What was your first major repair

I'm about to crack 50k on my 440i and given how upside down I am on the loan, I am considering keeping it until it's paid off or using up some savings and get out clean.

Before I decide, I thought I'd ask... what was your first major maintenance repair (over $1500), what what broke, and what mileage when it happened.

Thanks
Scott

2012 328i here...so the N20 engine. Sitting at 99,300 miles rn and I have had no repairs outside of scheduled maintenance other than a headlight assembly wire that was chafed (causing a headlight malfunction) and had to be spliced. That cost me about $300 at my local indy (most of which was diagnostics to figure out which wire was chafed).

Mine is 2013 328i [email protected] years and 70k miles, and there is no non-maintenance repair yet. The work done to date are tires, mid OCI oil changes, brake fluid, mid-interval coolant, spark plugs, DIY wipers + air filter + cabin filter. There is concern of N20/N26 timing chain problem but mine is quiet and smooth so far.

One thing to note about 440i B58(and also 330i B48) engine is that, timing chains on those are back of engine, so any TC issue will be engine-out. :[

No repairs > $1.5k on a 5 year old car with 77k miles. I expect that brakes, suspension, etc., will need some work before the car hits 200k. Cheaper than buying new. It would not make any financial sense for you to use savings to pay the loan off, sell the car then buy another.

Originally Posted by John MS

It would not make any financial sense for you to use savings to pay the loan off, sell the car then buy another.

BMW had this "Select" plan that kept the payments low but balloons at the end. Huge mistake - huge...

Because the 440i lost a ton of value, I'm upside down and no matter what, I'm dropping some big coins at some juncture. Because the APR is 0.99, basically it's free money (for the moment) and the car payment isn't breaking the bank...

Plus I really love this car. It's got all the power, handling, and technology I could ask for. Gas mileage is very good, and people compliment me routinely. The only flaw is the erratically performing lift-gate (my fault - backed into the garage door and the body shop and BMW cannot tell me why) it only operates automatically 50% of the time.

Hopefully the forthcoming comments will paint the long term in as good a light... thanks all!

If you decide to keep the car and refinance it check www.penfed.org . They have 3.99 for 36 months. Not great, but it looks like great used car rates are gone for now. Anyone can join PenFed. You join a military support organization. There's a link to it on PenFed's website.