What have you done with or to your M3 today?

Been on a Daddy-Daughter spring break trip to British Columbia. Thankfully, we successfully sourced her Italian riding boots in Langley and skipped the 12 hour trip to Calgary. We are headed into the empty rural roads of Eastern Washington to get her more time practicing on a manual, the e90 is surprisingly easier to teach on than her e30. Stopped to give the car an Easter bath.

From January 19, 2026 to February 9, 2026 I made a 1545 mile round trip journey to visit my sister in Cape Coral, Florida. During that period I spent almost a week at Kiawah Island SC, avoided a winter storm that hit Greenville in the upstate of South Carolina, spent the night in Gainesville, Florida (note to self: don’t stay in the AC Hotel downtown Gainesville again, though the Ribeye was good, there is no self parking option), and I found the most expensive Shell gasoline in the whole state of South Carolina near Yemassee.

Along the way I passed through the Tampa/St. Petersburg area where I think about 50% of Floridians actually live nowadays, but I admit it’s a nice place. Because so many people live on the Gulf coast side of Florida, the traffic on I75S around Tampa, even at normal times of the day, is bad. Real bad. Think 2020 Los Angeles metro area bad i.e. before so many people left that city… My E92 M3 had right at about 153,000 miles on its odometer when I began the trip. I had thought about preparing the car but other than toping off the oil and checking the tire pressures - I did nothing to it.

The first leg of the journey was only about 220 miles between Greenville, SC and Kiawah Island. My strategy was to take it easy on the car because of the distances I needed to cover. Meaning I rarely exceeded 75 mph and spent most of the entire journey at 68 to 70 mph in the far right lane letting everybody pass me while I listened to podcasts. I suppose it’s what old people do.

Anyway, according the Trip Computer (see photo) I averaged 23.5 miles per gallon over the entire 1545 mile round trip, and that overall MPG could’ve been even higher had it not been for traffic, some back roads, and my downtown Gainesville FL stop. The car performed flawlessly. From start to finish I only topped off the oil at the beginning and used zero oil as far as I could tell. I haven’t added any oil since then and it’s now early April.

Most of the time the car gets a steady diet of Shell gas and that held true throughout the trip. The car is overdue for MLT valve covers, injectors, plugs, ICV and a few other things (roof lining and carbon fiber roof refurb) BUT this car which I have owned since new in August 2008 (almost 18 years ago) continues to amaze me. To just jump in it and roll like that is a testament to the E9X M3 platform. Heck, it was supercharged for 55K miles of its life (Harrop blower) and it continues to keep on chuggin’ along. Here’s a few photos.
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