Keep the car or be responsible?

  • Thread starter Thread starter mbavaria30s
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mbavaria30s

mbavaria30s

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Alright, guys and gals, I've hit a responsibility conundrum involving whether or not to buy a more practical car. A bit about me, first.

I love BMWs. First car: '74 Bavaria 3.0s. 2nd Car: '72 Benz 220d. 3rd car: '93 318i, put lots of mods on it and learned about cars in general with her. Blew out the subframe, so I sold it and moved to my current car: '01 330ci.
All manuals, of course.

Sadly, the 330ci was in an unreported accident that I didn't deduce until well after purchasing the car. I've had it just over 2 years and, of course, the price on these cars has tanked. Ends up the whole car has been repainted (poorly) and clear coat is starting to bubble off. I've also had to replace a bunch of items that were definitely out of standard service intervals. I do as much as my own maintenance as I can, but that only saves so much. It's ended up costing waaay more that my mother's '01 325i in maintenance, and though I love to drive it, it's beginning to seem like it's selfish or irresponsible or even stupid to keep it.

Of course, now I'm addicted to 200+ ftlbs of torque.

Anyways, I'm coming up on my 1 year anniversary with my wife, I'm still 2 years until I get out of school with a degree, and while we will have no kids, we do have a puppy :D Life's changing. Getting an older, cheaper car is out of the question (wife's edict :( ), so it'd have to be low miles and new/near new. Also means lower-power, less fun.

Then again, I've replaced a lot of the stuff and spent a lot of money on the BMW already, it might be good over the hump. I just don't know what to do! Plus, I don't even know if I'd be happy in a newer car in my price range.

Any sage advice?
 
Newer Civic Si or Acura TL/TSX? Plenty practical, but still offer decent fun. Ford and Chevy have really turned around in their quality lately, if that's not too new and expensive for your budget. Fusion, Taurus, Malibu. I haven't been paying attention, but maybe the G8 has dropped in price since Pontiac was killed off? There's some BMW-level power for the middle class. Probably isn't all that great on fuel though!
 
Couldn't you just buy a newer 3 series? Seems that's what you love and you just have a lemon, as you said.
 
But going for another secondhand 330 would be trading your problems for SEPs (someone else's problems)... unless your experience with the 3 has made you an expert on everything that can go wrong... :lol:

Lots of decent new metal in reach of that budget, either new or slightly used. Depends on how low you want to go, but there are a lot of nice sport compacts available in the two or three year old range in that price... MS3 comes to mind...

Not a terribly practical car... but fun. :lol:
 
wait till it gets to the point you end up needing a minivan :P

the term "older cheaper car" is relative. your not gonna get much help till we find out what the budget is. actually, I'm having a heck of a time picturing a beamer in Tennessee at all. it's weird enough seeing them up here.

I know finding "low miles" up here would be nearly impossible. even bargin-binners with 150k plus on the clock and pushing 15 years old are selling for 6-8k. anything 2 grand or below is usually about to disintegrate :P
 
Is it likely to cost anything major in the near future? If you've already sucked up the deferred maintenance, then I would keep driving it, don't worry about the crappy paint, and wait for it to need something big-ticket. Its value has flatlined at a low level so you will not get much back out of it now. Keep driving it until doom comes to meet it.
 
Duke
Is it likely to cost anything major in the near future? If you've already sucked up the deferred maintenance, then I would keep driving it, don't worry about the crappy paint, and wait for it to need something big-ticket. Its value has flatlined at a low level so you will not get much back out of it now. Keep driving it until doom comes to meet it.
Click to expand...
Right. You've already spent the money on it, so getting a new car and therefore having to make payments would be the irresponsible thing to do. You should do whatever costs you less money in the long run, and that will be keeping this 330 until it dies, unless it's going to die soon.
 
It's very true. I suppose it's mostly "can I trust it anymore?" High mileage doesn't bother me at all. Spending a weekend working on it doesn't bother me, either. I suppose I was trying to balance out "sunk cost" vs "new, thus dealer warranty."

Thanks for the opinions :D
 

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