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BMW Questions..... My First Car? Maybe, Probably Not
- Thread starter ipodtouchy333
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Enjoy it.
Well unlike some of the people on here, I can actually speak from experience. When I turned 16 and got my license, I was driving an Isuzu Trooper. I learned on a 1989 Honda Prelude with a stickshift. So by the time 16 comes around (assuming you already did all your training) you already do know how to drive. Within a year I saved up and got a 1997 328is (circa 2001). It is a wonderful car. Yes, what people say is true that it takes a lot to maintain. Trips to the shop are pretty costly, but if you find a reputable European car shop, you'll save a lot more money than if you take it to the dealership. I dont know what kind of financial situation you are in, but if you can afford it, I say go for it. Since its an older car anyways, whats wrong with having it as a first car? (not all young drivers are bad drivers, I still havent been in an accident) I know for a fact that if I wasn't driving a car that could handle and get out of potentially bad situations, I would have been in a lot more accidents. If you get a 1997 car thats in good shape its already at least 10 years old. Keep it for a few years and once the upkeep is more than the value of the car...use that for a down payment for a new car. That's what happened to me and now I have a new 328is. People automatically attach BMW with spoiled. Its an older car, perfect to get experience with. Save money for repairs and save money for a new car later down the line. If you do well in school,which is most important, get whatever you want. A car is your ticket to adolescent freedom, have fun and be safe.
p.s. I'm waiting for everyone to call me spoiled and rant about how you dont need an expensive car.
Well unlike some of the people on here, I can actually speak from experience. When I turned 16 and got my license, I was driving an Isuzu Trooper. I learned on a 1989 Honda Prelude with a stickshift. So by the time 16 comes around (assuming you already did all your training) you already do know how to drive. Within a year I saved up and got a 1997 328is (circa 2001). It is a wonderful car. Yes, what people say is true that it takes a lot to maintain. Trips to the shop are pretty costly, but if you find a reputable European car shop, you'll save a lot more money than if you take it to the dealership. I dont know what kind of financial situation you are in, but if you can afford it, I say go for it. Since its an older car anyways, whats wrong with having it as a first car? (not all young drivers are bad drivers, I still havent been in an accident) I know for a fact that if I wasn't driving a car that could handle and get out of potentially bad situations, I would have been in a lot more accidents. If you get a 1997 car thats in good shape its already at least 10 years old. Keep it for a few years and once the upkeep is more than the value of the car...use that for a down payment for a new car. That's what happened to me and now I have a new 328is. People automatically attach BMW with spoiled. Its an older car, perfect to get experience with. Save money for repairs and save money for a new car later down the line. If you do well in school,which is most important, get whatever you want. A car is your ticket to adolescent freedom, have fun and be safe.
p.s. I'm waiting for everyone to call me spoiled and rant about how you dont need an expensive car.
I actually am getting black on black with limo tint on any of the two I get
I love that look.
Get something you don't mind crashing. ~$8k on a first car is silliness. I bought a 89 Geo for $600, learned how to do donuts in the snow, and how to shift without a tachometer. Then I bought a nice Jetta. You really need to look at mileage and history of care too. That Geo died at 89k miles. That Jetta was purchased with 90k, but ran like a dream without any major work until 150k. BMW usually keeps high prices even with high miles, I have found.
Actually, for a beginning driver, not having a lot of "oomph" is not a bad thing...a power limited vehicle means that the chasis (suspension, handling) is more capable than the motor, so you're more likely to be able to "get out of trouble".
BTW for the OP, the 318ti is a 2-door BMW hatchback. I test-drove ...and nearly bought... a 318ti back when they first came out; my hangup at the time was that it ran on Premium gas and that the motor design was 'square', which made its output more peaky than my VW Scirocco, which had a 'stroker' motor, which provided more lower/midrange torque.
At 16 I probably wouldn't recommend it, but then I was young too when I got my first. Your insurance will be, erm, high
This is a good point all the way around: make sure that you get some basic insurance quotes for the different options you're considering, before you make a final decision.
The risk of an expensive fender-bender is not insignificant. And European cars will tend to be more expensive to maintain and repair. And yes, the 318ti (as well as all BMWs) run on premium gas.
Buy an older BMW if you don't give a **** about reliability and the maintenance costs that go along with it.
I would never recommend a decade old European vehicle. Electrical problems will be abundant and those bits are not cheap to fix or replace.
We all have individual personal preferences ... and expectation-based biases.
For example, in the USA, we believe that a car should go 100,000 miles needing nothing more than gas and oil changes and zero attention to its needs.
But the general European philosophy of car care is different than in the USA: they expect that you will actually pay attention to your car (instead of neglect) and you'll find & take care of its little problems before they become big ones.
As such, while it does expect more TLC along the way, if you do so, its going be reliable and last for a long, long time...but if you treat it like an American car, it is probably going to be unreliable and expensive.
In general, the reliability trap on all used cars are the electronic options .. stuff like power windows, etc. This doesn't have has much to do with brand as it has to do with some models being more high-end and thus more loaded down with options, since the main culpret here is that the 12v system in automobiles isn't electronics-friendly.
To make a long explanation short, its power supply fluctuation that is what fries automotive electronics, and a stepping down 12v to 5v is only a 2:1 change, so dirty incoming power goes out pretty dirty. But if you standardize on a higher system default voltage ... IIRC, they've been talking about 42v ... then the voltage stepdown is ~10:1 (and basically is inductively dampened), which makes for cleaner power and fewer electronics problems.
-hh
I know this post is a year old..but
I have to put in my two cents... the e36 M3 is the most baller a$$ car ever, get one as soon as possible and make sure that its yellow. Iv had one for 6 1/2 years,97' with 200,000 miles on it, and it still drives like the day that i bought it. Whatever the cost difference is f it...pay it.. at any age. dont listen to anyone.. its not too much car for anyone at any age.. almost every car goes 100mph, and thats enough to kill you, so why not get there as soon as possible. By the way, the cost difference is minimal in a freakin honda (thumbs down) and a M3, maby an extra 150$ for shocks and struts all round, but you only do that every 80,000 miles. So if you want to go home everynight and j off, go buy a honda or a VW, if you want to have threesomes in your backseat, get an M3. period.
peace (M3BMW)
I have to put in my two cents... the e36 M3 is the most baller a$$ car ever, get one as soon as possible and make sure that its yellow. Iv had one for 6 1/2 years,97' with 200,000 miles on it, and it still drives like the day that i bought it. Whatever the cost difference is f it...pay it.. at any age. dont listen to anyone.. its not too much car for anyone at any age.. almost every car goes 100mph, and thats enough to kill you, so why not get there as soon as possible. By the way, the cost difference is minimal in a freakin honda (thumbs down) and a M3, maby an extra 150$ for shocks and struts all round, but you only do that every 80,000 miles. So if you want to go home everynight and j off, go buy a honda or a VW, if you want to have threesomes in your backseat, get an M3. period.
peace (M3BMW)
Can you even fit three people in the back of an M3? (I mean the real one, not the lame-ass 4 door).
OP, forget a Bimmer and grab one of these:
I personally can't stand that car.
About a year ago now, my father bought a '99 528i for £2500, which is an amazing deal, especially since the original owner kept it in brilliant condition. A week ago, there was a small incident where my father had stopped in traffic, but the car behind didn't notice anybody had stopped and carried on travelling.. straight into the back of the BMW.
That's all the damage that the BM took, yet the repair is going to cost... Well, more than £2000.
Considering the value of the car is only about £3000, that is a hefty repair price. But, I guess that's BMW for you.
Yeah the E39 and E46 are great looking cars. Those were the days when you went into a BMW dealership and told them whether you wanted a small, medium or big version of their car as the 3, 5 and 7 were just different sized versions of each other. Then Chris Bangle came along and spoiled things slightly. The looks of the E90 3er and the E60 5er does eventually grow on people but I still remember the horror when the new 7er which Bangle penned was launched. In my opinion, the only decent looking cars Bangle was responsible for was the Z4 and the E92, everything else was too much.
In relation to the original question, 16 is way too young to own something like an E46 M3. I have an E46 M3 which I adore but it's not cheap. The cost of insurance is insane (especially as I live in London). Petrol in the UK is also incredibly expensive (over GBP1/litre now). But it's the obscene maintenance costs which really hurt. While they are ridiculously cheap to buy now (even more so if you don't mind buying the many E46 M3s out there that have been crashed a few times or raced/neglected by the numpties who owned them), you will almost certainly pay the price of the car again in maintenance, insurance and petrol in just a few years of ownership.
In Europe most of the cars are FWD and almost everyone learns in a FWD car. All BMWs are RWD (except of course the X cars) so that's usually another reason a new driver here in Europe would be advised to avoid BMWs as first cars especially some of the older ones such as E30s which have no traction/stability control to help keep you out of trouble.