Need car advice...badly.

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So, I've run into a bit of a bind.
My car's transmission needs some serious work. They can't really give me a quote because they have no idea what they could run into once they get started. All they told me is to be prepared to drop some serious cash into this if I wanted it fixed.

I've decided not to fix it right now, but instead buy something different.
I do make a decent amount of money being only 17 (about $900 every 2 weeks), but I paintball, mountain bike, and 25% of every check goes into my college fund.
That being said, I don't have a ton of cash to buy a car. I can cool it on paintballing a little bit, and a new mountain bike can wait, but after my college fund and some spending money to get by for a couple weeks, I don't have a lot towards another car. Although, my parents do pay for half of my car, insurance, and repairs. (Don't even start on how I'm being spoiled. I pay for my lunches, paintball, mountain bike, clothes, gas, and on, and on, and on.)

So, what I'm looking for is something around the $6000 price range. I've been driving one of our business vehicles for quite a while, but I can't keep doing it, so I need something cheap and quick.

I looked at a 1993 (I believe) BMW 3-series. The paint was great with no rust, no scratches, and the body work was great as well. It had about 127,000 miles. The interior was leather and was in good condition.
The salesman tells me it is very, very strong mechanically. I haven't had a chance to get in it and take it for a drive, but from what I've seen, it's a nice car.
They wanted somewhere around $5000 (I think that's what he said)

My questions:
How expensive are these things to work on?
How long do they continue to run well?
Gas mileage?
Any major issues a buyer should be aware of?

Any other recommendations would be great. I haven't looked very hard yet, but will do so this weekend.

[personman]

look on autotrader.com
I think you could get a better deal based on the car that I found, I just posted another thread similar to this one actually lol
Im looking for a car for under 6k and I found a 1996 318ti with 71k for 5.9k
I think its a good deal, see if you can drive the price down on the one you're looking at a bit.
Here's a guide

http://www2.nadaguides.com/home.aspx?l=1&w=28&p=0&f=5000

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look on autotrader.com
I think you could get a better deal based on the car that I found, I just posted another thread similar to this one actually lol
Im looking for a car for under 6k and I found a 1996 318ti with 71k for 5.9k
I think its a good deal, see if you can drive the price down on the one you're looking at a bit.
Here's a guide
http://www2.nadaguides.com/home.aspx...=28&p=0&f=5000

Thanks man. Yeah, I just looked at your thread actually. I likey. Looks like a good price, too.

$5000 might seem a little high, so I'll talk to the salesman tomorrow.

Thanks for the link, and good luck!

[PyRo]

How expensive are these things to work on?
How long do they continue to run well?
Gas mileage?
Any major issues a buyer should be aware of?

An alternator is $239 for the part and that's if you have the cheap one, they go up to $289 for those cars. As opposed to about $50 for my cars. So they're pretty expensive to work on. Not to mention I think they like to cram the engine bay which runs up labor costs.

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I talked to the salesman today. After telling me it lists for $5,999, he told me he could do $3800. The leather seats were somewhat worn, and the driver's seat had a tear in it.
The engine looked clean, and sounded like it ran well.

I didn't get a chance to drive it, but did sit in it, and liked the feel of it. I'll go down sometime soon and test drive it.
So for now, I'm not sure what I'm wanting to do. Cheaper is definitely better, but I need something that I won't need to dump a lot of cash into right away. He said I shouldn't have a problem with this. Who knows.

[Lohman446]

The salesman who is selling on commission, has absolute zero mechanical knowledge, and offered no proof tells me it is very, very strong mechanically. I haven't had a chance to get in it and take it for a drive, but from what I've seen, it's a nice car.
They wanted somewhere around $5000 (I think that's what he said)

Corrected for you. Check the maintenance costs / parts availability / etc for your area and that vehicle. I live in the middle of nowhere and these rich little brats cant seem to understand that parts for there Volvo / Beemer are not readily available

If cost is such a factor I seriously advise you to look at decade newer American vehicles. Not as cool I'll grant but you will generally end up with a far more reliable, mainteance friendly vehicle for the same money.

[going_home]

http://www.kbb.com

Corrected for you. Check the maintenance costs / parts availability / etc for your area and that vehicle. I live in the middle of nowhere and these rich little brats cant seem to understand that parts for there Volvo / Beemer are not readily available

If cost is such a factor I seriously advise you to look at decade newer American vehicles. Not as cool I'll grant but you will generally end up with a far more reliable, mainteance friendly vehicle for the same money.

Kelly Black Book dot com .
If you are 17 take your dad or uncle or someone with you.
They see fresh meat when they see a younger person or woman.
Whatever you do dont take your mom.
Someone you trust, better if they are family, thats who you should take.
Dont just get stuck at one car lot, shop around.

My dad passed away last year. He had an 86 Dodge truck with a slant 6 motor.
My oldest son needed wheels so we drove 10 hours and brought it back.
Its not good on gas , and its a beater with no AC, but those slant 6's never die.
And anyone can work on them too.
Good luck

[BeaverEater]

unless you really want a beamer, id stay away from them. They are expensive to repair and being fairly old its going to need repairs. It really depends on what you need your car for. A daily driver id just pick up something cheap and realiable. Look towards like a civic or maybe even a saturn.

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Corrected for you. Check the maintenance costs / parts availability / etc for your area and that vehicle. I live in the middle of nowhere and these rich little brats cant seem to understand that parts for there Volvo / Beemer are not readily available

.

My bad. I probably should have put in a rolleyes smilie. The salesman is kind of a moron, so I'm not going to take any words from him seriously. I'll drive it myself and take either my dad or a friend. I have quite a few who know there stuff.

I took my mom to look at it, and like going home said, that was dumb. I'll take somebody else with to drive it.

I'll definitely shop around this weekend. I just haven't had a chance to since we live in a pretty small town.
I do really like the looks of BMWs and all the luxuries in some cases, but if it means not running into major problems, and having to pay a lot for a said problems, I'll stay away from them.
And if I really have to, I can probably send around $8000.

Thanks for all the help, and sorry about your dad, going home. Crappy deal.

[Lohman446]

My bad. I probably should have put in a rolleyes smilie. The salesman is kind of a moron, so I'm not going to take any words from him seriously. I'll drive it myself and take either my dad or a friend. I have quite a few who know there stuff.

I took my mom to look at it, and like going home said, that was dumb. I'll take somebody else with to drive it.

I'll definitely shop around this weekend. I just haven't had a chance to since we live in a pretty small town.
I do really like the looks of BMWs and all the luxuries in some cases, but if it means not running into major problems, and having to pay a lot for a said problems, I'll stay away from them.
And if I really have to, I can probably send around $8000.

Thanks for all the help, and sorry about your dad, going home. Crappy deal.

Heres the deal. If you drop "cool" factor and prestige down on your list below reliability and maintenance costs you can find a very good car for $6K (at least around here). If you insist on having those things you tend to spend a lot more to get everything. Your car, your choice, but don't kid yourself on why your buying what you are and live to regret it later

[Lohman446]

My bad. I probably should have put in a rolleyes smilie. The salesman is kind of a moron, so I'm not going to take any words from him seriously. I'll drive it myself and take either my dad or a friend. I have quite a few who know there stuff.

LOL - don't worry, I had one of the wholesalers start a line like that with me today, I had to remind him that I inspect every vehicle personally, on the hoist, before finalizing deals with him.

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Heres the deal. If you drop "cool" factor and prestige down on your list below reliability and maintenance costs you can find a very good car for $6K (at least around here). If you insist on having those things you tend to spend a lot more to get everything. Your car, your choice, but don't kid yourself on why your buying what you are and live to regret it later

Honestly, the "cool" factor hasn't had much of an effect yet. I was looking at some cars today that even my mom thought were "uncool"
Right now, a BMW is probably out of the question. Their parts are obviously harder to get a hold of, and I can only see something going terribly wrong.

I'll probably end up spending more. Yes, I'll get what I like, but I'm not going to buy a car only because it looks cool. Granted, I'm not going to go buy a Park Avenue or mini-van just because they run incredibly well, either.
There are tons of cars that look and run great. I'm not a complete moron.

And thanks for the help so far. It's much appreciated.

[nulam]

BMW's

I owned an '85 318i and currently have a 96 318i Convertible. I put 285,000 miles on the 85 before trading it in part for a corolla. I got my vert in '98 with 6000 miles and have put another 170,000 on it myself. There are common failure items on both the 325/328s and 318s. The radiator, water pump, and fan tend to die; and in the pre-95 318s the profile gasket goes bad. On a car with 130,000 miles expect some common wear items as well such as: wheel bearings, shocks, ball joints, clutch and a tuneup. A 93 is pre OBD II and much easier to work on and modify. Have an independent mechanic check it out for a day. Chech the timing chain, cooling system, tranny, and compression. Look at www.roadfly.com in the BMW forum for the E36. That is the factory designation for the 3 series 92-99. Which model are you looking at? Truth be told, I didn't look at most of the posts above so if this is redundant, I apologise. The cars can be expensive to maintain if you get one that has been beaten. Look for a detailed service history. Also get a bentley manual so you can do the little things yourself. If you have any specific questions you can PM me.

Matt.

[MagMan5446]

craigslist.com

best place to find a car all kinds of things. I've bought over 10 cars on it. I dunno if it's so popular where you live here in the bay area we have tons of stuff and you can get good deals.

[olinar]

if u find a car with over a 100k miles on it and its not a big truck or suv,chances are it wont last much longer unless it was taken care of perfectly even then, i wouldny pay 5 k for a beamer.