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Sedans BMW 3-Series BMW 3-Series 2005 and earlier
29979 messages, Last post on Aug 25, 2008 at 8:34 PM
You are in the BMW 3-Series Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
| Its got an automatic (yuk) and about 110,000 miles. How reliable are older BMW's? If it was an Accord with this many miles I wouldn't worry, but I don't know much about BMW. | |
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Heck I would worry about any car. I'm continually amazed at the people who run their car into the ground without taking car of it. I had two high mileage, high age cars, one American, one Japanese and both nickeled and dimed and dollared me to tears. I would expect the BMW not to be so fussy. Although I have to say it both were reliable, I was tired of replacing all the parts that started to fail from age. |
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For an H-rated tires, I would expect them to last much more before becoming noisy or having to replace them. Granted they were not on BMW, but I got 60,000 miles out of V-rated tires on my Integra and H-rated on Accord. Michelins I had on both were quiet and performed until I replaced them. For a RWD with negative camber and softer compound w/y/z tires, perhaps 20,000 is about what you can get. BTW, H-rated tires are used on most cars these days, V and above are on so called "performace oriented" cars. I believe BMW with SPP have w-rated tires, which is even softer than the V-rated ones. |
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| Wow, sounds like there is another Michiganer in the house. Aldubya, could you tell me if you get all your maintenance done at the dealership? I have a 1998 BMW 528i and it is up for its inspection 2. I called Erhard BMW in Farmington Hills, since they are 3 miles from my job. They told me that an inspection 2 would cost me $1200. That is pretty ridiculous if you ask me. I called around and found out that the Auto Doctor, a repair shop that works on European Autos exclusively, will do it for $500. That is much more reasonable if you ask me. | |
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Slightly OT, but I lived in Farmington Hills and was born in Livonia... Been a while tho. -Paul |
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| Where do you live now, somewhere warm I hope. I keep telling myself I will move to a state where there is no snow, but in a sick sort of way, I love seeing all 4 seasons. I hate winter the most, but I do like to ski if I get a chance. I would love to move to a warmer climate, i.e. California like my best friend, but I am too cheap. Even though I know I would make more money, I couldn't justify spending so much for a house, and gas, and clothes and other things. Call me a cheap skate, but hey, I like the thrifty midwest. | |
I live in SoCal now, but in the mountains where I get snow.  I want to take the 3er skiing (I have an xi), but I suspect we will end up taking our Jeep - more space and a higher clearance. -Paul |
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Copy of letter sent to BMW NA
To: BMWNA
Dear BMW Representative,
I respectfully request that you buy my 2000 BMW 323i VIN# back from me. It has been very problematic.
February 2000: Rear differential replaced twice for a whining noise.
At this point in time I moved from the Army base in Heidelberg, Germany to Oxford N.J. In Germany, the dealership that serviced my car was called Auto-Kocher, Am Taubenfeld 39, Heidelberg Germany 69123. I have some of the service records for after the one year Euro warranty ran out. The first year they kept all the records of the failures.
When I get back to the U.S. with my wonderful souvenir from Germany it continues to fail regularly. Now the servicing dealer is either Hunterdon BMW of New Jersey or Allentown BMW of Pensylvania. Here is the list:
October 2001: Front windows rattle, seals replaced
Please feel free to contact either or both of the dealerships to corroborate these fixes. The car has been fixed so many times I probably lost track of a few.
As you can plainly see, this car is a lemon. I cannot, in good conscience, sell this car to some unsuspecting individual. Therefore, I feel it is your duty to give me fair market value. I have spoken with an attorney who specializes in automotive lawsuits and he assures me this is a fair request.
Regretfully disappointed,
BMW NA called and after swearing they would look into it stopped returning my calls. Beware new buyer, check epinions.com and read some of the poor reviews. |
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mseals... You should ask that dealer exactly what all he is doing. My local BMW dealer, Markel BMW, also quotes a high price. But when you look at what they are doing, they are doing way MORE than either Schedule 1 or 2 service as recommended by BMW. You see a lot of BMW dealers doing this, or at least I see the complaints about such behavior in letters to publications like Roundel, Bimmer, etc. And not just BMW dealers. Lots try to do this. Even for simple LOF. Think the key is to get the price quote after telling the dealer you only want exactly what BMW specifies for Schedule 1 or 2. No additional services. For example, if it says "Inspect" something, just inspect and not automatically replace. |
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| fjm1... Why not include your comments from the Edmunds forum here, the one titled BMW 325 vs the World? BMW might want to know about all the flogging of that sucker. Maybe the flogging contributed to the problems? Is one reason I don't flog automobiles. (Isn't it Paul Harvey who talks about setting forth "the rest of the story"?) | |
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