Quote:
Originally Posted by Britbimmer
While the argument for keeping a vehicle for a long time and running it into the ground, seems like it make economic sense at first pass, I personally would never risk this with a BMW. I bought a 335i in 2009 and I loved it so much I wanted to do just that - hang on to it long term. The car was upgraded with Dinan chip and exhaust, and was very maintained by a very good garage. I had the oil changed every 5000 with synthetic and performed all the routine maintenance and had extra things done to keep the car pristine.
I eventually traded the car in 2017 for an M240 with about 120k miles on in, but I honestly think I kept it far too long. The car cost me thousands every year once out of warranty, replacing things because of the poor quality of BMW Engineering on the car. FOr example I think I had 4 or 5 maybe more (??) high pressure fuel pumps, the first 2-3 were under warranty, but the rest on my dime. THe turbos also needed replacing because a part was wearing a hole in them, losing boost... I think it was the blowoff mechanism that uses an arm that wears a groove in the turbo body.... anyway, I had pages and pages of receipts for work most of which coincided with the end of the warranty at 50k miles. ( I am sure BMW do a thorough ROI on how long to cover under warranty, and things start going wrong soon after - you start paying out at 55k)
The lesson I learned is that although I love the way BMWs drive, the engineering is not as strong as it used to be, and I would be reluctant to keep a BMW into its old age, the way I did with my 335. 120k miles on the clock is not that much by modern standards, but I would say that I was paid about 8k for fixes the last year of ownership and Sevaral thousand for the 2 or 3 years prior, and the economics of that don't make any sense vs a car payment.
Because I LOVED that 335 I keep thinking - if I just spend a bit more on this 'one thing' then it makes sense to keep it another year.... the cost of fix X being better than that car payment if I buy a new car at 50k plus....However, there was always another thing, particularly once I got close to 100k miles, and so my 335 simply become a money pit and it never paid me back.
I am having an ongoing love affair with my 240, which also has Dinan Tune and CAI, and I feel that engineering on these cars is better than the 335 - for example it uses zero oil, whereas the 335 sucked Mobil 1 down like whiskey at an Irish wake from week one.... I am also lucky in that I now work from home, so my mileage is lower, but I still wonder how long to keep this car once it goes out of warranty.... if it starts costing big bucks, I will probably trade it vs risking the doubling down on a losing hand I did in the 335...
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Thanks for the insight. In many ways I was trying to figure out a tipping point of when getting a new car particularly getting out of my x1 would be a justifiable financial decision and your post hit it well.
It seems like the tipping point in the calculation is really occurring sometime around year 7 right when you see signs of significant out of warranty repairs yet there is still enough meat on the car to fetch a decent resale price.
I'd like to think that even if money was not an option it's important to be pragmatic and be somewhat financially responsible when making these decisions. I mean i know someone is going to come in an say why not just buy a $10k used japanese car then that will be the best bang for your buck in terms of getting you from point a to point b. More so my point of view is, how can i best make the math work best without removing BMWs cars in that similar price range from the equation.