Tasman in others. I've only seen two other Tasman Green e91s in the 5.5 years I have had mine. It's quite a chameleon of a color. To this day, my roommate insists it is dark gray and not green at all.

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by krhodes1

Nice swap!

Is your new wagon SGM, or is it Tasman Green? Looks gray in some pictures and like it could be Tasman in others. I've only seen two other Tasman Green e91s in the 5.5 years I have had mine. It's quite a chameleon of a color. To this day, my roommate insists it is dark gray and not green at all.

Yep, its Tasman Green. My girlfriend says its grey, but I can see the green a bit too. I really like the color, even though I wouldn't have ordered it for myself this way.