2001 bwm bad investment?

cary schellie

Active Member

• Aug 5, 2013

• #1

I need a car asap and there is a mint 2001 BMWi sport for 5000, I got enough to buy it cash but if something major goes wrong with it im screwed , I don't got thousands for repairs. Should I just buy another beater that I need to keep dumping money into. I heard nothing but great things about BMW, BTW 166,000 miles. Any advice welcome. I know it cost a fortune for parts

 

devn00b

Active Member

• Aug 5, 2013

• #2

166k miles isn't much from a bmw. Stripped down my track e30 ('85 325ES) after 300k hard miles could still see the machine marks on the cylinder walls. Repairs will be expensive as hell if you cant do the repairs yourself. If you are even moderately handy there are GREAT resources online for how to do the repairs yourself, and a great 2nd hand market for cheap parts, and even sites that carry non-oem. 5k Sounds fair, is it an auto/stick? Auto might want to think twice unless its had a rebuild recently, the auto tranny is a beyoch to fix and my wifes went @ about 150k.

 

F

fg2020

Active Member

• Aug 5, 2013

• #3

Even though they have factories in the US, none of the German car companies has proven to be successful in proportion to the size of the German economy. This is because their cars are designed to only be serviceable at a German car dealership. You get reamed on parts due to same. The local repair shops in my area will perform repairs on all foreign cars EXCEPT the German brands. That used BMW is cheap for a reason. Save yourself some trouble and buy a Japanese car.

Look up the car model on carsurvey.org

 

Turtwig

Member

• Aug 6, 2013

• #4

Or if you like them at all, you could buy a Volvo. They are rock solid, especially the older ones. You can get one that won't need any repairs for less than $2000 easily. The 240 model is great, they go well past 300k and beyond. And if something major goes wrong, you can always get another one haha.

 

qwizoking

Well-Known Member

• Aug 6, 2013

• #5

Don't do it man, I've had 3 bmws over the past 20 years...they all had serious electrical issues and were just a pain in my ass.

 

T

tibberous

Well-Known Member

• Aug 12, 2013

• #6

I'd say no - for 5 grand you can get a car with less than 30,000 miles (not even shitty ones, look at cavaliers or a crown vic's), the fact it's a bmw doesn't really mean shit at this point.

 

blacksun

New Member

• Aug 13, 2013

• #7

I had a buddy that had a cavalier. Wheels constantly squeaked. Could barely have the windows open long enough to smoke a cig. If I owned that car I would have driven it off a cliff and collected the insurance money.

 

aknight3

Well-Known Member

• Aug 16, 2013

• #8

theres a saying for bmws...B.M.W. - Break My Wallet.


that should be enough answer to this question. either way, good luck