BMW most expensive brand to maintain?

[az3579]

Remind me in 9 years and 9 months and I'll come back to this thread and say if it's accurate or not. I can tell you from looking at the previous owners maintenance ledger that he didn't spend anywhere near $17k at the dealer from the past 12 years

Conversely, I know a couple of people who spend a good 2 grand on their cars every year to year-and-a-half. One is an E83 X3 and the other is an E90.

[johnrando]

Think about things like this: how many cars you can turn the rotors and just do brake pads? In BMWs, you buy whole new rotors. As well, little things like oil changes are indeed cheaper on Hondas and domestic cars than on BMW's & Euros. It all adds up. But, with a DIY E46 that certainly changes the equation doesn't it.

And take Aston Martins for example, when they were owned by Ford, Ford added a lot of process Improvement to their build practice. So now, even though they are hand-built, they are much more efficiently and more accurately built to spec and therefore more reliable.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[704sw]

Conversely, I know a couple of people who spend a good 2 grand on their cars every year to year-and-a-half. One is an E83 X3 and the other is an E90.

E83 owner checking in: this car would've ruined me without the extended warranty I bought from the dealer. Sunroof drains, the shit-tastic GM transmission, transfer case, and sunroof cassette failure are all known failure points on top of the regular N52 issues. It drives so well when it's right, but I will never buy another AWD vehicle because of that car.

[Vas]

Most people do not DYI. I bought an e46 just for the fact that I would be able to do repairs myself and parts are easily purchased.

I can see that it would be expensive to maintain with dealer visits especially with the new cars.

[dpark]

Remind me in 9 years and 9 months and I'll come back to this thread and say if it's accurate or not. I can tell you from looking at the previous owners maintenance ledger that he didn't spend anywhere near $17k at the dealer from the past 12 years

I am a relative newbie here, and I'm at work, not at some so I don't have access to all my maintenance records, but just on tires alone, I have to be at close to $4k since I have my e46 (not spending top $$$ on tires anymore). Oil changes 2x/year at $200/year (rounding up from $89 just to be easier), that gets to $2k (subtracting for free oil changes during first 4 years and the oil changed during inspections) that alone gets you a third of the way there. When you add in brake jobs, FCABs, several Inspection 2s and then new fuel pump, alternator, cooling system refresh, spark plugs at 100K etc. not hard to see getting to $15K easy.

Rough math, and I could be wrong on some costs (just working off of memory)

Assuming 12k miles per year and nothing need repair other than major wear and tear items:

New set of tires every 2 years: $1000 (so in 12 years = $6000)
2 oil changes per year $200 (so in 12 years = $2400)
Inspection every 5 years @60k miles $600 (so in 12 years 2 of them for $1200)
Brakes every 30k miles rear, 45k miles front at $450 each (for 12 years $1800 for fronts, $1350 rears, $3150 total)

$12,750 for service and wear and tear items (everyone will need tires and brakes).

Throw in a few problems, $17k isn't a huge stretch (FCABs, alternator, fuel pump, FSR, VCG, cooling system, batteries, wiper blades, windshield washer pumps)

[hickatew]

Just subscribing to see what other people say about frequency of maintenance on brakes, tires, cooling, etc.

[BMWM3186]

Conversely, I know a couple of people who spend a good 2 grand on their cars every year to year-and-a-half. One is an E83 X3 and the other is an E90.

I can see that one the newer ones with growing complexity, I considered a 335 but wanted to avoid it for the reason that the e46 is probably cheaper to keep on the road.

As far as normal wear and tear maitenance I don't see how it would be significantly more than another similar type vehicle. Minus the fact that these cars probably have more bushings to wear out than something like an accord. Also the cooling system in the BMWs don't seem to last as long but unlike Hondas they don't have the $1k timing belt replacement every 100k miles so that doesn't set the cost for the bmw back much. I can't speak for brake rotor/pad life either as I haven't had the car that long, but the brakes on these cars are larger than a lot of small SUVs so wouldn't that equate to less wear overtime as they are under less stress? Not sure. I'm sure my e46 will cost more to maintain than something like an accord but 4 times as much seems like a stretch. Then you add in the factor of stuff breaking and the equation becomes more complicated. If you want to go by this
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...tudy/98239954/ that puts bmw only 11% below Toyota in the rankings for issues and places them above Honda. Frankly I don't think any of these surveys are accurate, lots of them tell completely different stories.

[mercury26]

I did not see Porsche on the list, maintaining my 1982 911SC was WAY too expensive. Let alone trying to find CIS injection parts that they do not make any longer (and the rebuilt are crap). A big reason I sold it two years back.

[cakM3]

I call BS on this list.....there, I said it...


Sent from my iPhone6S using Tapatalk Pro

[Garagebound]

Where's the list that ranks by driving enjoyment?