Jump to content
SAU Community

To Sell The Line Or Not?


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 105
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

See i'd take a BMW over a Merc any day.... can't speak from experience of owning either.. but i nearly bought a E36 M3...

My mate is a BMW nut... knows everything about them... is about to buy a E39 M5.... :rolleyes:~

From the ones i have been in, i'd say the BMW is better build quailty in general than the Merc... merc is still a nice car, but they are nearly all autos... where as BMW are nearly all Manual :)

Denham,

Having driven both mercs and Bmw's in the past, I say go with a bmw... There was a time when mercs were better... late 80's early 90's.

For 50-60k I wouldnt buy an M3, A standard BMW costs alot to keep on the road, a performance one getting close to 10 years old would be a nightmare..

My mum recently sold her 328i Covertable, 1996 model... Again nearly a ten year old car and the bills begin to pile up... Traded for a brand new 325ci (or 320?) and that is an awsome car, fully custom ordered and a sensational car...

I have a 318is 1997 in sydney that my dad uses, 5 speed manual, everything the M3 has appart from the engine, great little car for a run about...

Bottom Line?

BMW before Merc. Later model, even if its costs more on the purchase price, you will save in future repairs.

Guest INASNT
My mum recently sold her 328i Covertable, 1996 model... Again nearly a ten year old car and the bills begin to pile up... Traded for a brand new 325ci (or 320?) and that is an awsome car, fully custom ordered and a sensational car...

what bills exactly??

what costs so much to maintain them?

lol.. this is all coming from somebody who reckons one of the reasons he wants to sell the r33 is that they are "too common".. and yet you would drive past 50 or 60 bmw's or mercs in one day and not even notice it because they are so common and bland as a slightly richer man's commodore.

as long as you think you are rich denham, thats the main thing :thumbsup:

do you have insurance quotes yet? the skyline may be exxy, but the european commodore are not that rosey either. Fuel consumption probably up there too...

BMW are more drivers car, period. Aren't C class FWD? Even BMW's 1 class is going to be RWD.

Yeah what bills exactly? Every car has to be serviced regularly and when you are buying a mid-late 90's BMW you don't have to go the expensive BMW service. Sure you might be able to grab a free latte or whatever, but it's not really worth it.

The only expensive thing i could see is the parts. But then again, genunine 'anyone' parts are expensive, be it Nissan, Merc, etc. It's all relative, and relatively, i don't think it costs a lot more to maintain a BMW, and add to that the fact you are buying a very well built car where the chance of something going wrong is a lot less.

I definitely think you will be very happy with a E36 M3 (3.2 ltr)

mercs arent as sporty granted but I prefer their build quality to bmw's

repairs on bmw's are expensive even services once the milage gets high with merc high milage is less of an issue un less its over 280 000 klms then your asking for trouble.

dotn expect a bmw to be as reliable as your stock skyline or as fuel efficent

meggala

Mercs are mostly slow, boring, slack handling trucks. Well made trucks though with a good design for maintenance unlike BMW's.

The only reason Mercedes have such a great rep. is that the people who buy them are not enthusiasts so they wouldn't know a good handling car unless it ran them over.

I'm not including AMG specials of course, they're aiight.

All Mercedes passenger cars, excepting the A class is RWD.

I personally have had mostly good experience with the 'normal' cooking line of BMW/Mercs but forget all you know about this because 'performance' German cars are different and while people say their 328i is 'tops', that's because it really is an ordinary motor.

Make no mistake, there are plenty of problems that the M-series has that will never come up in the normal BMW's.

The problems in the M3/M5 are quite well documented.

Oh btw. did you know that in Sydney at least, the BMW M3 is a much higher insurance risk than Skylines?

T.

this was taken from the news group auscars to give you an idea on maintenance on a bmw

Just had some things fixed on the bimmer that apparently needed fixing. The

car has 130,000kms e92 Bmw 730ILwith good service history. I would be grateful if you

guys could tell me if these prices were reasonable.

Labour - Replace defective inlet manifold gaskets $440

Labour - Replace PCV Valve $110

Labour - Replace thermostat housing $110

Inlet gaskets $115

End plate gaskets $25

PCV Valve $116

Inlet block off plug $8.50

Thermostat housing $90

Housing O Ring $9.90

Bottom radiator hose $53

Air intake boot $116

Coolant $37

Workshop supplies $35

Total ~$1265

Denham don't go near the current c - classes trust me on this, wouldn't waste a cent you'll be forever making visits to service, man they are lemons they got a few warranty issues that's nicest way I could put it. If I were you I'd go for the previous model which is a 202 chassis type the C43 amg V8 with the usual amg styling and wheels. I think they around $70 - $80g's

Denham, it got to the stage where genral maitainence was costing $1k+ each time... Soft-top motor went... etc etc

Anyone who says a euro car is cheap to maintain isnt telling the truth or doesnt really know... Reading about it is not the same as owning one and forking out the $$$

If your serious about buying a nice euro car, look at the later models...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Yeah it is always worth testing and balancing actuators out of the box, just set the pressure regulator on a compressor very low (eg 5 psi) and increase it slowly to see when they both move.....unfortunately while you may be able to adjust the length of the actuator rod to minimise any difference, the actual pressure they move from is not adjustable so you need a well matched pair. And yes, the VCAM is probably contributing; the earlier in the rev range they come on boost and the slower the revs build (I think your demo was in 5th), the more you notice it.  Driving at WOT through 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc you will probably never hear it as any shuffling starts and is over super quickly
    • oh they were with that motor, you need to remove the engine to change the spark plugs (don't have to, but it does make it easier)
    • I certainly fall into the annoyed camp, but glad to hear that if it's happening at low boost then I'm not likely going to blow a turbo and end up with metal shards in my oil. Just feels like it prevents me from really driving it without hesitation and "peak" performance. Wonder if it's the VCAM, it did an impressive job of shifting the torque curve and faster spool, but maybe now it's "too fast" and there's too much air for how open the throttle is.  Based on some other threads, will also do some reading on synchronizing the actuators. They are the default actuators that come on the Garrett's and I would think they would be set the same coming from the factory, but if the turbos don't actually work exactly the same way at the same time as previously mentioned, it would be worth making sure the actuators are actuating together properly
    • I went down this rabbit hole before, ended up sourcing a motor from the UK (I'm in Japan) which also didn't function correctly. With the original motor, I disassembled it and reassembled it and it works somewhat, sometimes. What I could deduce from all my screwing around is that there is calibration of the gears on the inside of the motor and two ramps on the main gear which activate switches that operate the motor and move the sunroof either to retract into the roof or tilt. Where I got stuck was that, it seemed in my case that one or both of the switches that are activated by the ramp on the gear did not always activate and thus the motor did not move, causing it to sometimes not retract or tilt (apologies, I've forgotten which way it didn't work.).  Of course this part is discontinued at Nissan now, it's the same part in the S15 but no other models. I also contacted the manufacturer of the component for schematics - forgot the name, they're based in Gifu - but they declined to share the information due to being bound by an NDA, sadly. Looking through my pictures now, it seems I last had a crack at this in 2022. See, I so kindly wrote "open" and "close" next to the switches. If you figure it out, please do tell me. Those little switches, with the red buttons may need to be replaced.
×
×
  • Create New...