Thread: WAAAY off topic - Any BMW gurus here?

I have always bought slightly left of centre cars, except for a few Jap cars I owned that were faultless but insanely boring. So I know where you are coming from: buy the Beemer (I love their motorcycles and won't ride anything else) and enjoy. Make friends with o/seas parts suppliers and a BMW forum and maybe be prepared to do some of your own spannering.

Have you thought of a Benz? I owned a W124 E-Class, there are plenty around cheap and parts are not that expensive if you know where to look. That car was the best built and most reliable car I have ever owned, and it cost me $5000. It had 177,000km on it, and had less rattles and felt newer than my 90,000km-old pampered Disco II does. It just got too small for a family car, otherwise I'd still have it and no doubt it would outlast me.

If you are like me, you would prefer to catch a train than own some boring car - there's no point. May as well use the money to buy a decent washing machine, a bicycle and a train pass than waste it on Jap crap. Honestly. Let's face it, even a faultlessly reliable car is not free to obtain or free to maintain. They all cost money. So in for a penny, in for a pound I say. Go for it. Now I'll go put on a flamesuit.

Originally Posted by Tombie2

the 325i was the nicest of the small ones....

But servicing and upkeep was still rich compared to other makes and models.

Alright, I took another 316i for a test drive today and yeah it was pretty sluggish. I suppose I'll look into the 320i and 325i's and see where that takes me.

Originally Posted by 4X4V8

Have you thought of a Benz? I owned a W124 E-Class, there are plenty around cheap and parts are not that expensive if you know where to look. That car was the best built and most reliable car I have ever owned, and it cost me $5000.

I have heard that the benz's were pretty good to maintain but i'm not too keen on the appearance of the older models.

Thanks for the input though!

Just to bring this little story to an end... I bought a 1996 BMW 318ti.
120,000km on the clock.

Looks very stock and clean mate. Hope it treats you well.

Congrats on your purchase.
I have not had time to post until this morning. You will enjoy the drive. I was going to suggest a 5 series, (much cheaper than a 3 series), as we had one (purchased 2nd hand) for 5 years until we traded it in for an X5.
There are some good used parts places in Melbourne. There is a good wreckers in Williamstown which specializes in BMW, Mercedes models. Also there is BMW spares in Dandenong. Little things like window winders tend to break, but second hand, they are quite reasonable.
Enjoy your new ride.

Ken