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Message: <blockquote data-quote="coffee" data-source="post: 625600" data-attributes="member: 26577">merced88, Perhaps you might want to start with a budget and work backwards from there? I was in the same situation as you beginning of this year. I budgetted  RM150k, which could have got me a good well kept E46 325i (with cash to spare), or an average 6 yr old E90 325i. But then i factored in the just-in-case replacemnt of certain expensive parts and the budget suddenly shrunk by alot. Reading thru the forum i am sure you can more or less see some of the parts are 'timed' or 'lifed'. So you need to replace them at certain age. I ended by buying the best E46 325i I could find, which was from a fellow forummer. All receipts from a reputable BMW specialist. The previous owner spend close to RM35k changing parts (I counted the receipts one by one). I paid a premium for it but I think its been worth every cent. Plus its waaay below my budget of RM150k so i get to shower it with lots of care and new parts and treatments (Sierra Glow, Autofoam etc) and still have spare to take a short holiday. The car has been giving me orgasms every night and i love it to bits. Still, you cant run away from expenses. I had to rebuilt my gearbox last week, which costs me a bit, but that was about the only big thing that gave up. The rest were all preventive maintenance. In planning your purchase of a Bimmer, i would factor the cost into 4 big buckets as below: 1. Cost of your Car2. Cost of things you need to fix Immediately (perhaps to patch up a small dent from previous owner, cracked lights, minor oil leaks etc)3. Cost of things you need to change as Preventive (these are the things u change just to be sure you dont get stranded by the road with your family at a small winding road at 2am in the morning. For E46, its the alternator, crank sensor & fuel pump) Of course there are other parts as well so do get advice from your friendly BMW specialist. 4. Cost of things you need to budget for in future (for E46, its your gearbox which will last about 150k km, although mine went all the way to 200k km)1, 2, & 3 are things you need to have the budget for immediately. For 4 you can have time to save up, provided these things downt give trouble too soon. As some of the forummers say, this is a car to be driven. You really need to enjoy it. Its the ultimate driving machine. To enjoy it to the max, you need to maintain it and treat it with respect and love. So pls budget in all these 4 points above into your consideration.  Just like many bros here, i came from a mainstream Japanese car. Low maintenance and easy to drive. But you got to understand that the UDM is different, and you got to "pay to play". With either models, just do the due diligence and execute your purchase. You will not regret it. Just make sure you structure your budget to cover for the above 4 buckets. If you think too much, you will end up not buying. My 0.2 cents worth</blockquote>

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