BMW vs Mercedes

[britincali]

[bewithabob]

what about a sleeper car? This is much more practical, reliable and no doubt satisfying….


http://www.autoblog.com/2012/05/15/i...atest-sleeper/

[BH13GMT]

When buying cars of that age with the potential of an expensive repair or three, you need to be prepared to do your homework when it goes wrong. I suggest joining a forum for the marque and use its resources. It can save a lot of money and get yourself a good indie for any work. If you are a "drop it down to the main dealer when it goes wrong " type of guy then you will be seeing some big bills. It needs to be considered a hobby.

[Rsvrider]

I am an AMG fan BUT I've noticed that the mechanics that work on my car drive Bimmers. IMHO out of warranty....go with what they drive. There must be a reason.
I just dropped my 55 for service and the driver taking me home couldn't stop telling me how amazing the new M5 is to drive. Go with the Bimmer. This is coming from a Merc driver.

[crew]

Originally Posted by Rsvrider

I am an AMG fan BUT I've noticed that the mechanics that work on my car drive Bimmers. IMHO out of warranty....go with what they drive. There must be a reason.
I just dropped my 55 for service and the driver taking me home couldn't stop telling me how amazing the new M5 is to drive. Go with the Bimmer. This is coming from a Merc driver.

Interesting observation. Reminds me of an old adage: You ride in a Mercedes, your drive a BMW.

[zama]

Age of the car is not always the factor. It is the complexity of the parts and how well they are screwed together. I sold at Christmas a 10 year old Audi S6 loved the car beyond believe effortless power and luxury, but things broke on it a lot including the gearbox rebuild at 55,000 miles. My last service for the gearbox rebuild and timing belt was $9,500, had it been a full new gearbox the original quote was $16,000. Ultimately the more power and load the more it can cost. My outcome, I now drive a car that is nearly twice the age and is cheap to run, it is an old clubsport Porsche that is bulletproof with none of the complexity. My wife had a 20 year old 525i that never missed a beat in the 2 years we had or the 4 years since as we know the other owners, no matter how bad it is treated. Sadly new cars are full of things that fail and are having even more so, you hear horror stories of 15K repairs on air suspension etc.

IN short my advice would probably buy neither, but only for the risk of repairs, both are well made cars.

[dsio]

Originally Posted by crew

What he said! I have owned both Mercedes and BMW and it is simply too risky to own one outside of the warranty period.
You might ask "What's the worst that could happen?"
The worst could be any number of expensive components that cost between $5000-10,000.
Don't do it.

TBH that's utter nonsense, there's nothing that's going to go wrong on an E46 328i that costs anywhere near that. For the record I own an E46 '98 328i auto and a '00 330ci manual 300k KMs on the 328i and 135k KMs on the 330ci.

In the time I've owned it the 328i has cost me an idler pulley ($250) a window regulator (free from a wrecker and a breeze to install) and regular servicing my my local indy shop. The 330ci hasn't cost me anything but servicing and tyres, both of which are cheaper than my brother's 2011 Toyota Hilux.

Everything that can go wrong on an E46 is documented, and fixable, go manual if you can, the M52/M54 series engines are bombproof, and while the 328i auto isn't fast, the 330ci with light tuning does 0-60 in about 5.4s, definitely not slow for the great economy it gives.

If you're a BMW enthusiast, get into the online communities (the E46 community dwarfs TRF dramatically) and use an indy shop for servicing, you'll spend your life laughing at people that think BMWs are expensive to maintain or are a nightmare outside of warranty, and thank them for paying the depreciation hit for you.

Here's my pair, just buy it ;)

[crew]

Originally Posted by dsio

TBH that's utter nonsense, there's nothing that's going to go wrong on an E46 328i that costs anywhere near that. For the record I own an E46 '98 328i auto and a '00 330ci manual 300k KMs on the 328i and 135k KMs on the 330ci.

In the time I've owned it the 328i has cost me an idler pulley ($250) a window regulator (free from a wrecker and a breeze to install) and regular servicing my my local indy shop. The 330ci hasn't cost me anything but servicing and tyres, both of which are cheaper than my brother's 2011 Toyota Hilux.

Everything that can go wrong on an E46 is documented, and fixable, go manual if you can, the M52/M54 series engines are bombproof, and while the 328i auto isn't fast, the 330ci with light tuning does 0-60 in about 5.4s, definitely not slow for the great economy it gives.

If you're a BMW enthusiast, get into the online communities (the E46 community dwarfs TRF dramatically) and use an indy shop for servicing, you'll spend your life laughing at people that think BMWs are expensive to maintain or are a nightmare outside of warranty, and thank them for paying the depreciation hit for you.

Here's my pair, just buy it ;)

Some truth to this statement that the E46 is less complex and therefore less costly. Don't be fooled though, they still are more expensive to maintain than the "average" car. If you are an enuthiast and can do your own repairs you can save a lot of money. Few people have that time or ability though.
I've owned 3 Bimmers and they all cost money. To be fair they were all a joy to drive, especially when under warranty.

[dsio]

Originally Posted by crew

Some truth to this statement that the E46 is less complex and therefore less costly. Don't be fooled though, they still are more expensive to maintain than the "average" car. If you are an enuthiast and can do your own repairs you can save a lot of money. Few people have that time or ability though.
I've owned 3 Bimmers and they all cost money. To be fair they were all a joy to drive, especially when under warranty.

Well thing is, lets say a sunroof shade got stuck, happened to a friend of mine, was quoted $1800 for a new sunroof cartridge plus installation at the dealership. He then spent $16 on a new sunshade clip, watched a youtube video, then spent an hour installing it. Now he's a successful guy, but he doesn't make $1800/hour, by installing a clip after watching a video instead of paying the dealer, he's $1784 ahead, while a stupid person would have paid the money and then complained about how expensive the car was to fix. The car wasn't expensive to fix, you just need to be intelligent enough to think before handing your credit card over to the dealership, or better yet, never set foot in one.

[crew]

Originally Posted by dsio

Well thing is, lets say a sunroof shade got stuck, happened to a friend of mine, was quoted $1800 for a new sunroof cartridge plus installation at the dealership. He then spent $16 on a new sunshade clip, watched a youtube video, then spent an hour installing it. Now he's a successful guy, but he doesn't make $1800/hour, by installing a clip after watching a video instead of paying the dealer, he's $1784 ahead, while a stupid person would have paid the money and then complained about how expensive the car was to fix. The car wasn't expensive to fix, you just need to be intelligent enough to think before handing your credit card over to the dealership, or better yet, never set foot in one.

True that.
As always, buyer beware.

[rickyslam]

I have a 2005 Z4, haven't driven it much, only has about 23k miles. I usually only drive it when my other car is down. I don't drive it as much as I should cuz I'm scared of repair costs. I'm already spending too much on my 20 year old Nissan.

[taughtmepatience]

It is imperative to be able to work on the car yourself if you want to own an older BMW or Mercedes. I have a lot of experience... my wife owns a 2003 BMW 325. It been pretty reliable but if I didn't work on it, repairs would have probably totaled over 3k at the dealership.
I owned a 1994 E420. Even indy repairs would have been too much to handle. These cars become money pits real quick even when you can do the work yourself. I finally had to sell it when the evaporator developed a leak. The Mercedes book time on the job was 20 hours (no way in hell I was able to do that myself) and it was going to cost over 2k to replace.

[nick c]

BMW

[Paladin]

Originally Posted by dsio

TBH that's utter nonsense, there's nothing that's going to go wrong on an E46 328i that costs anywhere near that. For the record I own an E46 '98 328i auto and a '00 330ci manual 300k KMs on the 328i and 135k KMs on the 330ci.

In the time I've owned it the 328i has cost me an idler pulley ($250) a window regulator (free from a wrecker and a breeze to install) and regular servicing my my local indy shop. The 330ci hasn't cost me anything but servicing and tyres, both of which are cheaper than my brother's 2011 Toyota Hilux.

Everything that can go wrong on an E46 is documented, and fixable, go manual if you can, the M52/M54 series engines are bombproof, and while the 328i auto isn't fast, the 330ci with light tuning does 0-60 in about 5.4s, definitely not slow for the great economy it gives.

If you're a BMW enthusiast, get into the online communities (the E46 community dwarfs TRF dramatically) and use an indy shop for servicing, you'll spend your life laughing at people that think BMWs are expensive to maintain or are a nightmare outside of warranty, and thank them for paying the depreciation hit for you.

Here's my pair, just buy it ;)

very nice pair!!!!! As numerous TRF members have said, the E46, particularly with a manual transmission, is a very reliable platform in the 3 series liniage at IMHO combines the ideal balance of technology/reliability/drivability!!!

If you do opt for a slush box (automatic), look for a car that has less than 70,000 mi and have the "lifetime fill" transmission completely serviced. If not,expect to replace/rebuild between 120k and 160k miles.

I have my eyes outdoes super clean exceptional low milage e46 coupe with manual transmission to use on the track/autocross.

[dsio]

Originally Posted by Paladin

very nice pair!!!!! As numerous TRF members have said, the E46, particularly with a manual transmission, is a very reliable platform in the 3 series liniage at IMHO combines the ideal balance of technology/reliability/drivability!!!

If you do opt for a slush box (automatic), look for a car that has less than 70,000 mi and have the "lifetime fill" transmission completely serviced. If not,expect to replace/rebuild between 120k and 160k miles.

I have my eyes outdoes super clean exceptional low milage e46 coupe with manual transmission to use on the track/autocross.

Its not bad at all for that purpose, the E46 330CI has far more serious brakes than you would expect, better than E36M and only slightly behind E46 M3 and the manual box is a straight carry over from the E36 M3, great shifter feel and highly capable.