[Eurosport]

I have, actually, my girlfriend just bought a used '97 ti with ~70,000 miles. I found out that the car had the cat. replaced in mid 30s (K miles) and that it needs new ball joints for the second time. We only had the car for a short time, so I don't know how it was driven, but the service manager told me that those things (among others) go on BMWs quite often.
I am in the marked for a brand new 325i Sport Package, and am wondering, realistically, how reliable are these cars?
Don't misunderstand me, I know Bimmers are great, but I don't want to keep spending couple of hundred here and there once the warranty runs out.....I intend to keep the car a long time and do some (minor) club racing.
Currently, I have an Integra that has been 100% trouble free for 70,000 miles, $0, except routine maintenance which up to now only included oil and tires.....not even a light bulb.
I am a fan of BMWs and had some in my family, but the gears in my head are starting to wonder about potential very costly "minor" problems.
Please let me know if I'm paranoid.

 

[webguy330i]

This is not a flame.

(begin)

I would tell you not to expect the reliability you've come to love from your tegra. BMWs are very complex machines and therefore have many many faults once they get along in their lives. I'm projecting that most of the problems for the e46 cars will begin to occur around 60k miles or shortly after the warranty.

That's just one thing that's always been known about bimmers... expensive to buy, fun to drive, expensive to maintain, still fun to drive. ANYTHING you have to fix on a bimmer is going to be expensive, unfortunately.

(end)

 

[low]

This is not a flame.

(begin)

I would tell you not to expect the reliability you've come to love from your tegra. BMWs are very complex machines and therefore have many many faults once they get along in their lives. I'm projecting that most of the problems for the e46 cars will begin to occur around 60k miles or shortly after the warranty.

That's just one thing that's always been known about bimmers... expensive to buy, fun to drive, expensive to maintain, still fun to drive. ANYTHING you have to fix on a bimmer is going to be expensive, unfortunately.

(end)

WHAT?!?! the service guy told me that my little 3er would last me forever, problem free!!:lmao:

 

[webguy330i]

WHAT?!?! the service guy told me that my little 3er would last me forever, problem free!!:lmao:

You mean you bought the lifetime problem-free protection plan for an extra $90k and didn't even know it?

That's the _only_ way I can EVER see a service guy mentioning such a thing.

 

[Guest84]

I researched this alittle before buying..checked prices on things like belts, brake pads, stuff that wears out on cars usually the first 100k or so...

My conclusion compared with Ford Motor was this:

BMW parts cost an avg. of 25% more than Ford parts

Ford dealership in Sumner WA charges $78/hr for labor. BMW Seattle charges $80/hr for labor.

Granted, more expensive, but not THAT much more expensive than an American made product for wear and tear parts/labor.

 

[bmw325]

Rip-

I did a similar comparison the other night (out of curiousity) using thepartbin.com and comparing BMW costs w/ VW, Toyota, Ford, etc. it seems to me that w/ the e46, the part costs are very comparable. In cases where they're more expensive (like w/ brakes) there's usually a good reason- like the BMW brakes are vented and bigger, etc. You can tell by comparing some of the parts pictures that in some cases the BMW part is clearly better and should cost more. I've also found that in my area the labor rates are pretty standard-- depends on the dealer-- but they're all around 70-100/hour. I think costs get a little more out of line when you give the dealership more "discretion". Like, if you say, "do an inspection II", the dealer might just spit out a very high price. Rather, it might be better to say "change the hoses, change this, change that, etc" and tell me how much that would be. Or even buy the parts somewhere else and have the dealer install them. I've also gotten the impression that much of the maintenance required for the first 100k can be done by yourself w/ just a little mechanical skill. After reading the bentley manaul, i've come to the conlcusion that these cars are actually easier to work on than many Japanese and American products. Even changing the climate control fan doesn't require that you yank the dashboard like in many other cars, for example. But there is a myth that BMWs are somehow "difficult to work on and exotic" that many dealers and mechanics perpetuate to justify higher prices for no reason. About the only regular maintenance thing I wouldn't want to do myself would be to change the timing chains-- but luckily those are good for 120k. Changing hoses, belts, etc, for the most part seems fairly easy (and cheap).

I think BMWs across all models and years seem to have recurring problems w/ cooling system (fan, thermostats, radiators, heater cores, etc) and suspension parts (gross generalization, but I think you'll find that its true).