Quote:
Originally Posted by champignon
I think it's the part about budgeting for repairs no matter how wonderful you think the car is, which is *somewhat* original.
My 2000 Z3M coupe was a single owner car with around 58,000 miles on it when I bought it 3 years ago. The owner was a married lady whose husband had bought it for her as her birthday gift 15 years earlier. It came with an accordion case containing receipts from every oil change, service, brake pad change, battery change, etc. etc. etc. that it had ever had. I got a PPI at the local dealership, and a walk through with a mechanic while on the lift, and this guy was very familiar with this car and with E36s in general. He pointed out pitfalls (some of which I knew of) like the subframe floor which can come apart in these cars (not in mine).
Anyway, during the first 2 years I had to replace the clutch, certain parts in the manual shifter, and the entire window washer system which itself was almost a $1000 repair. Totaled I have spent at least $3500, closer to $4000 on this "perfect," single owner car.
Old BMWs are expensive to own, and you can pretty much expect that anyone selling one has stopped doing elective work on the car for the last year or two (or longer) of their ownership.
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I generally agree with your position. Old cars will always need work, low or high miles. Though low miles cars usually need different work than high miles, they all will have age or miles related issues.
Just curious, do you do your own work, or have it done? That can dramatically effect the cost of repairs.