Slightly off topic question for you flu, since you know more about bmw’s than anyone I know. I’m car shopping and bmw is one of 5 vehicle on my short list. It’s not for my daily driver, so milege and maintenance isn’t a huge consideration, but the cost of maintenance on bmw’s scare the crap out of me. I had a mercedes in the past and it had the same problem, everything cost 2-3x what it would on another car. I couldn’t get a $40 costco battery, I had to pay $120, headlights, same delio.
Is there a cheaper way around this, are certain mechanics and dealers just jacking up the price or do the parts cost that much more? I was talking to one salesman who was clearly trying to steer me into a 5 series, instead of a 6 or 7 and he alledged the maint cost on the 7 and especially the 6 was almost double that of the 3 and 5. Does that make any sense to you or was he full of crap?
I’m a big dude, 6ft, 200, the c class and 3 series are just uncomfortable. I like ragtops, the 6 convertible circa 2004/5 at about 30k is my #1 choice. MBZ clk ragtop is a little smallish but still has a reasonable backseat. The mbz cls is also a beauty, I’d go hardtop for a cls, cause it looks like a 6 but has 4 doors. The smart 30k would go certified pre-owned on a lexus or infiniti and the absolute smartest for me would be an acura TL because they actually have an acura dealership in town, but I don’t want to be smart.
Warranties are a bit of a waste for me because I put 5k mi a year on a car and I keep them a while. I still need 4 seats. What would you do, would you buy a 5 y.o BMW with say, 50k miles on it, what are your thoughts on the 6 series? I saw a great 6 convert for less that 25k that had a 100k miles on it, so tempting but scary at the same time, i really dont like spending thousands at the shop for stuff that would cost a few hundred on any other car.
