opinions needed

[pure_insanity]

ok we recently sold my fiancee's jeep cherokee and looking around to find her something else. i ran across a 97 bmw 328 that just may be what were looking for. i dont know a whole lots about them but from what i do know the motor is bulletproof and the rest of the cars are pretty good. only thing im aware of that is a potential problem is that it has a g.m. transmission. ive been told to stay away from them but also been told they are just fine. anyone know about this, and how about the cars in general?

[JAinsworth]

Grant, my mom has one with a little over a 100k on it and she is scared to death of the cost of repairs for a beemer, mainly the tranny. I'll talk with her and find out what else she is worried about. Iirc Brandon had to replace his alternator a year or so ago and it was 800 or so.

Jimmy

[pure_insanity]

Grant, my mom has one with a little over a 100k on it and she is scared to death of the cost of repairs for a beemer, mainly the tranny. I'll talk with her and find out what else she is worried about. Iirc Brandon had to replace his alternator a year or so ago and it was 800 or so.

Jimmy

 

hmmmm, i remember that about his alternator. but do you remember what model his was? im not really thrilled about the cost of repairs also but since i can do it myself, then it cuts the cost down to a somewhat reasonable price. also i can get the car for a acceptable price i think, so it makes it not hurt so bad if there has to be a couple dollars put into repairs later. i think i had rather sink money into something nicer than into what she had which was a 97 jeep cherokee. thing just simply sucked in my opinion.

[Blue]

You could buy my Saturn! J/k, you don't want that, even for 900 bucks.

[vbrad511]

I've got a buddy who had/has one. Lotsa miles, ran just fine til his wife hit a deer a month or so back. She just loved that car. They bought her a newer model, a few numbers higher, she liked the older one better.

[Jsmitty]

Not sure if the 3 series had the same trouble with cooling system 5 series. But if you are close to over 100k miles it's recommended to replace entire cooling system. Cause a good portion of it is plastic and brittles with heat and age. I bought a 525I last summer and month later the plastic tank on the radiator cracked. So by the time I priced all the hoses,waterpump, pulley, fan clutch,fan, thermo,belts, and little parts. I was around mid 800 on Pelican Parts. Since I have aluminum block I didn't want to chance an overheating. Edited April 23, 2011 by Jsmitty

[vbrad511]

Not sure if the 3 series had the same trouble with cooling system 5 series. But if you are close to over 100k miles it's recommended to replace entire cooling system. Cause a good portion of it is plastic and brittles with heat and age. I bought a 525I last summer and month later the plastic tank on the radiator cracked. So by the time I priced all the hoses,waterpump, pulley, fan clutch,fan, thermo,belts, and little parts. I was around mid 800 on Pelican Parts. Since I have aluminum block I didn't want to chance an overheating.

 

Come to think of it, something did go out on my buddy's. He ended up putting a radiator in, but not until after his wife had pegged the guage one day. It was HOTTTT. Got it home, got it fixed, motor never missed a beat. Did put a water pump on it too.

[Fanta]

The 3 series more often than not is pretty stout - being that its the E36 chassis, parts are plentiful, though it'd call for a DIY for the most part ot save $$$

[The Rabbit1]

Iirc Brandon had to replace his alternator a year or so ago and it was 800 or so.

Jimmy

That was most likely labor costs, unless maybe it was an OEM part? I had a 540I and ran it over 200k with no issues except for the notorious carbon buildup.

 

Best way to save money is buy OEM parts on Ebay, you can buy five oil filters at once and get them at about the cost of cheap frams that way. did that with brake pads, air filter, plugs, wires, etc.. great car, so easy to work on my wife actually did the plugs, wires, oil, and air filter on her own one day just to show me up. And she is not very mechanically inclined.

 

this was about 4yrs ago though, so might be harder to get the savings on parts nowadays.

Edited April 23, 2011 by The Rabbit1

[helrazr70]

Hey Grant!

 

In my years working for Mercedes I learned to never own a Euro Luxury car without a warranty. Even if you do your own labor, the parts bill will eat you alive.

 

Late 90's and early 2000's BMWs had a bad reputation with their electronics ...but most Euro car manufacturers of that era had electrical issues because most of them used the same suppliers for their electronic parts.

 

Do some internet searches to see what the most common repairs are, price them out, and then decide if you want to tackle any or all of those issues/costs.

 

Find her a car you know you can work on without special tools or scanners.

[creakyjoints]

There is a reason why German cars resale value is so bad. A car that cost 60 70k ten years ago are going for under 25k now!

[helrazr70]

There is a reason why German cars resale value is so bad. A car that cost 60 70k ten years ago are going for under 25k now!

 

Not even that long...

 

Actually Mercedes and BMWs lose 50%+ of their purchase price value in the first 6 years. We had many cars that sold for $125k selling for 50k after 5 to 6 years.

 

The good thing is that the car Grant is looking at has already suffered that depreciation and has somewhat stabilized. It is now in the category with our cars where it is really only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

[Kreal]

I know I say it all of the time..but if you want a car that will fall apart, break down - go with something domestically made. If you go with a foreign car, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Volvo, Saab, etc you will not have break downs.

 

I know, every car breaks down. Stuff fails, goes wrong, gets old. And for some reason maybe sometimes it seems foreign cars are more expensive to repair, but if you own a foreign car for 10 years and put 100k miles on it and the only thing you have to replace is an $800 alternator, then I'd be much happier in that situation than a Buick, Chevy, or Pontiac that within the 10 year 100k mile time you've got to do head gaskets, intake gasket, transmission, gas tank, brakes, windows falling off track, power steering lines blowing out, heat not working and just cheap plastic interior.

 

I will say it to my death foreign cars are always better. If I drove american cars every day I couldnt afford my house or cars because my money would be eaten up with repairs.

[Blue]

I know I say it all of the time..but if you want a car that will fall apart, break down - go with something domestically made. If you go with a foreign car, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Volvo, Saab, etc you will not have break downs.

 

I know, every car breaks down. Stuff fails, goes wrong, gets old. And for some reason maybe sometimes it seems foreign cars are more expensive to repair, but if you own a foreign car for 10 years and put 100k miles on it and the only thing you have to replace is an $800 alternator, then I'd be much happier in that situation than a Buick, Chevy, or Pontiac that within the 10 year 100k mile time you've got to do head gaskets, intake gasket, transmission, gas tank, brakes, windows falling off track, power steering lines blowing out, heat not working and just cheap plastic interior.

 

I will say it to my death foreign cars are always better. If I drove american cars every day I couldnt afford my house or cars because my money would be eaten up with repairs.

Good point

[joey_crandall]

my sister in law had a 1995 325is that was a 5 speed. it started to have overheating issues, and my brother did a head gasket and it was fine. he said the interior was junk and fell aprt, he said it common for e36 bmws to do that.

[Fanta]

dude, just get her a Civic/Accord/Corolla/Camry

[pure_insanity]

I know I say it all of the time..but if you want a car that will fall apart, break down - go with something domestically made. If you go with a foreign car, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Volvo, Saab, etc you will not have break downs.

 

I know, every car breaks down. Stuff fails, goes wrong, gets old. And for some reason maybe sometimes it seems foreign cars are more expensive to repair, but if you own a foreign car for 10 years and put 100k miles on it and the only thing you have to replace is an $800 alternator, then I'd be much happier in that situation than a Buick, Chevy, or Pontiac that within the 10 year 100k mile time you've got to do head gaskets, intake gasket, transmission, gas tank, brakes, windows falling off track, power steering lines blowing out, heat not working and just cheap plastic interior.

 

I will say it to my death foreign cars are always better. If I drove american cars every day I couldnt afford my house or cars because my money would be eaten up with repairs.

 

 

kreal, i agree with you 100%, however.... im not much of a fan of the european cars. i prefer japanese. itll pretty much be a cold day in hades when i own another american made automobile past about 1985. pretty much they are all garbage. there are a few exceptions to this in my opinion but for the most part nothing domestic for me. besides that, 99% of american cars are assembled here with parts that were made elsewhere.

i prefer japanese and more so the ones that came here on a boat instead of even the american built japanese cars. there is just something to be said for the quality difference.

 

 

as for the accord civic or camry idea, sounds great except she doesnt like the body style of the toyota products and the models of hondas that she does like she says doesnt have a large enough back seat as we do have her 9 yr old son and dont want it to be cramped for road trips etc. actually looking into the nissans right now. it just so happened that the bmw stuff falls into the price range pretty well.

[Fanta]

Nissan Maxima - 1995-2001

 

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/ctd/2344276569.html

Edited April 25, 2011 by Fanta

[The Rabbit1]

Nissan Maxima - 1995-2001

 

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/ctd/2344276569.html

awesome cars. there's a 2000 in canada with over 240,000 miles on the original engine. not even a timing chain replacement.

[Fanta]

awesome cars. there's a 2000 in canada with over 240,000 miles on the original engine. not even a timing chain replacement.

 

Mine had 274k when it bit the dust in an accident

[Jehu]

My 95 Max has more than that and still going (and my 18 y/o daughter has been driving it the past year plus!). Water pump went out recently causing it to overheat but after fixing the pump, it's fine (the max's ecu will kill the engine when it recognizes something is wrong so this will save the engine). I have gone through alternators and starters and a radiator in it though but I just keep replacing them via Autozone's lifetime warranty...

 

But I also have a 95 318 with 260,000 plus and it's running fine (knock on wood). It's funner (albeit slower) to drive than the maxima but the maxima is a good car too. I just didn't want another one...I wanted something different. But I've only had this thing less than 2 months (compared to the 8 years of ownership w/ the maxima) so I can't really give a longevity comparison yet.

 

So in short, Maxima's might be a better choice if you're worried about a little extra repair/maintainence cost. But take care of either of them and it shouldn't be that big an issue in either case. You are going to have some maintainence on a used car regardless...