Wife's wanting a Beamer-- either a 3 or 5 Series 4-door sedan, 90's to early-00's.

We won't be looking for anything "certified" or 3-years old or less... It'll be a BMW under $10k.

Sooo...

I've been a Ford man all of my life, and I know nothing about a BMW-- need someone to shed some light on them for me.

What is there besides the "ordinary" that I need to look for?

We're going to try and find a dealer with at least a few so that we have a selection and see just which one feels "right"...

Thanks for any input!

 

Don't know anything about BMW's but we did have a Saab once and it was an expensive car to get parts for... Try to find one you won't have to worry about doing any major work on for a long time...

 

As my BMW-owning/leasing brother-in-law says, "B-M-Trouble You".

They are great cars to drive, but the repair costs are high. And you are looking for a high mile, older job to begin with.

If you want to have the BMW experience, lease a new one. At least you'll be driving it for your money.

 

Don't do it............Gal I knew HAD to have a older 325i.......Waterpump went out 2 months later, $525 just for the PUMP!, labor took the job close to $1,000.
After 2 more similar $$ hemorrhaging events, the beemer was gone in less than a year, replaced by a Dodge product (she never learns).

 

Well, that's what you get for dealer parts. Mercedes and VW are just as bad. Parts actually aren't that bad at the mainstream parts stores and online.
I would love to get a 90s 5series wagon. Especially if I could find a manual one.
BMW did seem to use higher quality components than other German brands, especially in the areas of door handles and window stuff. Electrical connectors still sucked, but were better by the 90s. The connectors don't seal well and give some corrosion problems, so it may be possible to pick one up with issues that can be solved by just taking your time and cleaning connectors.
BMWs have historically had some valve carbon buildup issues, I know there is a special procedure to fix this via walnut shell blasting.

 

Thanks for the input, folks.

I found a good article this morning-- BMW E46 - BimmerWiki

I read through it, and it has a lot of good information. Sounds like overall they're good cars, but they do have their quirks. I don't mind quirks on the American or Japanese brands-- it's the European stuff that scares me.

After a good talk with her, we've decided to just wait and see what comes along. We have three vehicles, and I've been quite the "wheeler-and-dealer" here lately. I bought a '91 Miata last year as a 3rd vehicle and traded it twice-- once for another Miata and then for an '05 Taurus. I have the Taurus for sale now just so I can put my F150 back on the highway. Once it sells, I think we're just going to keep a half-opened eye out to see just what's out there and not be in a rush about it.

Every BMW that I called about yesterday for $6k-$7k and under had lights on and other problems, which wasn't a big surprise or anything. It seems as if it's going to take $10k-$12k for a decent one, and when you get to that price range, there's other things we'd like to have.

Thanks again!

 

Yeah dude, $12k isn't going to cut it for a BMW. You'll have to spend at least $16k for one that you could reliably use as a DD.

If you're (she is) dead-set on a luxury Deutsch motorwagen, go with Audi or Benz. Here is my reasoning for this recommendation:

-BMW likes to experiment with auto design, and the result is that stuff is unnecessarily difficult to work on.

-Benz parts are easier to get, Audi parts easier yet because half of them interchange with the Passat (a fairly common car at least where I live).

-As MB is considered more "upscale" than BMW, the older models are generally better-maintained because they were owned by people who could actually afford the upkeep on a luxury car.

-BMW is the least reliable of the three major German luxury brands to begin with.

Seriously, though? Buy a Town Car. Just as luxurious and prestigious as BMW, if not more so; and it costs very little to own.

 

Got any hard facts to back that up?

BMW Win Fleet News Reliability Award

 

LMS: No, I don't have any numbers to back that up. My statement is based on my experience of working on them and having sold parts for them.

Apparently BMW did win this award recently, which I found out thanks to you. However, we're not talking MY 2013 cars, we're talking 10-15 year old cars. I am well aware of the fact that since 2006, German cars have been very good reliability-wise, but this was far from true 10-15 years ago. Just like Ford once had poor reliability and now is near the top, things come in cycles and the range of years I suspect the OP is looking at happened to be in a bad one. I realize numbers would be better than hearsay, but there is not and cannot be good reliabilty numbers for 15-year old vehicles that were primarily non-fleet.

 

Yeah, it slipped me that he's looking used.

 

And I'm sorry for the both of my bombastic replies. I've gotten rep from you, I should be nicer!!

 

There's a general rule in the used car business that anything (special cases excepted) nearing ten years old isn't something you want to bother with. The dealer I worked with preferred to flog such things at auction. (All brands!) Great experience and now I'm utterly cynical about buying and selling vehicles.

Foreign luxury brands, however good, don't usually go high at dealer auction because they are expensive for dealers to fix if they have problems. That's why they are often shined up then dumped at auction in the first place.

If I went insane and wanted an expensive foreign-brand car (though BMW make many in the US now) I'd track down a private sale from an owner who clearly loved his/her ride.

 

Either lease a new or certified one or forget it. I bought a six year old 325i for $13k in 1999 and it was a god car for me, with lots of mechanic skills. I would never put a wife or daughter in one, never. It broke down way too often. With the internet, parts prices are not as bad as you think, but you cant go down to NAPA and get anything beyond filters.

 

I just bought an 05 Volvo S40 T5, turbo'd with a 6 spd manual. Paid $8,500 for it, extremely clean and well kept. Had 110,000 miles, now has 118,00 trouble free miles. Very solidly built and parts aren't THAT expensive compared to a BMW. I just replaced a passenger side motor mount (took all of 30 minutes) and it cost $85 shipped.

Sill nice, looks classy and good reliability. Plus it's really got some get up and go to it.

 

Mercedes of the 90s were a low quality horror, by the consensus of several Mercedes enthusiast boards. The only worse ones are the M series.
I don't think I'll ever own another Mercedes, but if I do it'll be another W126 or a W123 300TD if I can find an all-manual euro version.