2001/2 BMW 325 or 2004 Honda Civic Si UPDATE

[iversonyin]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: iversonyin

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Don't buy used BMWs. It's a nice car but a huge money pit. I know...I've owned 2 of them. Never again.

Old 3 series? How old were they? I'm just curious. I'm looking at the E46 3 series as well.

One was about 7 years old (gift-well maintained by my wife's stepmom) the other was 3 years old (an E36). Both were colosal money pits. I'd say they cost us $2-3k annually for maintenance and repairs. Can you fit that in your budget?

What the hell is causing the big repair bills?!

My friend has an Audi A4, he hasn't spend much on it yet. The car will be driven very lightly- 5k miles/ year. 10k at most. Doesn't BMW have warranty that cover the car up to 5yr/100k Miles?

 

[imported_LoKe]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: iversonyin

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Don't buy used BMWs. It's a nice car but a huge money pit. I know...I've owned 2 of them. Never again.

Old 3 series? How old were they? I'm just curious. I'm looking at the E46 3 series as well.

One was about 7 years old (gift-well maintained by my wife's stepmom) the other was 3 years old (an E36). Both were colosal money pits. I'd say they cost us $2-3k annually for maintenance and repairs. Can you fit that in your budget?

It's odd that you had problems with a well maintained BMW. Sure, their parts are insanely expensive, but it's rare that you have to change anything but a drive belt and perhaps a water-pump if it's one with a plastic impeller.

What kind of problems were you having?

 

[Chrono]

Originally posted by: bennylong

Originally posted by: BullsOnParade
The only thing I can afford to buy outright would be in the 5-6k range. It would take me ~10months of serious saving while remaining comitted to maxing out my 401k to be able to buy the bmw outright.

$10,000 doesn't sound like much, but if you put that $10k in your 401k instead of that BMW, that $10k is going to be worth $537,000.00 in 40 years assuming 10% return.

Your choice is to live for today or tomorrow.

Good lord. Don't go biting his ass now. Let the guy enjoy himself at least. I say, save some
but also enjoy yourself in the process. You'll never know if you saved all for nothing.

 

[phatj]

unless you hate domestics.... 2003-2004 chevy impala. its got a 3.4 liter standard V6... quiet ride... reliable


or if u need to go foreign on my ass... honda accord for the win... get one with low miles they have great resale value very reliable better on gas than the beemer and not as ghey as the civic... honda accords are super nice... test drive one!

 

[CTrain]

I'd go for the Civic Si....much cheaper to buy and much cheaper to maintain.
One thing I would do is look for the 99-00 Civic Si instead.
Much better car all around. The hatchback Si only advantage is the space.

 

[iversonyin]

Originally posted by: LoKe

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: iversonyin

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Don't buy used BMWs. It's a nice car but a huge money pit. I know...I've owned 2 of them. Never again.

Old 3 series? How old were they? I'm just curious. I'm looking at the E46 3 series as well.

One was about 7 years old (gift-well maintained by my wife's stepmom) the other was 3 years old (an E36). Both were colosal money pits. I'd say they cost us $2-3k annually for maintenance and repairs. Can you fit that in your budget?

It's odd that you had problems with a well maintained BMW. Sure, their parts are insanely expensive, but it's rare that you have to change anything but a drive belt and perhaps a water-pump if it's one with a plastic impeller.

What kind of problems were you having?

That's what I'm thinking. $2k-3k seem like alot. I'm thinking it'll be more of a couple hundred dollar/year premium over an Acura.

 

[Tiamat]

Personally I would get a 7-9k used car that as decent seats and great gas mileage and pour the rest of the money into high interest/ retirement funds.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: CTrain
I'd go for the Civic Si....much cheaper to buy and much cheaper to maintain.
One thing I would do is look for the 99-00 Civic Si instead.
Much better car all around. The hatchback Si only advantage is the space.

Wrong.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/04/15/040271.html

If the average of all car premiums was X, a 3 series would be about 5% more than that, and a Civic would be 50% more.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: LoKe

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: iversonyin

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Don't buy used BMWs. It's a nice car but a huge money pit. I know...I've owned 2 of them. Never again.

Old 3 series? How old were they? I'm just curious. I'm looking at the E46 3 series as well.

One was about 7 years old (gift-well maintained by my wife's stepmom) the other was 3 years old (an E36). Both were colosal money pits. I'd say they cost us $2-3k annually for maintenance and repairs. Can you fit that in your budget?

It's odd that you had problems with a well maintained BMW. Sure, their parts are insanely expensive, but it's rare that you have to change anything but a drive belt and perhaps a water-pump if it's one with a plastic impeller.

What kind of problems were you having?

Water pump, radiator, shocks/struts, brake jobs every year were at least $500 each time, it seemed to go through tires at an alarming rate too. There were other problems, I recall a computer display needing to be replaced, the sunroof had a rattle problem we never repaired because we would have had to replace the entire cassette to the tune of $1500. Oh, and auto transmissions are good for about 100k miles and then you'll have to replace it. This costs $5k at the dealer or $3k for a rebuilt model.

 

[imported_LoKe]

That's odd. The only model I can remember having recurring problems like that was the X5. That thing's a POS.

 

[CTrain]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: CTrain
I'd go for the Civic Si....much cheaper to buy and much cheaper to maintain.
One thing I would do is look for the 99-00 Civic Si instead.
Much better car all around. The hatchback Si only advantage is the space.

Wrong.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/04/15/040271.html

If the average of all car premiums was X, a 3 series would be about 5% more than that, and a Civic would be 50% more.

What ??
I'm not talking about insurance.

Its a known fact that German cars like BMW, Audi, VW are much more expensive to maintain than Japanese cars....when you're talking about used cars and the warranty period has run out.

I actually have experience with both.
I've own 2 Civic Si over 4 yrs and not 1 single thing have gone wrong.
I've own a VW for less than 6 monmths and I've spent over $600 on it already and I don't think I've spent $600 for the 2 Si over the 4 yrs.

Been wanting to get a used 3 series for a while now but I keep hearing about the high maintaince costs which keeps me from buying one.

 

[BullsOnParade]

I think you guys have convinced me that the bmw would be a bad idea.

I like Plasdom's idea, but I'm not sure that paying even more for a new civic ex helps me out of the financial situation all that much. I found the civic si hatch i mentioned on craigslist and its the only civic si on craigslist that seems decent. I'd like to get a car with <40,000 miles on it. 04 Civic Ex's still go for 17k which makes them just as costly as the bmw, though they're better on gas and insurance, they're still a chunk of change.

The civic si hatch I found is also going for 2k less that kbb, which is promising.

 

[Imdmn04]

Originally posted by: bennylong

Originally posted by: BullsOnParade
The only thing I can afford to buy outright would be in the 5-6k range. It would take me ~10months of serious saving while remaining comitted to maxing out my 401k to be able to buy the bmw outright.

$10,000 doesn't sound like much, but if you put that $10k in your 401k instead of that BMW, that $10k is going to be worth $537,000.00 in 40 years assuming 10% return.

Your choice is to live for today or tomorrow.

You show me a fund that will grow 10 percent every year for 40 years, I will sell everything I have and put into it.

 

[TheShiz]

Originally posted by: Imdmn04

Originally posted by: bennylong

Originally posted by: BullsOnParade
The only thing I can afford to buy outright would be in the 5-6k range. It would take me ~10months of serious saving while remaining comitted to maxing out my 401k to be able to buy the bmw outright.

$10,000 doesn't sound like much, but if you put that $10k in your 401k instead of that BMW, that $10k is going to be worth $537,000.00 in 40 years assuming 10% return.

Your choice is to live for today or tomorrow.

You show me a fund that will grow 10 percent every year for 40 years, I will sell everything I have and put into it.

lets raise the stakes, you show me a fund that will grow 10 percent every year for 40 years and I'll eat my own buttocks after that 40 years.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: LoKe

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: iversonyin

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Don't buy used BMWs. It's a nice car but a huge money pit. I know...I've owned 2 of them. Never again.

Old 3 series? How old were they? I'm just curious. I'm looking at the E46 3 series as well.

One was about 7 years old (gift-well maintained by my wife's stepmom) the other was 3 years old (an E36). Both were colosal money pits. I'd say they cost us $2-3k annually for maintenance and repairs. Can you fit that in your budget?

It's odd that you had problems with a well maintained BMW. Sure, their parts are insanely expensive, but it's rare that you have to change anything but a drive belt and perhaps a water-pump if it's one with a plastic impeller.

What kind of problems were you having?

Water pump, radiator, shocks/struts, brake jobs every year were at least $500 each time, it seemed to go through tires at an alarming rate too. There were other problems, I recall a computer display needing to be replaced, the sunroof had a rattle problem we never repaired because we would have had to replace the entire cassette to the tune of $1500. Oh, and auto transmissions are good for about 100k miles and then you'll have to replace it. This costs $5k at the dealer or $3k for a rebuilt model.

I've owned European cars almost exclusively (deviating occasionally to American muscle) and really that's nothing to complain about. I've owned all makes of European cars, and it's silly to budget less than $4k a year in repairs and maintenance. Proper maintenance of a European car is expensive, but it's cheaper than repairs.

Anyway, $2-3k a year is getting of easy. My TL costs that much to maintain. One should expect at least $4k a year in maintenance\repair with any European car. Not that that's a bad thing. Once I get rid of my TL, I'll never have another non-european car again. Nothing else compares.

 

[bennylong]

Originally posted by: TheShiz

Originally posted by: Imdmn04

Originally posted by: bennylong

Originally posted by: BullsOnParade
The only thing I can afford to buy outright would be in the 5-6k range. It would take me ~10months of serious saving while remaining comitted to maxing out my 401k to be able to buy the bmw outright.

$10,000 doesn't sound like much, but if you put that $10k in your 401k instead of that BMW, that $10k is going to be worth $537,000.00 in 40 years assuming 10% return.

Your choice is to live for today or tomorrow.

You show me a fund that will grow 10 percent every year for 40 years, I will sell everything I have and put into it.

lets raise the stakes, you show me a fund that will grow 10 percent every year for 40 years and I'll eat my own buttocks after that 40 years.

Vanguard Windsor fund return is 12.41% since 1958

https://flagship2.vanguard.com/VGApp/hn...SnapshotSec?FundId=0022&FundIntExt=INT

S&P 500 index is return 12% since 1976

https://flagship2.vanguard.com/VGApp/hn...SnapshotSec?FundId=0040&FundIntExt=INT

 

[bennylong]

There a lot of other funds that have returned more than 10% over the past 40 years.

http://www.troweprice.com/common/indexFundFacts/0,0,ticker=PRNEX,00.html

http://www.troweprice.com/common/indexH...d=35,00.html?rfpgid=10875&scn=Shortcut

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: BullsOnParade
The only thing I can afford to buy outright would be in the 5-6k range. It would take me ~10months of serious saving while remaining comitted to maxing out my 401k to be able to buy the bmw outright.

What are you driving now? Why can't you drive that for a while?

I'm gonna be in a similar situation as you - starting what should be a nice paying job with low (but not free) living costs. Stick with what you've got and save man. Get a nice chunk of change up and then spend some of that on a car. Cars are a terrible investment monetarily, so ideally you shouldn't invest heavily in a car until you can truly afford to do so. And this is coming from a car guy who likes to spend money like water.

EDIT And I'm an ECE grad as well, getting the EE in December, already got my CPE.

 

[Saint Nick]

I think you should just rally 'round the family with a pocket full of shells.

 

[BullsOnParade]

Ah the problem is that my current ride is a 96 taurus with 190k+ miles on it, an ailing transmission and crappy gas milage, its on its absolute last legs. I replaced the alternator last week when it stranded me in Atlanta after my final. To top it off I share the car with my mom. I HAVE to buy another car.

The other option would be to drop hits like de la O or perhaps get the F*@# of the commode.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: LoKe

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: iversonyin

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Don't buy used BMWs. It's a nice car but a huge money pit. I know...I've owned 2 of them. Never again.

Old 3 series? How old were they? I'm just curious. I'm looking at the E46 3 series as well.

One was about 7 years old (gift-well maintained by my wife's stepmom) the other was 3 years old (an E36). Both were colosal money pits. I'd say they cost us $2-3k annually for maintenance and repairs. Can you fit that in your budget?

It's odd that you had problems with a well maintained BMW. Sure, their parts are insanely expensive, but it's rare that you have to change anything but a drive belt and perhaps a water-pump if it's one with a plastic impeller.

What kind of problems were you having?

Water pump, radiator, shocks/struts, brake jobs every year were at least $500 each time, it seemed to go through tires at an alarming rate too. There were other problems, I recall a computer display needing to be replaced, the sunroof had a rattle problem we never repaired because we would have had to replace the entire cassette to the tune of $1500. Oh, and auto transmissions are good for about 100k miles and then you'll have to replace it. This costs $5k at the dealer or $3k for a rebuilt model.

I've owned European cars almost exclusively (deviating occasionally to American muscle) and really that's nothing to complain about. I've owned all makes of European cars, and it's silly to budget less than $4k a year in repairs and maintenance. Proper maintenance of a European car is expensive, but it's cheaper than repairs.

Anyway, $2-3k a year is getting of easy. My TL costs that much to maintain. One should expect at least $4k a year in maintenance\repair with any European car. Not that that's a bad thing. Once I get rid of my TL, I'll never have another non-european car again. Nothing else compares.

Are you nuts? I've spent maybe $2,000 on my 2003 Nissan Maxima in the last 3+ years and 55k miles and a grand of that was on tires.

Used German cars are a money pit. Take my advice if you like...or don't...I couldn't care less. Just trying to pass on some of the wisdom of my years.

Nine thousand dollars in repairs and upkeep vs two thousand dollars...Hmm, I'll take Japanese cars FTW Alex!!!

 

[akubi]

Originally posted by: BullsOnParade
1800/20=90*$3 = 270 monthly on gas. For the commute only.

93 octane for 3 bucks a gallon? where do you live, in the boonies?

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: akubi

Originally posted by: BullsOnParade
1800/20=90*$3 = 270 monthly on gas. For the commute only.

93 octane for 3 bucks a gallon? where do you live, in the boonies?

92 octane costs $3.50/gallon here in SoCal.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: LoKe

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: iversonyin

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Don't buy used BMWs. It's a nice car but a huge money pit. I know...I've owned 2 of them. Never again.

Old 3 series? How old were they? I'm just curious. I'm looking at the E46 3 series as well.

One was about 7 years old (gift-well maintained by my wife's stepmom) the other was 3 years old (an E36). Both were colosal money pits. I'd say they cost us $2-3k annually for maintenance and repairs. Can you fit that in your budget?

It's odd that you had problems with a well maintained BMW. Sure, their parts are insanely expensive, but it's rare that you have to change anything but a drive belt and perhaps a water-pump if it's one with a plastic impeller.

What kind of problems were you having?

Water pump, radiator, shocks/struts, brake jobs every year were at least $500 each time, it seemed to go through tires at an alarming rate too. There were other problems, I recall a computer display needing to be replaced, the sunroof had a rattle problem we never repaired because we would have had to replace the entire cassette to the tune of $1500. Oh, and auto transmissions are good for about 100k miles and then you'll have to replace it. This costs $5k at the dealer or $3k for a rebuilt model.

I've owned European cars almost exclusively (deviating occasionally to American muscle) and really that's nothing to complain about. I've owned all makes of European cars, and it's silly to budget less than $4k a year in repairs and maintenance. Proper maintenance of a European car is expensive, but it's cheaper than repairs.

Anyway, $2-3k a year is getting of easy. My TL costs that much to maintain. One should expect at least $4k a year in maintenance\repair with any European car. Not that that's a bad thing. Once I get rid of my TL, I'll never have another non-european car again. Nothing else compares.

Are you nuts? I've spent maybe $2,000 on my 2003 Nissan Maxima in the last 3+ years and 55k miles and a grand of that was on tires.

Used German cars are a money pit. Take my advice if you like...or don't...I couldn't care less. Just trying to pass on some of the wisdom of my years.

Nine thousand dollars in repairs and upkeep vs two thousand dollars...Hmm, I'll take Japanese cars FTW Alex!!!

Soul is expensive to maintain.

Do you have you Maxima serviced at the dealer?

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: Nebor
Anyway, $2-3k a year is getting of easy. My TL costs that much to maintain. One should expect at least $4k a year in maintenance\repair with any European car. Not that that's a bad thing. Once I get rid of my TL, I'll never have another non-european car again. Nothing else compares.

$2-3k a year? $4k a year? Do you blow an engine every other year or something?