Are BMW 3 series that unreliable and expensive to maintain as everyone says?
luxury cars american made
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Mitch
Ive been wanting to get a 2000-2002 used 323i BMWs. the problem that I am having is that everyone says that they break down and are to expensive to own. But they are ranked the most reliable over in the UK. How expensive are we talking ?compared to a japanese or american made car? Can you fix it yourself to bring the cost down? Ive been hearing people say that they are money pits, while others say they are not that expensive as long as you treat them well and dont run over speed bumps at 50mph. haha?
Your thoughts, advice and expertise would be much appreciated.
Answer
They are reliable, until your transmission goes like mine and it costs more than the car to repair.
Awesome car if you have money, not if you have $10,000
heres a reposted story i posted on another askers question:
I'm 18, i bought my first car 8 months ago, a BMW 323i from 2000, it had an automatic transmission it costed me 5000 CAD with taxes and everything included and it had 220,000km on it. It was clean had a sport package and M5 rims which are goodies for a car guy like me. I had a lot of fun with it it drives amazing and grips the corners like a racecar because it had near perfect 50/50 weight distribution and low centre of gravity. The power (168bhp in the 2.5L) was lacking but it got me going, even went 220km/h on the highway with it and back down to 0 safely and smoothely. It got me girls and popularity at high school but all thats great until the true side of the car came out. At 232,000km, I got the infamous no-reverse problem for the car. ITS REALLY COMMON. Im a car guy so i opened the tranny up and replaced the solenoids, not a big deal, cost me around 300 bucks for parts (costs bout 400 in labour but i did it myself) , before that I had a coolant leak straight from the radiator so i had to replace that aswell but i changed it to a Koyorad for $1000, so it was an upgrade and fix at the same time. BMW = Breaks my wallet, was coming true for me especially that it used more gas than my dads 08' Sienna. Now for the worst part, i was stuck in traffic on the highway and fumes started coming out of my engine bay, i pushed the car to the side on my own in 5'oclock traffic, and had it towed. The problem was that the whole clutch assembly, the torque converter, everything was completely burnt out. I found out later that it was quite common aswell, I am unable to fix it because the parts cost 2500+ and are too hard for me to attempt to fix on my own, the whole transmission is 5300 from Bmw which is more than my car and i can't find any salvage transmission off of used cars because its really rareto find one that fits your exact car for a fair price.
Needless to say my car is sitting infront of my house not moving for 4 weeks now. Why did this all happen? a couple of things went wrong that can happen to any part on this car:
I left my parker lights on overnight, my battery died, i boosted it and drove off.
Big mistake
The GM transmission found in my car (thats right i said General Motors as in Chevy) is a weird hydraulic electric one, if there is not enough power feeding it, it will self destruct. i was not running full power because i simply jump started my car rather than recharging the battery. One little mistake costed me a potential 5000 bucks.
That and a hundred little things like the super-overpriced paint when you scratch your car coming out of a parking space, or faulty hazard light button made in mexico have taught me to stay away from older german/swedish/italian cars until i have a full time job and can pay for all the incredible expenses.
what i would suggest is to finance a brand new car, like a Scion FR-S/Subaru BR-Z and sell it right before the warranty expires. I wish i would have known what was waiting for me when I bought a BMW for 5k. Luxury is expensive and there is no way of getting around that
And to answer your question, carfax is the absolute least important thing when considering to buy this car. Stay away from it and youll keep your wallet
One more thing before i go:
Cadillac recalled the exact same transmission but BMW didn't
They are reliable, until your transmission goes like mine and it costs more than the car to repair.
Awesome car if you have money, not if you have $10,000
heres a reposted story i posted on another askers question:
I'm 18, i bought my first car 8 months ago, a BMW 323i from 2000, it had an automatic transmission it costed me 5000 CAD with taxes and everything included and it had 220,000km on it. It was clean had a sport package and M5 rims which are goodies for a car guy like me. I had a lot of fun with it it drives amazing and grips the corners like a racecar because it had near perfect 50/50 weight distribution and low centre of gravity. The power (168bhp in the 2.5L) was lacking but it got me going, even went 220km/h on the highway with it and back down to 0 safely and smoothely. It got me girls and popularity at high school but all thats great until the true side of the car came out. At 232,000km, I got the infamous no-reverse problem for the car. ITS REALLY COMMON. Im a car guy so i opened the tranny up and replaced the solenoids, not a big deal, cost me around 300 bucks for parts (costs bout 400 in labour but i did it myself) , before that I had a coolant leak straight from the radiator so i had to replace that aswell but i changed it to a Koyorad for $1000, so it was an upgrade and fix at the same time. BMW = Breaks my wallet, was coming true for me especially that it used more gas than my dads 08' Sienna. Now for the worst part, i was stuck in traffic on the highway and fumes started coming out of my engine bay, i pushed the car to the side on my own in 5'oclock traffic, and had it towed. The problem was that the whole clutch assembly, the torque converter, everything was completely burnt out. I found out later that it was quite common aswell, I am unable to fix it because the parts cost 2500+ and are too hard for me to attempt to fix on my own, the whole transmission is 5300 from Bmw which is more than my car and i can't find any salvage transmission off of used cars because its really rareto find one that fits your exact car for a fair price.
Needless to say my car is sitting infront of my house not moving for 4 weeks now. Why did this all happen? a couple of things went wrong that can happen to any part on this car:
I left my parker lights on overnight, my battery died, i boosted it and drove off.
Big mistake
The GM transmission found in my car (thats right i said General Motors as in Chevy) is a weird hydraulic electric one, if there is not enough power feeding it, it will self destruct. i was not running full power because i simply jump started my car rather than recharging the battery. One little mistake costed me a potential 5000 bucks.
That and a hundred little things like the super-overpriced paint when you scratch your car coming out of a parking space, or faulty hazard light button made in mexico have taught me to stay away from older german/swedish/italian cars until i have a full time job and can pay for all the incredible expenses.
what i would suggest is to finance a brand new car, like a Scion FR-S/Subaru BR-Z and sell it right before the warranty expires. I wish i would have known what was waiting for me when I bought a BMW for 5k. Luxury is expensive and there is no way of getting around that
And to answer your question, carfax is the absolute least important thing when considering to buy this car. Stay away from it and youll keep your wallet
One more thing before i go:
Cadillac recalled the exact same transmission but BMW didn't
Do luxury cars have good gas mileage and last long?
iTech17
I was looking for a car for the max price of $5000 and is a good car for starters and I saw Mercedes Benz and jaguar and Acura and etc.. Are there any good luxury car brands that last long.l I'm looking at used cars so it would help of you tell me which year I should look into, thanks.
Answer
By the time any of these cars get down to the 5000 dollar price range they will have already lived their design life expectancy. Parts will be expensive and difficult to find. More so with the cars that originate in Europe. Buyers of luxury cars tend to trade more often, so the car makers are only worried about the car lasting through two owners. They also tend to be "loaded" and those accessories are a big source of trouble.
Of the ones you mention Acura would be the best to purchase. It shares a lot of parts with the cheaper models made by the same company. Lexus is another one that should have better support.
But cars by Benz, BMW and Jag often do not have very many parts that are found on other cars. Some years of Jag do have a lot of Ford parts. But Jag just could not get with the Ford engineering model. They (Jag) want a car that needs a factory trained mechanic to keep it running and Ford Motor Company thinks warranty costs for repairs are avoidable when a car is built right.
If you are not down on American products consider a Mercury or Lincoln.
By the time any of these cars get down to the 5000 dollar price range they will have already lived their design life expectancy. Parts will be expensive and difficult to find. More so with the cars that originate in Europe. Buyers of luxury cars tend to trade more often, so the car makers are only worried about the car lasting through two owners. They also tend to be "loaded" and those accessories are a big source of trouble.
Of the ones you mention Acura would be the best to purchase. It shares a lot of parts with the cheaper models made by the same company. Lexus is another one that should have better support.
But cars by Benz, BMW and Jag often do not have very many parts that are found on other cars. Some years of Jag do have a lot of Ford parts. But Jag just could not get with the Ford engineering model. They (Jag) want a car that needs a factory trained mechanic to keep it running and Ford Motor Company thinks warranty costs for repairs are avoidable when a car is built right.
If you are not down on American products consider a Mercury or Lincoln.
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