I've made an offer, but it hasn't been accepted .
Time to sit back and wait now Patience is a virtue !
As you guys have said I can't see people beating his door down to buy at 9K.
The owner is of the opinion it's an appreciating classic, whilst I'd agree with that statement to a degree I feel it's more a case of them holding their value than actually increasing in value dramatically.
As regards the "how long I would own it" question, well I've owned two other M3's as previously mentioned. One high mileage Evo 2, ruined by a previous owner with some horrible Group N springs, rock hard Bilsteins and 17" Hartge 3 piece split rims, good to drive in the dry but a real handful in the wet !! also fitted with a nasty Scorpion exhaust system and a Griffin M/Sport tuned engine.
Two years ago I bought a good genuine 215hp G plate car off ...............................ML, I had the box rebuilt (not by them !) and put some decent pads,discs and braided lines on it and enjoyed driving it as weekend car. I was always impressed with how well it rode and handled with the totally stock suspension (in comparison with my Evo 2) but became "bored" with its lack of grunt (I've since driven 3 other cars an Evo Sport, which felt a lot quicker and more torquey, a standard 215 hp car which had recently had its top end "refreshed" really crisp and torquey,and the J plate I drove yesterday) which was most likely the slowest of the three !!
If I could find a nice genuine car I'd most likely not let go of it.
The car I viewed yesterday ticked most of my boxes apart from the service history (which isn't the end of the world ,as you have all pointed out) and the price !!