when do you say when?

[mikes]

I've been driving my '90 535ia since '92 (about 300,000 miles) and have continued to enjoy the way it drives, looks, etc. but i have spent a lot of time keeping it going. ABout 4 times per year for the last 7 years i have had to do repairs to keep performance up to snuff.

Yesterday i replaced the AC evaporator and spent the day cussing the process and the effort. At a couple of points, car payment did not seem like such a bad ideal. BUt unless i buy a used BMW about 4-5 years old i will not get what i want, so i would be repairing it soon as well. The bright side of keeping this car is that I know it well (too well) and have no note.

anyone have opinions, or thoughts on keepig forever?

[sbcncsu]

I would love to be in the position that you are in. In my case, I own two cars with car payments, one with the factory warranty, one with no warranty. I actually enjoy working on cars and know all too well the savings that can be had by doing it yourself.

Keep the old tried and true but be ready to let it go if you are in an accident, even minor damage would likely total it.

[TimGinCentralNJ]

...and as long as you don't mind too much the occasional maintenance time you've gotta' spend on it (and it's not putting you in the poor house), I'd say "keep it, enjoy it"; at least until such a time when you no longer have time or the money to continue with it. Car DO payments suck.

Just my $.02.

Rgds,
Tim G.
'91 535iM (paid cash)
'01 Ford Expedition XLT (just paid off w/ some warrantee left--woo hoo!)

I've been driving my '90 535ia since '92 (about 300,000 miles) and have continued to enjoy the way it drives, looks, etc. but i have spent a lot of time keeping it going. ABout 4 times per year for the last 7 years i have had to do repairs to keep performance up to snuff.

Yesterday i replaced the AC evaporator and spent the day cussing the process and the effort. At a couple of points, car payment did not seem like such a bad ideal. BUt unless i buy a used BMW about 4-5 years old i will not get what i want, so i would be repairing it soon as well. The bright side of keeping this car is that I know it well (too well) and have no note.

anyone have opinions, or thoughts on keepig forever?

[kjbcpa]

Having spent more in repairs over the last 12 months than my 1990 525i 145K is worth, I can sympathize.

Last fall I was awfully tempted by a neighbor's 1998 +/- 528i. Black, shiny, felt like a new car with only 80K on it. Awfully tempted. But to write that check, up front or every month, plus the extra insurance and tag costs made me think long and hard.

I finally decided that I did not want to get back to the front side of all the repairs I had just done on my car with another car. Comes down to the "known" versus the "unknown", assuming your car is in good shape without a lot of deferred issues. And those extra costs could pay for quite a lot of repairs.

(Of course it helps to have other cars available when the BMW is in the shop)

anyone have opinions, or thoughts on keepig forever?[/QUOTE]

[MO525]

As I'm sure most of your know, Chryslers have THE WORST re-sale/trade-in values in the universe.
We were pissing money away and decided to lick our wounds and pawn off the PT.
It was a FANTASTIC and reliable car but now we have:
NO more car payment AND cheaper insurance.
Sure there will (and always is) work to be done to it but we're talking almost $400 a month in the pocket savings and now we have a BMW....that we OWN, no less.

I do enjoy working on it.
As I've said before on here, if it weren't for the discount parts houses (like BMA), we wouldn't own the Bimmer. No way, no how.

Nothing like pulling up somewhere in a shiny "Calypso Rot" with Tan interior 525i all polished up. Oh yeah, baby.

[Mikes]

onward we go, it is nice to have AC again here in houston

[Trevor]

and I guess that's how I treat my car.
Once any car gets over 5 years old things will go wrong.

A friend of mine drives a 1980's V12 Jaguar. It is pristine, but he needs to spend about $4,000-$5,000 a year on it to keep it going. His theory is that he absolutely loves the car and would be paying a whole lot more to buy a new car that he likes. BTW he is a surgeon and could afford to buya nioce Merc or Porsche, but just loves his car.

Rather than look at the money you have spent and feel bad about it, you need to look at it from another angle. Consider a forward plan to replace all the parts that are likely to wear out in the next 5-10 years. Calculate this in additona to regul;ar things such as brakes, tyres etc.

Make a list of all the parts that are "likely" to break (www.bmwe34.net) that you have not already replaced and build a schedule starting with the most likely. Your car will love you for it.

[mholbrook]

Cheaper to keep her.....especially if you like the car. I drive an 89 535im and love the car. I also have an 83 MB 300TDT which is a terrific example of a turbodiesel wagon. My wife gets the 98 CRV Honda which is fine. I'd rather drive anything but that. Four trips to Colorado and back from San Diego is painful enough.

I'd take either of my "old" cars anywhere, anytime, at the drop of a hat. I have done the suspensions in both and they are both up to snuff on all maintenance. Both are terrific cars and no payments. I have not made a car payment since 1979 and never will again. My 89 535 has everything I want in a car and more. What can you say? Keep it going.

Mike Holbrook
Spring Valley, CA

[MicahO]

(Of course it helps to have other cars available when the BMW is in the shop)

Someone made a note like this in response to Brian's bailout last weekend, something like 'it would have been easier to handle the fixes on the 525 if there was something else to drive during the downtime.'

That just seems like broken logic. Take what is being spent on maintenance on an annual basis, plus natural depreciation, you may be in a decent hole already. Then people say that it helps to have a second car so you've got something to drive when the bimmer's in the shop?

( Well, I do, but I've got too many cars and they are all for different purposes, and I've got barns to keep them in, which most folks don't. All that aside, last summer when I was driving my F250 for 5 weeks (!) while the 535 was having the rear end sorted, I didn't think "Thank goodness I've got this other car!" On the contrary, I thought "DAMN THAT 535! I'VE GOT NO AC IN THIS DAMN PICKUP!" )

Add the depreciation and maintenance on yet another vehicle, one that some people around here seem think is needed for those times that the bimmer is in the shop, and stack that up against a monthly payment on something low maintenance. Math leaves no grey areas. You are either losing or winning.

The difference may be an emotional commitment to a given vehicle, brand, or model, and the amount of time one has to spend. Those sorts of things are NOT quantifiable, but start with the numbers and then see how you feel about the emotional factors.

It helps, or perhaps it just hurts, if you keep a good log of expenditures.