Should You Buy a Cheap Used Luxury Car?
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Date: 2022-02-21
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Comments and reviews: 9
Christian
This is a super important video that I think a lot of younger people should see. Speaking from experience, it took me two years to find an old, manual, RWD BMW (I eventually bought a 2002 E39 525i 5MT, but the process of finding it took nearly two years. I spent countless hours searching different websites, reading forums, watching repair DIY videos, and learning the nuances of different engines and model years. Then, like Doug mentioned, there's saving the money to actually MAINTAIN the car. In the 11 months that I've had it, it's been nearly flawless, but that's only because it took so long for me to find the right example. I hope my experience serves as an example to other young people that you don't have to be stuck with a Toyota Camry or a Honda CRV if you don't want to, but you need to be willing to put in the extra time and effort if you end up going the other route.
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This is a super important video that I think a lot of younger people should see. Speaking from experience, it took me two years to find an old, manual, RWD BMW (I eventually bought a 2002 E39 525i 5MT, but the process of finding it took nearly two years. I spent countless hours searching different websites, reading forums, watching repair DIY videos, and learning the nuances of different engines and model years. Then, like Doug mentioned, there's saving the money to actually MAINTAIN the car. In the 11 months that I've had it, it's been nearly flawless, but that's only because it took so long for me to find the right example. I hope my experience serves as an example to other young people that you don't have to be stuck with a Toyota Camry or a Honda CRV if you don't want to, but you need to be willing to put in the extra time and effort if you end up going the other route.
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dingonaut
The only thing more expensive than a new german car is a used one.
I own a 2007 bmw 550i 6spd for going on 7 years now. Bought it at 28k with 35ish miles. It's at 156k to date. I'm at 66k spent into this car including purchase price.
I love the e60, don't think this is an attack. It's a real cost of ownership though. You need disposable income or DIY or it will break ur bank. And you.
I would do it all over again to because it's that good. In hindsight I should've bought the m5 e60 but the 8 is good enough.
Just understand you will pay and you will always pay. The only defense against this is making whatever german car ur weekend special. It will space out all the eventual maintenance / repairs you have to do.
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The only thing more expensive than a new german car is a used one.
I own a 2007 bmw 550i 6spd for going on 7 years now. Bought it at 28k with 35ish miles. It's at 156k to date. I'm at 66k spent into this car including purchase price.
I love the e60, don't think this is an attack. It's a real cost of ownership though. You need disposable income or DIY or it will break ur bank. And you.
I would do it all over again to because it's that good. In hindsight I should've bought the m5 e60 but the 8 is good enough.
Just understand you will pay and you will always pay. The only defense against this is making whatever german car ur weekend special. It will space out all the eventual maintenance / repairs you have to do.
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turnne
Well. let me tell you from personal experience. All of the luxury car dealer service departments in the last 25 years are connected to bringing in the money. They can always find something that you need and simple things like a new factory battery can be a ridiculous price
They tend to just replace parts versus try to fix something. In fact they will keep throwing parts at it until the problem goes away. Fine if you are in warranty. but out of warranty its scary
Even a factory dealership sometimes fails to be able to diagnose issues correctly
The public knows this and cars like the Mercedes S class and BMW 7 series drop significantly in value after the warranty period is up
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Well. let me tell you from personal experience. All of the luxury car dealer service departments in the last 25 years are connected to bringing in the money. They can always find something that you need and simple things like a new factory battery can be a ridiculous price
They tend to just replace parts versus try to fix something. In fact they will keep throwing parts at it until the problem goes away. Fine if you are in warranty. but out of warranty its scary
Even a factory dealership sometimes fails to be able to diagnose issues correctly
The public knows this and cars like the Mercedes S class and BMW 7 series drop significantly in value after the warranty period is up
reply
bhongtastic
Exactly - there s a big difference between buying and owning a used luxury car. Most anyone can buy a used AMG. But you re gonna need the additional money to own it - meaning pay for the inevitable repairs. The repairs on my 2007 ML63 included a rebuilt transmission, front right shocks and new brakes. Aside from general maintenance, it cost me around 11K for all of those repairs to make it healthy enough to own for the next 60K odd miles. I bought it for 25K, so all-in I m just over 38K on it, but it was about 100K new so it s a pretty nice ride and I love driving an early generation 500HP performance SUV that oozes classic luxury, style and V8 SOUND.
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Exactly - there s a big difference between buying and owning a used luxury car. Most anyone can buy a used AMG. But you re gonna need the additional money to own it - meaning pay for the inevitable repairs. The repairs on my 2007 ML63 included a rebuilt transmission, front right shocks and new brakes. Aside from general maintenance, it cost me around 11K for all of those repairs to make it healthy enough to own for the next 60K odd miles. I bought it for 25K, so all-in I m just over 38K on it, but it was about 100K new so it s a pretty nice ride and I love driving an early generation 500HP performance SUV that oozes classic luxury, style and V8 SOUND.
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Houseof
There are still people out there who have this misconception that the cost of replacement parts is supposed to go down with the cost of the car. Hilarious. On a car BMW no longer supplies parts for four years after BMW ended production on the car.
How about E39 M5's that are getting close to 100k miles for ridiculously cheap prices? Most people don't realize these cars are approaching their Schedule II maintenance. Look up E39 Schedule II maintenance. Also be aware that the S62 V8 is an M engine that requires a specialized set of tools and maintenance skills to properly maintain. This can easily exceed 10k. How is that bargain looking now?
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There are still people out there who have this misconception that the cost of replacement parts is supposed to go down with the cost of the car. Hilarious. On a car BMW no longer supplies parts for four years after BMW ended production on the car.
How about E39 M5's that are getting close to 100k miles for ridiculously cheap prices? Most people don't realize these cars are approaching their Schedule II maintenance. Look up E39 Schedule II maintenance. Also be aware that the S62 V8 is an M engine that requires a specialized set of tools and maintenance skills to properly maintain. This can easily exceed 10k. How is that bargain looking now?
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GARGANCHUA
I recently bought a 2014 BMW 335i that only had 16, 000 KM. A week in, the engine had issues with over heating. (more like a day in but I didnt realize what was going on. it costed me over 4 grand to repair a car I had only owned for a week. previous to this I had a 2013 Mitsubishi Lancer. after 4 years and 70k km, the total amount I spent in maintenance and repairs would not even come close to a week of owning the BMW. I go to car meets in real life and one thing a friend of mine said recently that stuck with me.
there is nothing more expensive than a cheap German car
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I recently bought a 2014 BMW 335i that only had 16, 000 KM. A week in, the engine had issues with over heating. (more like a day in but I didnt realize what was going on. it costed me over 4 grand to repair a car I had only owned for a week. previous to this I had a 2013 Mitsubishi Lancer. after 4 years and 70k km, the total amount I spent in maintenance and repairs would not even come close to a week of owning the BMW. I go to car meets in real life and one thing a friend of mine said recently that stuck with me.
there is nothing more expensive than a cheap German car
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GiancarloFXBBTx.
I worked for a classic German auto shop and I can t tell you how many of these cheap luxury cars people would buy and not realize how much it was gonna cost to maintain the vehicle. Some people have been surprised by bills that cost more than the car that they just bought. The best advice Doug gave his do your research. I ve had a few of these types of cars myself and I ve never had issues because I m able to repair and get parts myself before I initially purchase a car I do a lot of research.
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I worked for a classic German auto shop and I can t tell you how many of these cheap luxury cars people would buy and not realize how much it was gonna cost to maintain the vehicle. Some people have been surprised by bills that cost more than the car that they just bought. The best advice Doug gave his do your research. I ve had a few of these types of cars myself and I ve never had issues because I m able to repair and get parts myself before I initially purchase a car I do a lot of research.
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autos
A huge from Brazil, here in my country a lot of people buy luxury car and can't do the correct maintence, for example, bmw series 8, 7, 5 / mercedes class e, s, gla and etc, and the audi's, the a6, a8 for example. A lot of people buy this car from 90' until 2010 because its cheap but the cost of maintence are the same thing of the age this cars were launched is very expensive.
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A huge from Brazil, here in my country a lot of people buy luxury car and can't do the correct maintence, for example, bmw series 8, 7, 5 / mercedes class e, s, gla and etc, and the audi's, the a6, a8 for example. A lot of people buy this car from 90' until 2010 because its cheap but the cost of maintence are the same thing of the age this cars were launched is very expensive.
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Jesse
I'd like to see something from Doug like a 101 Starter Guide for HOW to research reliability. I get that Google exists. but where is the best information centralized? Who do and don't you trust? If you like cars but don't spend any real time studying them or the industry (that's me, where can you assimilate the most reliable information in a timely manner? Things like that.
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I'd like to see something from Doug like a 101 Starter Guide for HOW to research reliability. I get that Google exists. but where is the best information centralized? Who do and don't you trust? If you like cars but don't spend any real time studying them or the industry (that's me, where can you assimilate the most reliable information in a timely manner? Things like that.
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