[CurbBender'90]

I've been doing alot of research on these beautiful cars, ranging from the 328, 335, to the M3. I've seen numerous arguments about some owners trying to get away from paying for gas(can I put in 89 or 87 ), but nobody's perfect right? So to the original question, over the course for your bimmer what has been the total cost in repairs? The most you had to shell out at once? This soo called No-Cost Maintenance how extensively are things covered? The most embarrassing question, how often did u have to bring her in? Thx for the input n advice.

[raleedy]

So I have a 2008 E92 328i. I got it new (delivered at the Welt in Munich in November 2007 and then redelivered in South Carolina at the performance center in January 2008). I don't drive a lot, so in 4 years and 2 months I've put just 36,000 miles on it, 4,000 of which were for the January drive from South Carolina to Oregon. It's had two oil changes, two sets of wiper blades and two key batteries (one for each key). I had the right-hand (passenger) outside mirror glass and motor replaced under warranty. That's it. My out-of-pocket repair and maintenance costs: zilch. I did buy a set of tires — the original run flats have 26K miles on them and still have some small amount of tread life left. A set of non-RFT summer tires were on for 10K miles, and will be reinstalled when the RFT's are worn.
If you have any questions i'd be happy to try to answer them.

[gatoman39]

under warranty you pay for gas and tires that's it. After that it's a total crap shoot. The more expensive your car, the more complex and expensive it's going to cost to fix.

[alex2364]

The only thing I've had to pay for are tires. Everything else is covered by maintenance the first 4 years.

[CurbBender'90]

So if the turbo was to go out(worst case) that's covered for free as well? Things of this nature..

[gatoman39]

Originally Posted by BMW_Boy7

So if the turbo was to go out(worst case) that's covered for free as well? Things of this nature..

yes. The however, odds of the turbos failing in the first 4 years are pretty low.

[m630]

Originally Posted by BMW_Boy7

So if the turbo was to go out(worst case) that's covered for free as well? Things of this nature..

yes, so long as you did not mod the car or tune it where it caused the damage....

[Ron Scott]

Can some post recent manufacturer and 3-series reliability stats from Consumer Reports?

[jgrasty]

I have no idea how reliable the current F30 will be (I'll find out over the next few years), but my previous BMW, a 2002 325i cost me about $2k repairs after the warrany/maintenance period (36k miles / 3 years for that model) over the 5 years I owned it. I loved that car, and my F30 is even better. All 4 windows broke on the 325i; BMW USA refunded the cost of the parts.

[jtuds]

Mu uncle drove a mid-90s 528i for about a decade and it was great for him until he started to neglect it, then something happened while he was rounding a bend and his steering stopped working, he ended up in a ditch on his side and wore a neck brace for about a month....

But he seriously neglected that thing...for example someone took out his passenger mirror and the glass was exposed and he didn't address it at all...so he drove around with an exposed shard of glass as the exterior passenger mirror, lol

[svache]

We had my wife's 2004 E46 M3 for about 5 years before we got rid of it, hardly any costs for us to fix something although it did almost classify as a lemon with the amount of repairs that were done during the first years she owned it. But like the others also say, the warranty is pretty good. The last year she owned it, she basically got rid of it before any major repairs had to be done, there was a big risk there would be. The only thing she ever paid for was the tires. Same goes with our current car (a 2009 X5), never had to pay for anything except for one tire rotation

[MacAttackBMW]

Originally Posted by m630

yes, so long as you did not mod the car or tune it where it caused the damage....

Fully disagree. I had a 2007 E90 335i and had turbo problem starting at 3000 miles. Would be driving along just fine on the freeway and all of a sudden my 300hp would drop to about 100 and I got an error on the nav that said 'catastrophic engine failure' CLASSIC!!! Long story short, it happened three times between then and about 14K miles. They replaced the turbo, reloaded the firmware, etc. I was finally fed up and I contacted BMW to buy back the car under California Lemon law. They did and I ended up getting every penny back (down payment, all monthly payments, tax, license, two years registration, etc.) all they kept was a small hold back for my use of the car. In California if you have a lemon, they take the original cost of the car, divide by 120,000 and then multiply by the number of miles until the first problem. Essentially I drive the car for over a year for about $1000 other than gas and insurance - everything came back to me.

That said, I left and went to Lexus and was not happy with a 350GS. My new 335i is awaiting a ship. My only advice is, keep documentation on issues and otherwise love the car.

[DrivenByE30]

$600 / month for financing it... (+/- $100 depending on your financial situation)
$100 / month for insurance (+/- 50 depending on your driving record)
$150 / month for gas (at least if not more depending on your driving habit)
=======
$900 total per month
+
$1200 for a set of tires per year (if not more depending on your driving style)
===============
$12,000 / year

that's a rough estimate ... (if not more depending on your tastes)

[iwannabimmer]

Originally Posted by DrivenByE30

$600 / month for financing it... (+/- $100 depending on your financial situation)
$100 / month for insurance (+/- 50 depending on your driving record)
$150 / month for gas (at least if not more depending on your driving habit)
=======
$900 total per month
+
$1200 for a set of tires per year (if not more depending on your driving style)
===============
$12,000 / year

that's a rough estimate ... (if not more depending on your tastes)

$1200 for set of tires per year? Are you serious?

I can get at least 2 years on the same tires, especially since F30's 18s are not staggered anymore (225s all around). And I'm not paying $1200 for tires. A nice set of Continentals ContiExtreme DWS will cost you $636 according to tirerack.com. IMO this is pretty much the best all-season tire. You can have their summer performance tire model for the same price, which is also pretty good. The Pirelli Cinturato P7 All-season RFT are $792 for a set of 4.

And according to the official EPA figures for the 328i and 335i, the cost of gas per month will be between $177 and $191.

So,

$600 for payment/lease per month (+/- 100)
$177 - 190 for gas per month
$100 - 150 for insurance per month
======================
$877 - 940 total per month (+/- 100)
+
< $1000 for tires every 2 years

[svache]

lol you can really see how some figures can be so completely different in each various situation

If I look at my current car, lease+gas+insurance, I pay about $530-$550 per month (I have a VERY low lease cost). With the new 328i, I will only pay about $200-$225 per month

[Reznick]

I just put up a post about owning the E46 I've had for the last 12 yrs and how the cost of ownership wasn't anymore then the rest of my cars. BUT , that's because I do a lot of my own work. Even if you aren't mechanically inclined, you'd be surprised just how easy a lot of the so called "big ticket items" are to fix and how cheap it is to do. Brakes are one of the easiest jobs you can do and I'm talking the whole thing . Rotors ,pads and sensors. Its a job you can do in your driveway with minimal tools. & once you learn to do it once it,it pretty much will apply to all cars, with slight differences.
Sure there will be some things that you can't tackle alone and will have to go in for repairs, but with so many DIY's available on line you can't go wrong at least trying to fix things yourself.If you can manage to do a repair yourself , it will cost you, at most, a 1/3 of what the dealer will get you. Usually a lot less

[cstavaru]

Actually you can find many BMW parts cheaper than for other brands. As long as you negotiate labor prices with independent shops outside warranty and don't just go to the nearest dealership, the running costs are quite low. If you do some of the easy stuff on your own, like changing spark plugs, oil, air filter, cabin filter, brake pads, the costs are even lower. This car is not made to break after warranty, like other brands. I am 1 and a half years past warranty and I didn't need to do anything to the car, other than modding it (knock on wood)

[Maz335i]

Originally Posted by svache

lol you can really see how some figures can be so completely different in each various situation

If I look at my current car, lease+gas+insurance, I pay about $530-$550 per month (I have a VERY low lease cost). With the new 328i, I will only pay about $200-$225 per month

LOL, I'm thinking you paid a huge down payment? $200-$225 per month is absolutely AWESOME!!!

[Mr. ///M3 RD]

Originally Posted by BMW_Boy7

I've been doing alot of research on these beautiful cars, ranging from the 328, 335, to the M3. I've seen numerous arguments about some owners trying to get away from paying for gas(can I put in 89 or 87 ), but nobody's perfect right? So to the original question, over the course for your bimmer what has been the total cost in repairs? The most you had to shell out at once? This soo called No-Cost Maintenance how extensively are things covered? The most embarrassing question, how often did u have to bring her in? Thx for the input n advice.

Well I've owned Bimmers now for 25 years ... my first (535is 1987) is still in the family.

On the 535is normal wear and tear over the years replaced a clutch several break jobs radio antenna ,,, 2 paint jobs (mainly because the car was keyed all around in 2000) the second paint job after replacing 2 front fenders due to poor paint job preparations during the first paint job. I also replaced both the front and rear bumper. After the warranty expired I did most of my own maintenance on this car like oil changes, spark plugs etc. Then I took the car to BMW for adjustment of timing etc.

I purchased my first M3 in 2004 it was a e46 2002 manufacture. Sold it in 2010 ,,, major work on this car was only 2 break jobs and tires. Just before I sold it (part of the pre-sale inspection) I had one rear suspension spring replaced it showed a crack. On this car again I did my own maintenance after 2006.

Since 2010 I only owned new cars all under warranty. So there are no maintenance costs since they are part of the warranty / maintenance plan.

If someone purchased used with say one year or so on warranty left my recommendation would be to ask the dealer (BMW dealership only) what an extended warranty would cost. Doing this might prompt the dealer to very carefully inspect the car (of course I would recommend this also if the purchase is a private one). Doing this serves 2 purposes a) a good inspection of the car and b) provides a good tool for the final selling price. It goes without saying past inspection reports need to be on hand and reviewed.

As for the gas ... on the 2002 M3 I used regular gas then here and then a tank full of premium. I did this based on recommendations from a friend in the oil and gas business. His pint was there is not much difference ... since 2010 on my new cars I only use the Premium Gas.

Hope this helps, good luck.

[SoFlo_Nick]

The only high cost imo is the replacemnt of tires i go through a set in about 15K-20K miles and each tire is like 200 dollars so if you dont have a lot of money to go on dont abuse the tires.


Premium- The cost differences in the end VS 89 and 91OR93 (Yes you won Michel Scoot)
is not going to be significant in the end maybe about 1000 dollars for a term of 3-4 years it worth it bmw recommends 91 use Premium gas

[BigKutta]

I dont have the number on me, but I owned an e46 for 10 years and I believe that car was the lowest cost of ownership. Most years it only needed an oil change. Of course I had a great BMW mechanic do all routine maintenance per the manual so it was looked after well. My previous hondas, acuras, and MB cost me more. Only issue was that by the time I sold it, all the window regulators were gone (known issue with this car)

[darksilkx1]

Originally Posted by MacAttackBMW

Fully disagree. I had a 2007 E90 335i and had turbo problem starting at 3000 miles. Would be driving along just fine on the freeway and all of a sudden my 300hp would drop to about 100 and I got an error on the nav that said 'catastrophic engine failure' CLASSIC!!! Long story short, it happened three times between then and about 14K miles. They replaced the turbo, reloaded the firmware, etc. I was finally fed up and I contacted BMW to buy back the car under California Lemon law. They did and I ended up getting every penny back (down payment, all monthly payments, tax, license, two years registration, etc.) all they kept was a small hold back for my use of the car. In California if you have a lemon, they take the original cost of the car, divide by 120,000 and then multiply by the number of miles until the first problem. Essentially I drive the car for over a year for about $1000 other than gas and insurance - everything came back to me.

That said, I left and went to Lexus and was not happy with a 350GS. My new 335i is awaiting a ship. My only advice is, keep documentation on issues and otherwise love the car.

Relieved you came back to the fold. Against my better judgement I let my wife buy a 2011 GL350 11 months ago. As most married folk here can attest, if you make the wife buy something she doesn't like, every problem with it will always be your fault. So I quietly sat back though I felt an X5 was probably more fun, reliable, and certainly cheaper. The car has had a number of suspension issues they cant identify. Most recent service visit the car was in for 3 weeks and they had to fly in an expert from the 'Bama factory. Close to declaring it a lemon.