BMW newbie, thinking about buying my first...

[Wask]

Oops, posted this in another forum too...

Noob here. Will do some searching, but have some general questions about buying a used BMW and the pros and cons to it. Since there seems to be a lot of knowledge around here, I figured this was the place to come.

I set out in my used car search looking for another Honda. My wife drives around 800-1,000km per week, so we are looking for something used that will go up to the several hundred thousand mile mark (my accord just went 400,000km). Was going to

In my search, I was fooling around and found that I can buy a BMW with the same or less km for roughly the same price.

I am thinking about buying a 1994 BMW 325IS coupe.

It is loaded. Power everything leather, sunroof, 2.56cyl, ect. ect.

Has 128,000km on it.

1) What kind of life expectancy can I expect? Will it go 400,000k like a Honda?

2) With this engine, what can I expect per tank or miles per gallon?

3) Are they reliable or as the miles get higher the repairs?

4) Is it really more expensive to get these cars repaired than other, or is that an urban legened? I had heard the same about Honda, but my Ford was more expensive to fix than my 94 Accord.

thanks for your time...

 

[Big Daddy]

Welcome to the board!

Life expectancy is a directly related to maintainence. Has the car received proper service?

The car should get between 19 and 28 mpg city/hwy mileage.

Just like any car the costs are related to the degree of service. Are you going to change the fluids as recommended? Coolant, brake fluids, trans and diff fluids, etc! If you would do these services regardless than no the cost is no more. But you may have to figure suspension componets could need replacing when you get at the 200,000+ mile mark.

I do not believe repair parts are any more for a BMW than any other car. Most of use buy parts off the net (see our MarketPlace section) and save big time. A lot of us also do our own repairs. IF you are not mechanical it can be expensive. if you go to the stealership!

 

[DSK]

Reliability wise, provided you get a well maintained example, and continue to maintain it, you shouldn't have any problems hitting around 300K with any serious trouble.

Things to look out for in my opinion would be;

1) leaking cylinder head and oil sump gaskets.
2) broken fan blades
3) condition of the suspension
4) condition of the brakes
5) loose interior trim fixings
6) various engine sensors can and do fail over time but they tend to be quite reasonably priced even at BMW dealers!

Other than this they tend to be quite solid. But personally, the older they are, I would have an emissions test carried out prior to purchase to ensure that catalytic converter is fully functional. Also an engine diagnostics test to ensure that all the sensors etc are functioning like they should, as if any one of them is not, it will affect the performance, smoothness and economy of the engine. This will simply help ensure that you don't spend a lot of money on a car and then find that yo have to start spending more on its up keep straight away.

Lastly, as for parts, this is where BMWs excel in my opinion. High quality after market parts are widely available (I am sure its the same for you guys in the USA) and they are very reasonably priced and always put a smile on my face. Here in the UK, we have the likes of www.eurocarparts.com that cater for all the parts for all the german cars wich helps to keeps overall running costs quite pleasing.