Maybe becoming a BMW Owner

Hey guys, i'm in the market for a new car. My parents....asian background. ...they trust nothing but japanese cars. I've been looking at the TSX and the IS300. But what caught my eye was this steel gray '01 bimmer. I asked my parents and they were hesitant about it.

What i would like to know is:

How Reliable are they compared to Imports?
How much does it cost to do maintinances? compared to Lexus/Honda
is 5X,XXX to many miles for a '01?
What can i expect by becoming a Bimmer driver when i've been an import driver all my life?
Does it break down alot like Ford/Chevy ..like does it need to go in the shop often?
How is the gas?

Thanks for helping...hopefully a new bimmer driver!

well... it gets good gas mileage, and its a blast to drive...

Originally Posted by lilkhmerkid4u

Hey guys, i'm in the market for a new car. My parents....asian background. ...they trust nothing but japanese cars. I've been looking at the TSX and the IS300. But what caught my eye was this steel gray '01 bimmer. I asked my parents and they were hesitant about it.

What i would like to know is:

How Reliable are they compared to Imports?
How much does it cost to do maintinances? compared to Lexus/Honda
is 5X,XXX to many miles for a '01?
What can i expect by becoming a Bimmer driver when i've been an import driver all my life?
Does it break down alot like Ford/Chevy ..like does it need to go in the shop often?
How is the gas?

Thanks for helping...hopefully a new bimmer driver!

Okay, I'll bite on a reply....

I love BMW's but maintenance/repairs do make me nervous so I either buy new with the factory warranty and maintenance OR get a CPO with the extended warranty. Whether you're buying a "used" $20K BMW or a new $50K one, having some type of multi-year warranty is a necessity in my book.

50,000 miles probably isn't too many for an '01 if you figure that it has 4 years of 12,500 miles on it....probably about average.

What can you expect by becoming a bimmer owner? Well, hot chicks of course...everywhere, they just knock down your door, jump into your front seat and lift their shirts. Its great, really, just buy a BMW

Listen, Dude....here`s what you tell the parents:
"Sixty years ago, the Germans almost took over the world, and when it comes to mechanical things, NOBODY is more fanatical, so how bad can they be?"
Seriously, *any* car that`s out of warranty is gonna cost you a good bit of money to maintain, especially if you don`t have the knowlege and experience to do some of it yourself, so be prepared.Modern cars are terribly complex devices, and (unfortunately for us) not entirely without fault. If you buy a CPO from a dealer, you can obtain a warranty up to 100K miles for that car. Good luck!

Regards,
Bob

what does CPO mean?

and does " i need to bring my car to the shop" occur quite often?

Originally Posted by lilkhmerkid4u

what does CPO mean?

and does " i need to bring my car to the shop" occur quite often?

Seriously, if you get that asian background then stay with imports. German cars do need to visit shops quite often at least for periodic maintainence which cost a good amount of money unless you get your hands dirty with DIY. Of course the car being the good dog of course she isn't ....

CPO: certified pre-owned
DIY: do it urself

dont know if my knowledge would be helpful but i was given the choice between a brand new 2005 Acura TSX or a 2001 BMW 325i


i chose the bimmer.

bought it used for


18k with 32k miles on the clock.


it was in excellent condition.

any problems with it?

and why did you go with the bimmer?

How Reliable are they compared to Imports?
BMW is an import, so let's go from there. I'd have to say they are less reliable than the typical Japanese car, but some might say it's just as reliable with proper care.

How much does it cost to do maintinances? compared to Lexus/Honda
Maintenance is more than the typical Japanese car or American. You can lower costs by going to an independent or doing the work yourself.

is 5X,XXX to many miles for a '01?
That's average for a 4 year old car.


What can i expect by becoming a Bimmer driver when i've been an import driver all my life?
As a kid, I'll honestly tell you that you're very likely to become a snob, if you aren't already one. If you're already a snob, you'll only get snobbier the longer you own your car. You'll also find yourself challenging others to races just as much, if not more than driving any other car. And to remphasize, the last time I checked Germany is considered a foreign nation, so that would make their products imports.

Does it break down alot like Ford/Chevy ..like does it need to go in the shop often?
There's always a couple people who report failures, but it's hard to really say. I don't have the results of the latest Consumer Reports or JD Power and Associates tests, but I wouldn't say BMW is near the top in reliability and may break down. By that I don't mean major malfunctions but little things like window regulators. So to answer your question... Yes, you may visit the shop often to get little annoyances fixed.


How is the gas?
Gas is gas. $40-$50 a tank... I fill up once a week so roughly $2500 a year. This is all dependent on how the driving is done, of course.

Gas is very good considering the displacement of the engines, assuming you buy a stick-shift.

However, I would recommend you don't go for a used beemer, especially not an off-lease "CPO" car that has been (relatively) unloved by its 'keeper'. Yes, these cars can be maintained reasonably cheaply with a little luck (i.e. if nothing big blows up, which is relatively unlikely) IF you do all the work yourself and know where to hunt for cheaper parts, but they are going to break a lot more often than a TSX or IS. In your case, that means lots of grief from the family about why the BMW dealer wants "x" amount of money this month/this quarter.

I would definitely go for the IS, so at least you're getting a fun chassis and rear wheel drive. The TSX looks nice but it's too long and heavy to be front-wheel-drive. Even if you get really unlucky and it breaks, you can shrug your shoulders and say, hey, I bought a Toyota like you said!

Originally Posted by lilkhmerkid4u

Hey guys, i'm in the market for a new car. My parents....asian background. ...they trust nothing but japanese cars. I've been looking at the TSX and the IS300. But what caught my eye was this steel gray '01 bimmer. I asked my parents and they were hesitant about it.

What i would like to know is:

How Reliable are they compared to Imports?
How much does it cost to do maintinances? compared to Lexus/Honda
is 5X,XXX to many miles for a '01?
What can i expect by becoming a Bimmer driver when i've been an import driver all my life?
Does it break down alot like Ford/Chevy ..like does it need to go in the shop often?
How is the gas?

Thanks for helping...hopefully a new bimmer driver!

Originally Posted by jetstream23

What can you expect by becoming a bimmer owner? Well, hot chicks of course...everywhere, they just knock down your door, jump into your front seat and lift their shirts. Its great, really, just buy a BMW

I bet this isn't working for me cause I had the dealer set the doors to auto-lock.