I found it! 2004 545i, silver/black w/ Sport, Premium, and HUD. Excellent price, too. Clean title from both autocheck and carfax. 24000 miles. It almost seems to good to be true. The car is going to a dealer early next week for the pre-sale inspection. Assuming all is well, I'll be driving it by Tuesday evening.

That said, I can't help but be a little nervous. In all I've read in these forums and in general, I've come to see these cars as terribly complex, high performance machines. It seems quite a bit can go wrong with them.

I am buying this car with the expectation that I will drive it for the next 10+ years. Is this a reasonable expectation? Am I going to be paying through the nose every time something goes wrong once it is out of warranty?

 

Congrats! Exact car I purchased recently. Mine was a CPO and I paid $42K. If you are paying more than that fight. Car will not be reliable for 10+ years. Motor and tranny might be fine, but electronics are going to go out. You should be putting aside some maintenance dollars.

 

Most likely yes. These cars are very expensive to maintain. Extremely fun to drive but they hurt the pocket when they need something fixed. I know a couple of guys here have bought some aftermarket maintenance plans maybe they can help.

Good luck...

 

I just picked mine up yesterday. What a bunch of fast fun! I'm not even thinking about the money right now. I researched on this forum for a while during the decision and found one notable issue that concerned me, and another one once purchased. Search and you'll find. Transmission shifting issues - there is a reprogram that can fix this if it occurs, and now after driving it for a day, noticed doors rubbing and making very noticeable sound - also seems to be fixable. Both issues had service bulletins. Here is one link concerning the door rubbing sounds:

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=...30&start=30

 

10+ years on top of a 2004 car... that'll make it 13+ years old... any car will need some sort of repair bill by then... and yes BMW will probably run you a bit more than a Toyota Corolla... but it can be done. Just gotta take really good care of it.

 

+1. good luck

 

Thanks very much for the input! I certainly have the expectation that maintenance will need to be done. I had a 1990 325is back in the day - kept it 11 years and had to replace a number of parts I thought unusual (steering rack TWICE?!?!), so I guess you could say I'm used to it. In all, the thing just kept going, and was by far to this day the best car I've ever owned. Too bad my wife made me sell it (EVIL!). I've been sleeping in Acuras since. Acura makes a nice car, but I could never call it inspiring.

Are the electronics failure problems primarily in the i-Drive system, or elsewhere? What specifically am I in danger of? I'm a pretty hands on person with electronics (build computers, etc), so I think if these are the problems I'm likely to run in to it may be a blessing. I don't mind doing it myself.

 

Many of the early electronic issues were Navigation equipped cars (different computer used). Your comments/signature don't indicate NAV. Even if the car has NAV, most of those issue have been resolved. Will you face increased maint. costs going forward? Sure! I'm approaching four years with no major issues, but some will come. Enjoy the car, I have...

 

I agree. Enjoy your new machine. You will! As far as electronics go, there is probably very little you can do unless you have inside info. It requires a socket to plug into the module, (read special h/w) and the specific program (read special s/w), which I would imagine BMW attempts to keep privy only to certified specialists. I'm new to all this, but the mechanical is probably the one area where a enthusiast has the best opportunity to save financially. This board is awesome and I'm looking forward to learning more.

 

Ya you're right. My dad had a E34 for 13 years and there wasnt anything major with it. Everything was just the normal maintenance and old hose replacements due to age but the car ran basically perfect for 13 years. Oh the radio did go out. I think I've heard of Toyota's with more problems than my dads BMW. hahaha its really how well you take care of it. If you do all the preventative maintenance and check up you'll catch stuff sooner and will prevent bigger repair bills. Then again the E34 is a MUCH simpler machine than the E60. mechanical wise the E60 will probably be fine, its the electronics... so if you garage it and keep it in a good weather location. No COLD to HOT temperature swings... parked indoors to prevent moisture from the night. Try to keep it away from the baking sun, make sure the weather seals are all good so rain water doesn't get in then the electronics will last much longer.