[Air Drop]

I think, personally, that the turbocharged E9X platforms will bounce back in value at some point.

It's just a matter of time before the larger tuning crowd learns the capabilities of the 335i, as well as the similarities of the N54 to the famous 2JZ-GTE.

[Gecko123]

People who truly can afford a BMW do not worry about depreciation, using premium gas, poor gas mileage, high maintence cost, expensive to purchase,etc

BMW are for the rich. And if are not rich but like BMWs that's the price you pay.

[Bob Shiftright]

I think the most popular new vehicle purchased by millionaires is the Ford F-Series.

I'm a car enthusiast though. And BMWs are marketed to car enthusiasts. Enthusiasm is never cheap.

Among the semi-luxury brands, Lexus and Acura should be best for depreciation, BMW, Mercedes , Audi and Volvo not as good and SAAB was always the worst. But if I'm planning to keep a car for 10 years, the depreciation really doesn't matter.

I've purchased new cars since I've been able to afford it because when I bought used cars, the I had the impression that the Evil Previous Owner usually didn't change the oil for 10,000 miles....and that was when oil was supposed to be changed every 3000 miles.

I've also found that when I buy a car optioned exactly the way I want it, I'm likely to keep it longer.

So how many Alpine BMW station wagons with ZSP and manual transmissions are there in the US?

Any new ones?

[Fabb]

Originally Posted by 9krpmrx8

I paid $20,000.00 for 2011 335i with 55k, NAV, premium package , etc. back in December. One owner, mint condition, dealer serviced since day one, even tires. Sticker on it was over $54,000.00.

But I am used to shitty resale on my toys I have had my 2004 RX-8 since new and paid over 30k for it and have put about $25,000.00 into it and it is mint and I probably couldn't get $10,000.00 for it.

I paid 29000 for my '11 335i xdrive.. Now I feel sad

[Hops128i]

Originally Posted by Blaster400

Sirdaft1's strategy makes lots of sense if your primary goal is to minimize the long term costs of ownership. Personally, I buy my cars new but keep them 8 years or so. I bought my 2007 e92 brand new and am still driving it with no plans to sell anytime soon. It's worth much more to me than what I could ever sell it for.

Buying new and keeping it for a long time has been my strategy too. I don't think it's really much for expensive than buying slightly used if you consider the time and risk. I think even cars a few years old can experience wildly different usage that affects how expensive they will be years down the road. Better to be the one that is completely in control of how the car was used and maintained.

[fun2drive]

Bought my 2007 E93 via ED. I wanted the hard top retractable and my previous experience with owning 10 BMWs was they were reliable.
Over 8 years of ownership now and I think the bugs are worked out of our cars now but the reputation is out there now and that drives prices down.
My previous experience owning BMWs for a lot of years is that they held up well and resale was always good.
This might be an anomaly for the E90. I think many of us got stung being beta testers for BMW when BMW was quick to get that 300hp twin turbo out there.
I had zero issues until I hit Nov 2013, 54,000 miles and then doing maintenance myself and some at indy's spent more than I spent on all my previous BMWs combined.
Previous BMW was two M3's one convertible and one sedan. I had the brake light switch fail on the sedan in 12 years of ownership.
I am selling my E93 or trading it simply because I want an M235 or M228 just want a smaller ride at this point in my life.
I am certain the depreciation will be significant compared to my previous BMWs.
Years from now the floor value on these cars will be reached and the steep depreciation curve will not be there.
My question is this. Does the driving experience out weigh the cost of the ownership? Given that there are many other cars out there that can get me 9/10th of the way toward the driving experience with significantly lower cost I don't know...

[Herakles]

Originally Posted by Fabb

I paid 29000 for my '11 335i xdrive.. Now I feel sad

Don't feel sad- when dos you buy? There were no such think as 20k 2011
335s in 2015 unless they were wrecked or had 100k miles or both

The loaded ones were all about 30k

[JustDriveIt]

BMWs aren't supposed to last. They are only supposed to work for 4 years / 40,000 miles. That's how they are designed. Everyone knows that, which is why a post-warranty BMW drops a ton in value. You can keep shoving money into it to keep it working, but most of the time it is not worth it. I believe people are quite aware of that and I would say there are at least some people here who own a 335i without any warranty and use this forum to do their own repairs, etc. I don't own a 335i for the dependability, or value. I knew the $9k I put into my 78,000 mile 2007 335i Coupe I would never get back.

[Hops128i]

Originally Posted by JustDriveIt

BMWs aren't supposed to last. They are only supposed to work for 4 years / 40,000 miles. That's how they are designed. Everyone knows that, which is why a post-warranty BMW drops a ton in value. You can keep shoving money into it to keep it working, but most of the time it is not worth it. I believe people are quite aware of that and I would say there are at least some people here who own a 335i without any warranty and use this forum to do their own repairs, etc. I don't own a 335i for the dependability, or value. I knew the $9k I put into my 78,000 mile 2007 335i Coupe I would never get back.

I sort of agree, but there's a spectrum here. For example, at one end point, my 2010 128i, the cheapest bmw available when i bought it new is probably $10-15k at 70k mi. At the other endpoint, a 2010 bmw 7 series of similar mileage are in the low $20k area. And then there's everything else in between.

[Fabb]

Originally Posted by Herakles

Don't feel sad- when dos you buy? There were no such think as 20k 2011
335s in 2015 unless they were wrecked or had 100k miles or both

The loaded ones were all about 30k

Bought it last year with 30k miles on it. Pretty loaded except M-Sport but I still feel like robbed a little bit.

[9krpmrx8]

Well cars are generally cheaper down south. But yeah some prices were nuts when I looked. I saw 2008's with limited options and pretty high mileage in the $20,000.00 range but those were generally being sold at those small car dealers.

[stephenf121]

Currently being in college I was well aware buying a bmw 335i probably wasn't the greatest decision due to high maintenance costs, etc etc, but thats why I searched for a long time to find one with higher miles that was enthusiast maintained that had already deprecieted a ton. I won't get everything I paid for it back out of it, but I won't lose a ton of money when it comes time to sell her either. Either gotta buy them new and only keep it for little bit, or buy them after they have already depreciated a lot.

[Fabb]

Originally Posted by stephenf121

Currently being in college I was well aware buying a bmw 335i probably wasn't the greatest decision due to high maintenance costs, etc etc, but thats why I searched for a long time to find one with higher miles that was enthusiast maintained that had already deprecieted a ton. I won't get everything I paid for it back out of it, but I won't lose a ton of money when it comes time to sell her either. Either gotta buy them new and only keep it for little bit, or buy them after they have already depreciated a lot.

Let's be honest my friend, a used WRX would be a way better option merely for resell value.

[Sidewinderpb]

Originally Posted by Gecko123

People who truly can afford a BMW do not worry about depreciation, using premium gas, poor gas mileage, high maintence cost, expensive to purchase,etc

BMW are for the rich. And if are not rich but like BMWs that's the price you pay.

Yeah....no. Those who have worked for their wealth are usually intelligent enough in the management of their finances to consider depreciation. To acknowledge and accept it is one thing, but complete disregard is just irresponsible. Seeing as how a 335i can be had for under 20k, I would posit that they are not exclusively for the rich. And what of the 320i and X1?

[stephenf121]

Originally Posted by Fabb

Let's be honest my friend, a used WRX would be a way better option merely for resell value.

Oh absolutely, the desirability of a car is what drives the price. WRX's (STI's specifically) sell for ridiculous amounts of money around where I live, even if they are in terrible shape or have a ridiculous amount of miles. Luckily with popularity on the rise, 335i's around where I live have had started to have their depreciation level off. A clean one thats manual and loaded can fetch a pretty penny from a young enthusiast (like myself) who can't afford a new BMW but will make do with what they can. I got a pretty good deal on mine ($10,800) for an 07 335i sedan with 115k miles, loaded with sport and cold weather package, procede rev3 piggyback, open flash tablet, upgraded intercooler, AR catless downpipes, wavetrac LSD, vishnu flexfuel kit, inline fuel pump upgrade, DCI, BMS charge pipe, spec 2 clutch and single mass flywheel, etc etc... Turbos / injectors replaced at 80k. Water pump and fuel pumps replaced recently as well.
For a loaded car with FBO's, with a lot of the expensive maintenance already completely, I think I did pretty well. I couldn't have touched a clean STI for that, and my car is much more luxurious and would blow an STI's doors off at 430whp/490wtq thanks to an e50 tune from wedge

[GMe90]

If you are buying a BMW, you are not doing it based on financial reasons (at least for those on this forum). You enjoy driving. Nothing wrong with spending money on what you enjoy. That's the whole point of money. To help you enjoy life by enabling you to do what you want to do.

[sirdaft1]

Originally Posted by JustDriveIt

BMWs aren't supposed to last. They are only supposed to work for 4 years / 40,000 miles. That's how they are designed. Everyone knows that, which is why a post-warranty BMW drops a ton in value. You can keep shoving money into it to keep it working, but most of the time it is not worth it. I believe people are quite aware of that and I would say there are at least some people here who own a 335i without any warranty and use this forum to do their own repairs, etc. I don't own a 335i for the dependability, or value. I knew the $9k I put into my 78,000 mile 2007 335i Coupe I would never get back.

You sound like everyone did back in '07 when these came out. Then reality hit many years later and there are now many, many of us 335 owners with 120k+ miles running FBO with minimal issues.

[ycehcky]

New BMWs are leased more than bought. The demographic for a new BMW and the demographic for a used one are completely different. "This only for rich or people who can afford to maintain them" persona is silly. All it takes is a person who is not afraid to turn a wrench and get dirty. I personally would never buy a new one, but I might lease a new one if the deal was good enough.

[lichtgelb]

Depreciation and arbitrage can be your friend if you are comfortable doing maintenance. I only buy higher mileage >80Kish vehicles. I usually find them on off brand lots where the 2nd owner just traded in an off CPO warranty vehicle. I found my E93 on a Honda lot, my F10 on a Merc lot. If you troll Autotrader enough you will find some screaming deals where dealers have sat on an off-brand vehicle for more than 30 days are are ready to dump it at a really low price. You have to be prepared to pay close to the asking price because they don't like to deal on these vehicles much - if at all. They just want to clear them off the books and will list them for crazy low prices. I never trade and will carry the vehicle I'm finished with for the extra month or two on my insurance just to sell myself.

BMW's work well with this strategy because they depreciate at an alarming rate after all the factory and CPO warranties expire. These cars are radioactive on dealer lots to all but BMW enthusiasts. The arbitrage opportunities are there because most vehicles I've picked up like this were retailing near the NADA trade-in value when I bought them. I live in a smaller city where car dealers won't deal much on price so I've had good luck selling vehicles two or three years later in my home town for near what I paid for them.

[fazman]

I have never sold a car yet in my life. I just keep driving them till the wheels fall off (Then I just get a new wheel ).

But that might change this Fall... I might actually give away half my cars and get something newer. I have bought new cars, CPO cars, and out of warranty used cars.

I think the best value was getting a low mileage CPO car and just driving the hell out of it (Not beat on it... just commute a lot on it). I think my strategy from now on will be:

1) Lease vehicles for the wife
2) Get CPO vehicles for myself
3) Sell any vehicle that reaches the end of the emissions warranty of 8 year/80k miles (if it is no longer covered by any other warranty, if it still has warranty than i will drive it to the end of that warranty).
4) Consider extended warranties (CPO/manufacturer/Route66)

[John 070]

Originally Posted by Gecko123

People who truly can afford a BMW do not worry about depreciation, using premium gas, poor gas mileage, high maintence cost, expensive to purchase,etc

BMW are for the rich. And if are not rich but like BMWs that's the price you pay.

My personal observation, is that people who are rich, expect to pay less, not more. They expect that the things they possess, perform better than others. Poor gas mileage? High maintenance costs? Rich people are not subjected to those.

You are obviously not rich.

[John 070]

Originally Posted by fazman

I have never sold a car yet in my life. I just keep driving them till the wheels fall off (Then I just get a new wheel ).

Are you my long, lost, twin brother, where we were separated at birth?

I have purchased 3 vehicles in my life, and currently, all three are on the road. The 335i really isn't driven daily, but when my DD needs repair, the 335i becomes the DD.

I am toying with the idea of getting a Golf R, but definitely would want the 2017 as it has the configurable dash standard. I'd like to do even better and get a A4, but the lack of a manual is a deal-breaker.

Whatever car we add to the stable, must be one where the intention is to drive it until the wheels fall off.

Can you believe there are people that have had 7 cars, in the same timeframe that I've had my DD? I can't even fathom how far those monthly payments have set them back in life. Sure, they enjoyed having all those new cars, but at a huge price.