doubletwist t1_jd2ql0s wrote on March 21, 2023 at 12:44 PM

Reply to comment by Chaosr21 in Hailo bins: 40 years old (left) and 1 month old (right) by xKobito

>My last 3 cars have been German made, still haven't had an engine shit out on me.

And in 30+ years of driving, I've never had a Japanese engine die on me either. Even my super cheap 200SX, which I put almost 200k miles on and drove the piss out of for 8 years. In that time, I replaced the O2 sensor, the alternator, and an engine mount bolt. Not counting consumables like oil, brakes, clutch and tires, I spent less than $1000 total in unplanned maintenance on that car.

Still, my story is just as anecdotal as yours.

That said, I'd love to have a BMW, but I've been too terrified to actually buy one. I test drove a used 5 series (stick shift) once. It drove like an absolute dream and was the smoothest shifting I'd ever experienced.

Unfortunately (or fortunately for my wallet) when I took it to a BMW mechanic for a pre-sales inspection, he pointed out a bunch of stuff that was wrong with it that would very quickly end up costing me thousands to fix, even at an independent shop. Including very weird but simple/basic things that I'd never even heard of failing on a Japanese car.

And any time I look at a BMW forum, is full of 'I love this car, but a, b, c, and d failed and it cost $hoogoob to fix", for things that would've been a) not failing on a Japanese car and b) hair the price to fix in the unlikely event that it did.

Though I'd still buy the shittiest German car before I ever spent a dime on an American car.

Fiyanggu t1_jd335lt wrote on March 21, 2023 at 2:20 PM

BMW is fine if you take care of it as intended. You can’t drive it around with the dash lit up like a Christmas tree like you can with a Japanese car. Also depending on how you drive diesel may be more reliable for you. If you do a regular weekly or twice weekly 40 min freeway run you’d fit the bill for diesel. Diesel engines are more liable. If you intend to run around town with it then diesel is not for you. Also if you can do your own wrenching a lot of the repairs aren’t too bad. You can also hang around the FB forums and get to know local home garage enthusiasts who can help you with some repairs. The dealer is a rip off. But the performance and drive feel of a BMW is much better than most other cars. You have to drive them to understand.

Chaosr21 t1_jd3ecfs wrote on March 21, 2023 at 3:36 PM

BMV isn't as reliable as VW. They're both expensive to fix and maintain, but if you take care of it you won't have to fix it much at all. Besides brakes and oil, just keep up on that. They'll both do good in good hands.