BMW one Series M Coupe now worth more than other models that were almost twice as expensive fresh

BMW’s uncommon, high-performance 1M Coupe is actually worth more now than it was when fresh, an unprecedented feat.

BMW’s least expensive M-badged suggesting from two thousand eleven has reached a petite but significant milestone: It’s now worth more than all of the other far costlier like-badged models it once collective showrooms with. Despite being more than $Ten,000 less expensive than its next-cheapest M sibling, the two thousand eleven 1 Series M Coupe directives more on the used market than all other BMW M offerings of its year, including the legendary M3 sports coupe and the much more expensive X5 M and X6 M SUVs.

Among Roundel fans, the one Series M Coupe was a model rumored for years: a BMW M-fettled version of the Bavarian automaker’s cheapest suggesting, the one Series. Yet when it displayed up for the two thousand eleven model year, the upright, broad-shouldered coupe didn’t wear a coveted M _[Insert Number Here]_ designation. Produced for just one year, it wore the one-off appellation, “1 Series M Coupe.”

Cumbersome nomenclature aside, the 335-horsepower 1M Coupe was widely regarded as the most driver-focused BMW of its day, more entertaining than the larger and more powerful M3. Seemingly in order to stave off any pecking-order arguments within the M lineup, BMW limited the one Series M Coupe to just Two,700 units globally, with just seven hundred forty of them coming to the US.

One of just seven hundred forty BMW one Series M Coupes imported to the US.

2011 BMW one Series M Coupe (photos)

That taut initial supply has done more than prop up 1M values. Today, NADA Guides lists clean retail pricing as $49,250 for an example with 60,000 miles (an average of 12K per year), and cursory searches of used-car retailing websites confirm NADA’s pricing estimate. Remarkably, that value slightly exceeds the $47,010 base price of the model when fresh.

Compare that with the two thousand eleven BMW X6 M sport utility vehicle with the same condition parameters, which is now estimated to be worth $43,200 — just under forty nine percent of its original $89,200 MSRP. Today, an M3 Coupe is estimated at $38,400, about fifty eight percent of its $58,900 base price in 2011.

Cars that manage to retain their original sales values — or exceed them — are enormously unusual. On average, after five years, a typical automobile is worth harshly forty percent of what it cost when fresh. Some in-demand fresh cars and trucks can guideline a premium for a brief period of time after launch, but such instances are uncommon, and generally very brief lived. On occasion, six- and seven-figure exotics from companies like Ferrari and Lamborghini manage this feat, but at the BMW’s comparatively terrestrial price point, it’s all but unprecedented.

The 1M Coupe’s status as a blue-chip collectible for the long haul seems all but assured.

Today, the 1M Coupe’s high-performance torch is being carried by BMW’s M2. Introduced at Detroit’s North American International Auto Showcase in January, its volume isn’t expected to be constrained the way the one Series M Coupe’s was, suggesting it won’t love the same stratospheric residuals.

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