I bought some Fords that were already cut and installed. Everybody used to do it that way! We who have owned old Fords have something in common. The first time I drove the Maverick in slush I couldn’t stand the drumming noise under the floorboards. 19 highway mpg made me mad as heck.
Oh no - I guess I forgot to remove my head for inspection (for the last 400K miles)!
“They do read Consumers Reports though, I guess.”
…and I stayed at Holiday Inn Express last night, so do I get to be an expert too?
Civic SI is an awful car for a few reasons in this case. Horrible theft rates and in turn high insurance costs due to young people crashing them. There are cars with far better performance in sedan form that offer insurance at 1/3-1/2 the cost of an Civic SI. Insurance is an absolute crucial item to keep in mind on any purchase at this person age.
They are significantly less expensive to repair for an equivalent problem compared to a BMW.
That sounds like a fair competitive edge to me that is worth comparison if cost of repair is important to the buyer.
This is a seven year old car. Have the car checked by a mechanic to get some idea of what repairs may be in the future. As to the reliability record, you may be better off with an older vehicle that doesn’t have as great a reliablility record as some other makes. The repairs may have already been done on the less reliable vehicle that now has seven years and 120,000 miles under its belt, while the vehicle with the more reliable vehicle at this point may be in for some repairs.
As the old saying goes “If the shoe fits, wear it”.
I was once asked to drive a former boss’s BMW to run an errand and you are not missing out on anything. I like the way my Civic handles better. BMWs are for people with low self esteem who need a boost to their egos.
I don’t care what you say, anyone who will loan you his wife is okay in my book!
Do you think that OP is going to buy a Yaris instead of the BMW if he sees that the price of repairs is lower? I doubt it. That didn’t seem to be the question. I just pointed out some equivalent Asian cars for comparison. I would (and did) buy an Accord rather than a BMW because it’s cost to own was less. The BMW wasn’t on my long list, let alone the short one. It is on the short list for gforcing and should be compared to similar cars.
Remember that all makes have their good and poor models and also just because it is a foreign make does not mean it is of good quality. I recently traded my Ford Taurus with more than 300,000 miles. Several sets of tires, brakes and oil changes ( Lucas oil treatment added ). 1 alternator and 1 starter. Do research and do not buy a BMW just because it may stroke your ego.
When these cars rolled into my shop the techs would groan that another “BMW Bowel Movement” came in.
And I once thought about getting a Honda… just so I could crash it into something and rid the world of another plastic-y POS. Hondas are for people who don’t enjoy driving, love under-steer, and need a silly large radio to hear music over the noise of the outside world coming straight through the wondrous expanses of plastic and tin can where a muffler should be. As for my self esteem and an ego boost…I feel it every time I see a rusted out POS honda belching a cloud of blue smoke when the owner thinks he/she is driving a performance machine, black scar from oil smoke covering the spray painted “aerodynamic” bumper, and for that I don’t need a BMW. But I’m sure as hell glad I drive one anyway.
But mconn is right, I won’t let you touch my car.
Are these the same a**hat techs who when checking the car out after the repairs are hooning my car down the highway at 95? They certainly aren’t…right?
What the heck is this? Write back when you are sober.
BMW’s are nicely engineered. They probably have inherent reliability that is close to the soulless Japanese cars. The average used BMW, however, has probably been run hard by its former owner(s), which will affect its reliability. And its required oil change intervals are outrageously long, which doesn’t usually affect the initial owner who dumps it before it starts to have problems but can amplify the effects of the typical hard driving these ego-boosters get, and cause your BMW engine to have problems far sooner than it should. Item for item, a repair on a BMW is more costly than a Toyota or Nissan, and as mentioned here, the BMW is more likely to need that repair earlier.
It would be fairer to compare BMW to the Lexus/Infiniti rather than Toyota/Nissan. While the Lexus/Infiniti are very similar to their Toyota/Nissan counterparts, these companies insist on higher rates of reliability on key wear items for luxo brands – pumps, motors, stuff with bearings – to push the reliability up (reliability of the car being the probability of failure of a system X the number of systems in the car). Or at least I read somewhere that they do.
Value for money in a used BMW? Probably lower than other many cars, including a lot of American models. The key item in deciding the prospective reliability of ANY used car is total miles, mitigated of course by accident/water damage/harsh use etc. which can usually be deduced by a prospective buyer. If I had to buy a car right now, I’d prefer to drop money into a more modest car that is new or almost new, compared to the same amount of money for a luxo model that was expensive but has been run hard and long.
Speaking of engineering…I spoke to my “selfish” BMW friend who also owns the Outback (wifes). We agree that the term “engineer” is relative. Hondas and Malibus are just as well engineered as BMWs. Auto design is a matter of priorities weighed vs value/price. BMWs are definitly weighted towards handling performance. All cars try to fill a nitch of which prestige is a part. I was just as proud of my 94 Suzuki Sidekick and 02 Chevy Prism as my friend is of his BMW…obviously for different reasons.
Why does everyone want to buy a Japanese car or a German Car? My 1986 Chrysler LeBaron K-car traveleld the roads for 265,000 miles with the original engine and transmission. Gee, wonder what the secret was? Change the oil and filter every 3k, change the transmission filter and fluid every 30k, use name brand gas, keep a good set of tires on and rotate regularly, maintain your cooling system.
The Norwegian foreign echange students I know are also " Inot " cars. And the comment they made was this: " In Europe everyone wants a BMW but NO ONE wants a used BMW !" And they probably have seen more of them than we have…