BMW 328?

The car in the OP seems ok, a bit steep, but thats what haggling is all about!

The engine hopefully won't give any grief (head gasket failure being the big one from Invaders experience) - I'm on my 3rd M52 2.8 now.

1st had done 98k when I bought it, the 2nd 125k and the 3rd way over 260k (!)

Yes, you'll spend money keeping it right, and no it won't be as cheap as say a Mondeo.

Its down to what you want from a car, RWD, good build quality, decent drive? then the BMW will suit you nicely.

Just be extremely picky when looking, you'll find more Dogs than at an RSPCA rescue centre!!

Just make sure you have a "just in case" fund as you will need it.
 
monkey_boy said:
Old but looked after BMWs are rare, but if you find one then why should it cost you any more to keep than an old looked after something else?
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Yes indeed, infact it costs no more to look after than an old Fiesta. I mean why shouldnt it, as long as its polished every Sunday and has a service once a year it wont ever break down.

I certainly didn't notice my maintenance costs dramatically increase when I replaced my Ford with an exceptionally well looked after, completely immaculate 5 Series with a perfect service record. And neither of my parents BMW's have ever had anything go wrong with them. None of the more complex components like ASC Hydro units, etc etc are prone to failure and when they do you can bang another in from a scrappy for a tenner.

Quite why anyone buys a Ford Focus when an old BMW is just as cheap to own I wont ever understand.
 
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[TW]Fox;18168647 said:
Yes indeed, infact it costs no more to look after than an old Fiesta. I mean why shouldnt it, as long as its polished every Sunday and has a service once a year it wont ever break down.

I certainly didn't notice my maintenance costs dramatically increase when I replaced my Ford with an exceptionally well looked after, completely immaculate 5 Series with a perfect service record. And neither of my parents BMW's have ever had anything go wrong with them. None of the more complex components like ASC Hydro units, etc etc are prone to failure and when they do you can bang another in from a scrappy for a tenner.

Quite why anyone buys a Ford Focus when an old BMW is just as cheap to own I wont ever understand.
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Your sarcasm is in absolute override lately :)

Fox's actual point though is that the BMWs will cost more, as they are inherently more complex cars with more expensive parts!
 
chrisnic0 said:
^^ Test driving that tomorrow :p

Someone spec me something else please?
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No leather, but a Leon Cupra R could be worth a look.
£5k should get you a rather nice 225.

What are your feelings on running costs, as I could easily recommend some silly German metal ;)
 
Funny you should say that I was looking at a couple of Cupras on pistonheads last night, still undecided on the looks, not getting on with the 5 doors!

Yeah running costs Im not massively worried about, don't have a lot of massive outgoings currently. Spec away:D
 
[TW]Fox;18168647 said:
Yes indeed, infact it costs no more to look after than an old Fiesta. I mean why shouldnt it, as long as its polished every Sunday and has a service once a year it wont ever break down.

I certainly didn't notice my maintenance costs dramatically increase when I replaced my Ford with an exceptionally well looked after, completely immaculate 5 Series with a perfect service record. And neither of my parents BMW's have ever had anything go wrong with them. None of the more complex components like ASC Hydro units, etc etc are prone to failure and when they do you can bang another in from a scrappy for a tenner.

Quite why anyone buys a Ford Focus when an old BMW is just as cheap to own I wont ever understand.
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1. You're anal. I imagine you became even more anal once you'd saved up for your pride and joy and spent the better part of £10k(?) in the process.

2. What was the age and mileage situation of your ford when you got your BMW?

3.How much is an ASC hydro unit likely to cost? More than a full exhaust system? More than an AC Compressor? More than a DMF? or any of the other countless expensive things that can go wrong with normal cars.

I don't think you are misunderstanding me, you're just being facetious, but I'll clarify anyway. I don't think that it will be as cheap to run as a fiesta, I just don't think that it's guaranteed to throw up very expensive bills as indicated in this thread and countless others. I've made the point that standard maintenence costs aren't going to be much higher than a standard older looked after car and neither you nor InvaderGIR have made a reasonable argument against that. Instead you've cited fairly rare issues involving parts that aren't neccesarily any more expensive than the expensive parts of 'normal' cars.
 
Cooling systems on 6 pot BMW's are crap - I've had failures as have many 6pot owners on here (Fox included)

Parts cost a lot more than your average Ford / Vauxhall.

Gearboxes are weak too (The Auto's) - The one in my old e38 for example decided to drop 5th.....

and I have recently bought an uber mile e39 from my father, it has invoices & receipts for THOUSANDS - not just from BMW either.

Sure, Fox is being facetious, but he has a point. BMW's cost an awful lot to run, properly, and it matters little if you start with "a good one" in the first place!
 
The Mondeo was on 150k miles and was 7 years old when I finished with it.

I have never said a major failiure is a guarantee. I've not (yet!) had a major failiure, just loads of minor ones at circa £300-£500ish each time. But the risk is there and your average £4k buyer cannot afford to swallow the bills - if they could why are they looking at £4k cars when a £6k one would be much better and so on and so forth?

You must be prepared for the possibility or it'll smack you in the face. If you are prepared and happy to accept that as the potential price of owning this sort of car, great, get one. I did and I have no regrets. I still wouldnt buy any other sort of car I love them so much.

What I'm trying to do though is make sure the sort of person who has £4k to spend on a car and finds a BMW for £4k and thinks 'Wow! I've got £4k!' doesnt find themselves getting burned further down the line.

The average cost per month of ownership of my car for everything but fuel and depreciation is running at about £200 a month. For me, this is a price well worth paying but it isnt as simple as just finding £200 a month because you need to have the spare cash in the first place to pay the odd big bill, which then averages out to circa 200ish as time goes on.

It's about making people aware. If people read me drumming into them what can happen and what it can cost, they look and think 'So what? If that happens, I can afford that, I want the car' then great. Buy it and you'll love it. I'd buy an E46 Coupe on a V plate over ANY Focus or Astra. People think German = reliability and this isn't the case. German = exceptional build quality, well engineered cars, great quality of materials but things still break - probably more than they need to. It's only because the cars are so good I put up with it. If it was just an A to B car I'd not buy another BMW. Even the new ones do it - just look at the tales of N53 and N54 engines with failing HPFP's, injector trouble, etc etc..

But if you look at it and think 'It probably wont go wrong, so I can afford it', then you should buy something else.

Does this apply to loads of other cars? Sure it does. And for those cars I know about, I post the same things there as well.

The thing that really brings it home for me is how actually buying a far newer, more expensive BMW with the benefit of the warranty works out as hardly any more expensive to own on a day to day basis as my older one does. I'm just using that to highlight a point, as obviously it isnt an option for people in the £4k market as you need the capital in the first place.
 
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