New-to-me Car; Opinions and Suggestions?

[bimmerman]

I'd shy away from the BMWs at those prices, despite my user name, unless you either DIY or hate money. Really, any newer german car. Reliability is poor (w/r/t electronic gadget components. Mechanically, usually solid) and the newer gens really aren't DIY-able like the older stuff (shockingly, right?). If DIY isn't your bag, and you have the money to keep them going, then yea get the 535xi. That motor's a champ. I would skip the 235i-- it's the worst handling 2, sounds like poop, is a ///M for Marketing car, and is RWD when AWD is the goal. For that cost, get the 535xi, throw a JB4 at it AFTER fixing the laundry list of issues it'll have, and buy a beater miata or e36/46 with the remaining cash. That way you have a badass winter machine (points if 535xiT with three pedals) and a fun summer/project car if that's of interest.

 

Or.....what about a Subaru? Leggy GT or WRX/STi hatch are awesome, if you can get past the fisher price interiors and ride quality. I think they've fixed their head gasket issues and ringland issues after '10.

 

I used to daily drive my E36 M3 in snow with studded snow tires. It was great fun.....IF you are comfortable controlling slip since it had no traction control. My old Subaru on snows was so much better and more surefooted it wasn't even funny (especially after throwing sway bars on it....so much fun rallying everywhere). AWD is definitely worth it for a wintry area, but please put real winter tires on the car regardless of drive axle(s). I had two sets of wheels for years-- sticky summer fun time rubber and sticky winter fun time rubber.

 

Or, SRT8 Jeep and laugh your way through any obstacle, rain/mud/snow/sleet/dry. That, at least, you can fix with three pennies and some pocket lint at Autozone.

 

Finally......I'd highly dispute the 'german cars suck' point so much as 'german cars need regular maintenance which costs more money than you'd expect'. A honda that you can run out of oil, these aren't. My E36 has been bombproof but I've also fixed and preventatively replaced stuff before it fails (eg, cooling system, known weak point on the platform). My E36 hasn't had any random fuck-you-that's-why failures, but cheap to keep going these last 10 years it also has NOT been. I've learned a ton about DIY-ing repairs though because of that car, and so on balance, entirely worth it. Plus it's a blast to drive.

[atxcyclist]

5 hours ago, Pauleft said:

Lol you know how many parts Europeans cars have in us. American cars break wayyy more frequently and that will be a pain.

That is why my car and my motorcycle are both Japanese makes. I've owned several old American cars and put a lot of time into fixing them. That said I still want an old Jeep again, but that's purely for fun and wouldn't be a daily driver; Been there and done that already.

[SenKa]

Why must it be so new, out of curiosity?

[Pauleft]

26 minutes ago, atxcyclist said:

That is why my car and my motorcycle are both Japanese makes. I've owned several old American cars and put a lot of time into fixing them. That said I still want an old Jeep again, but that's purely for fun and wouldn't be a daily driver; Been there and done that already.

Thats exactly my point

[harryk]

Forget all the nonsense about which brands are more reliable etc. If it breaks you fix it and move on.

 

Test drive as many of the models you can and decide which you like best. All the cars you listed will be great just find which one suits you best.

 

Re: AWD for Snow

It really doesn't matter. What does matter is the tires you put on and the number one upgrade to any car, the driver.

 

 

[dizmo]

7 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Yeah it's the rubber compound that makes the biggest difference - my winter tires are excellent, yet the winter tires on my fiancee's car aren't great (they don't grip well when stopping suddenly in snow) - yet both of our tread wear is basically non-existent.

 

Why would the OP need locking diffs, etc? @dizmo, are you planning on doing off roading, or driving on snowed in roads that have been closed down during a blizzard?

Sounds like they were just bad tires. Or perhaps you were driving it in a way that the traction control was fighting you, rather than helping you?

Haha, most definitely not. Hell, we don't even really get lots of snow here most years, it's just frigidly cold, with the roads basically being made of hard pack snow. I've been in a friends 2018 Colorado ZR2, and it was nice, but not at all what I'm looking for right now. And out of budget.

7 hours ago, Blademaster91 said:

The resale value on European cars drops so much for a reason.

Sure some American cars break down a lot, avoid the low end crap from Dodge and GM,and the rest are usually more reliable than most European cars. A few European cars may be easy enough to fix but in general haven't been simple to fix for quite a while. If I had to pick any Euro brand, and if SUV were an option, probably Mercedes ML350 as those are reasonable to do basic maintenance on.

Haha, and you think the values of American cars don't depreciate at the same rate? They drop at about the same rate, you just pay more for a European car so it seems like it's more. The rates are realistically the same. The MLs are nice, but I'm not really looking for an SUV. I'd probably get a BMW diesel if I was.

7 hours ago, SnowWolf370 said:

Audi parts are REALLY expensive, even as they age. Especially computer related stuff.

Realistically I'll only own the car for a few years and then I'll get something else.

5 hours ago, bimmerman said:

I'd shy away from the BMWs at those prices, despite my user name, unless you either DIY or hate money. Really, any newer german car. Reliability is poor (w/r/t electronic gadget components. Mechanically, usually solid) and the newer gens really aren't DIY-able like the older stuff (shockingly, right?). If DIY isn't your bag, and you have the money to keep them going, then yea get the 535xi. That motor's a champ. I would skip the 235i-- it's the worst handling 2, sounds like poop, is a ///M for Marketing car, and is RWD when AWD is the goal. For that cost, get the 535xi, throw a JB4 at it AFTER fixing the laundry list of issues it'll have, and buy a beater miata or e36/46 with the remaining cash. That way you have a badass winter machine (points if 535xiT with three pedals) and a fun summer/project car if that's of interest.

 

Or.....what about a Subaru? Leggy GT or WRX/STi hatch are awesome, if you can get past the fisher price interiors and ride quality. I think they've fixed their head gasket issues and ringland issues after '10.

 

I used to daily drive my E36 M3 in snow with studded snow tires. It was great fun.....IF you are comfortable controlling slip since it had no traction control. My old Subaru on snows was so much better and more surefooted it wasn't even funny (especially after throwing sway bars on it....so much fun rallying everywhere). AWD is definitely worth it for a wintry area, but please put real winter tires on the car regardless of drive axle(s). I had two sets of wheels for years-- sticky summer fun time rubber and sticky winter fun time rubber.

 

Or, SRT8 Jeep and laugh your way through any obstacle, rain/mud/snow/sleet/dry. That, at least, you can fix with three pennies and some pocket lint at Autozone.

 

Finally......I'd highly dispute the 'german cars suck' point so much as 'german cars need regular maintenance which costs more money than you'd expect'. A honda that you can run out of oil, these aren't. My E36 has been bombproof but I've also fixed and preventatively replaced stuff before it fails (eg, cooling system, known weak point on the platform). My E36 hasn't had any random fuck-you-that's-why failures, but cheap to keep going these last 10 years it also has NOT been. I've learned a ton about DIY-ing repairs though because of that car, and so on balance, entirely worth it. Plus it's a blast to drive.

I've read up on it, and most of the stuff that goes wrong on the 535i is pretty easily done DYI. I also have access to a lift and a full shop via a friend who works on base.

 

Haha, yeah I was probably going to JB4 or RaceChip it eventually. After exhaust, intake, down pipe, charge pipe.

 

There's another M235i xDrive that's not much more, but it didn't come with winters, and really, the winters would make more of a difference. Still, at twice the price of the 2011 535i, it was further down the list for sure.

 

Not a fan of the newer Legacys, they're too Camry like, and the GT only comes in stick. Same with the STI and the majority of the WRXs that are available.

Absolutely no interest in getting a manual car.

 

Realistically I think the car that makes the most sense is the $11k 535i. It has decent maintenance history, and at that price, I likely won't lose a great deal of money when it comes time to resell it in a few years. Maybe $1k, maybe a touch more.

3 hours ago, SenKa said:

Why must it be so new, out of curiosity?

Financing.

 

[Guest]

Don't get a Subaru. The Beamer or the Acura hands down. More so the BMer. 

 

Don't bother about European reliability, they are perfectly fine cars if you look after them well. Its just in some places parts can be expensive. 

[zassou]

idk about luxury cars but for me 11k usd for a 5 series is quite a good deal. bmw is fairly reliable other than the leaking fluids.

 

also keep an eye on the insurance stuff.

[dizmo]

10 hours ago, floofer said:

Don't get a Subaru. The Beamer or the Acura hands down. More so the BMer. 

 

Don't bother about European reliability, they are perfectly fine cars if you look after them well. Its just in some places parts can be expensive. 

Yeah, if you look around you can generally get parts cheaper. Just like if you own a Lambo of Ferrari. Things like fuel pumps are generally made by another company, and then marked up drastically. So you can get an $1,800 fuel pump for about $250, it being the exact same thing, made by the same company, just without the logo or name stamp. Plus I enjoy working on things.

1 hour ago, zassou said:

idk about luxury cars but for me 11k usd for a 5 series is quite a good deal. bmw is fairly reliable other than the leaking fluids.

 

also keep an eye on the insurance stuff.

It's Canadian...
It has high mileage for the city it's in, most cars have about 60k less. But, that works to my advantage, as I can probably get them even lower price wise to move it, and where I live now, cars have much higher mileage for the same year, so when it comes time to resell it, it holds a much higher value.

[Psittac]

Luxury cars have luxury upkeep.  Out of all of those I'd go with the Acura because it's honda based and reliable.  Audi/VW is very expensive to repair

 

Have you thought about a subaru?

[dizmo]

3 hours ago, Psittac said:

Luxury cars have luxury upkeep.  Out of all of those I'd go with the Acura because it's honda based and reliable.  Audi/VW is very expensive to repair

 

Have you thought about a subaru?

Subaru doesn't make anything in my budget that I'd want.

Most of the maintenance isn't that bad, especially when you're doing the work yourself.

I'd consider the Acura more if it was a 2018 with the A Spec package, but again, out of budget.