Not to offend, but much of that is directly correlated to maintenance. In general, the I6 engines in the 3 series are less expensive to maintain than the V8 engines in the 6er. A poorly maintained 3 will be more expensive over the ownership period than a properly maintained 6er, though. My point was that in general, high mileage 6ers are NOT as well kept as high mileage 3s. There's a much larger base of people properly maintaining their 3s than there are 6ers. There are outliers in each. In my case, I found a nice gem, ~41k miles on my '04 6er and you could tell it was in great shape. My only issue was with the crankshaft position sensor, which I think was due to someone learning how to drive stick in the car. Metal shavings on the sensor...


Anyway, the choice is yours. In my opinion for most driving on public roads, the 6er is a league above many cars, even ones with 2x the MSRP... But for motorsports and reliability, the 3 series wins out.

If you're comfortable with a wrench, and you find a good 6er (read, well maintained), then go for it. You will not regret it.

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