Thinking about buying a used BMW

[Al4as]

Hi there

So heres the deal, I have about 15K, 20K MAX to buy a car.

I tought about getting an honda obviously since its supposed to be the better cars now. But then I tought hey why not buy a little more used, but nicer car !?

SO I was thinking about getting something like a 320-323i, around 2001-2003, 100Kish km...

Yay or nay? Obviously if its pretty close in value Ill go for the style baby! Just trying to make sure its not a major waste of money.

Any advices from people who know something about cars will be very appreciated!

thanks guys [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[BigPoppa]

BMW maintenance costs will be much higher, and you won't get to drive it nearly as long before trouble crops up (since it'll have a lot more miles to start).

I'm partial to the "Buy a solid car and drive it until the wheels fall off" school of thought, so I'd rather have the Honda with fewer miles.

[ThePost]

My Cent & a half: Buy the Honda, You know you should, BigPoppa knows you should & even your pocket book knows you should. Be the styles in a new beemer when the honda has saved you enough coin

[pig4bill]

BMW's aren't especially expensive to maintain but they are expensive to fix. There's a difference. If you do the BMW, get it inspected first. There's a laundry list of things that wear out or go wrong on all of them, and at least you'll know how much you need to fix by getting it inspected.

Personally, Hondas bore me to death. If you can stomach a Japanese car, I'd look at a Mazda. It doesn't get the gas mileage of a Honda, but is much more interesting.

[ahnuld]

m3 and m6 hondas are stylish enough for young guys and they last forever.

[scotchnrocks]

Be very careful with the 3-series BMW's from the years you are looking at. They have a thin subframe that is prone to fatigue cracking with a lot of mileage and will cost a few grand to have welded up and reinforced. Make sure this has been taken care of if you find one that you like. Google "e46 subframe cracks" or similar if you want more info.

Regarding maintenance, BMW parts aren't expensive it is the labor that gets you. They are very well built and easy to work on in my experience, but if you have to pay for stuff it can be expensive. I've owned two BMW's and have found them to be very reliable cars.

[kevin017]

searching for 5 mins, i found a 2003 bmw 325 i, manufacturer certified, 42699 miles, for 17,993.

seems pretty nice to me. i've always like bmw's. just make sure you have a bit of money to spare on the upkeep.

[DcifrThs]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi there

So heres the deal, I have about 15K, 20K MAX to buy a car.

I tought about getting an honda obviously since its supposed to be the better cars now. But then I tought hey why not buy a little more used, but nicer car !?

SO I was thinking about getting something like a 320-323i, around 2001-2003, 100Kish km...

Yay or nay? Obviously if its pretty close in value Ill go for the style baby! Just trying to make sure its not a major waste of money.

Any advices from people who know something about cars will be very appreciated!

thanks guys [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

i am very ahppy with my car.

in may 2006 i bought a 1998 740iL green BMW beige leather for $8400 cash with 126k miles on it.

since then i've spent about 11k on repairs, maintenance, fixing stupid sh*t that goes wrong.

i could have spent less but i always take it to the BMW dealership. they give me a loaner car and i know they do a great job.

i have 3 things that need fixing now but i'm lazy and they aren't masssively important and they next available loaner car is in like a month lol...(back left break light is out, back left turn signal is out, back left reverse light is out)

so yea, as people said, be prepared to fix, maintain the car. but i'll tell you from my personal experience, i couldn't have been happier with this car. it is an absolute dream to drive, smooth as all hell w/ tons of power also. insanely huge trunk (3 dead bodies easy [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] ) and a backseat that has almost too much legroom.

so while i may be biased, i've been through this process and still have the car. it currently has 148k miles on it. i'd expect this to last to about 250k which will be far more value to me than the $ i spent on it (it's already surpassed that benchmark though). i plan on happily driving this car into the ground for years [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

good luck,
Barron

[z28dreams]

I personally think the japanese luxury cars are a much better deal - infiniti, lexus, acura.

Just avoid Acura 3.2 TL's from something like 2000-2004 due to ridiculously bad transmission problems.

[skindog]

[ QUOTE ]
I personally think the japanese luxury cars are a much better deal - infiniti, lexus, acura.

Just avoid Acura 3.2 TL's from something like 2000-2004 due to ridiculously bad transmission problems.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT. My mom had a 3.2 CL Type S (same powertrain) and the tranny broke/was replaced 3 times in 107k miles.