BMW question

I know there are some BMW guys on here and I need some advice..2007 BMW 335i Sport and Premium package with NAV. Was offered a really good deal and was just wondering the pros and cons. The car has 95000 miles and is in good ++ condition. Any help would be much appreciated.

All I can offer here is that every time I walked into a bimmer dealership I wanted to pull my hair out when I left.

Does MB build a car? You should buy that.

Evan will probably chime in, he knows the skinny. I asked a similar Q a while back about a 2006 545i with slightly less mileage and the answer I received was get ready to pay lots and lots of dealer only repair bills. These cars have lots of high technology features that need repair or replacement shortly after 75k. It's not uncommon to spend $2-3k on electronic repairs when electric seats, air bags, climate controls, motor controllers, power windows, alarm systems, etc. go out. When somebody pays $60k for this car new they can usually afford these repairs, when one of us picks up a used one for $20-25k, we are not too happy to spend another 10% of the cars value whenever we step into the dealership.

What is a "really good deal?"

It was offered at 13,5. The dealer will giv them 14, but it needs new rear tires.

I have an '02 540i that I've owned since '05. I've got 110k miles on it right now and it still runs like a champ. I've only had one real issue in the whole time owning the car, and it was a radiator issue widely known to 540's (they used plastic parts in the radiator making it prone to failure).

That being said, i'd never buy into any car at 95k miles. I bought mine with 27k on the odometer and am at the point right now where i'm just going to drive it into the ground. But that's just me.

That seems like a fair price. Just put another 5k in savings for repairs. I would pull the maintainence/ warranty records on the car to see what has been replaced under warranty already. My friend has a 335, and I think there is an issue with the turbo system that tends to need to be repaired every 40k miles or so.

The 335i is a great car. I'm very impressed with the N54 engine. The twin turbo engine has so much mid range punch it makes highway passing a breeze. The weakness of the engine is the high pressure fuel pump (HPFP). This is a common failure point in those engines and it was probably already replaced under warranty. BMW extended the warranty on the HPFP to 100k miles I believe. I would almost suspect this is why the car is being traded just shy of 100k miles.

A lot of people don't like to own BMW's out of warranty. I always tell people thinking about getting into a BMW that you need to be one of three types of people: 1) You make enough money to be able to afford a BMW under warranty and trade it for another BMW once that one runs out of warranty, 2) You make enough money to where you don't care about the high repair and maintenance costs of a BMW out of warranty or 3) You are mechanically inclined enough to do all the repairs and maintenance yourself. If you don't fall into any of those categories then you won't have an enjoyable experience owning a BMW. I absolutely love my M3 but I will be the first to tell you BMW's aren't known for reliability. The performance and the way they drive is what keeps me in a BMW.

My M3 is more expensive to maintain than a regular 3 series, doing all the work myself I usually pay around $300-$500 a year in maintenance just for parts. People who can't do the work themselves pay $2000-$3000 a year in maintenance on an M3 out of warranty. You can expect less than that on a 335i, I would ballpark it around $1000-$2000 a year in maintenance for a 335i, probably $200-$400 if you can do it yourself.

Go test drive it and see if you think the car is worth the maintenance costs. I do but you might not.

I agree completely with what Sean just posted. My wife had a 2004 328i that we bought cpo in 2005. It had 20k miles on it when we got it and a warranty that ran until 60k. We had very few problems with the car while it was under warrenty, and the dealer was great to repair all of the issues. I'm not sure what they would have cost me though. However, when the car was just out of warranty, the power steering pump went out, and the estimate to repair it at the dealer was $1300. I couldn't find the pump anywhere. Apparently, BMW is pretty bad about making mid model year changes to parts in their cars. I found out that the type of pump I needed had only been manufactured and used for 6 months and a switch was made to a more reliable pump. However, to get that new style pump to work on my wife's car, you had to change out all sorts of other brackets and belts and stuff because it was a different size. I had to find a bmw salvage yard in arizona that had the pump I needed in stock. I paid $280 for a friggin used pump the size of a softball. I put the wife's car on jack stands in the garage and, to get to the pump, I had to take off a bunch of engine shrouds, hoses, belts, etc. It was a hydraulic pump, so I had to drain the power steering fluid and replace a bunch of seals. About 6 hours later, after bleeding the system about 10x, and reinstalling everything, The car was back up and running. I traded it in the next week on a Lexus gx470, which ran for 3 years without a single issue.

In a nutshell, if you are looking for a nice car high mileage car, and you buy a bmw, you better be able to turn a wrench.

Thanks for the imput, it was pretty much what I expected to hear. We know the family well so they have told us everything about the car. HPFP was replaced summer of 2011, and all work was done at the dealer. Warranty is up to 100,000 miles. I looked at a couple of forums and alot of people are diy 'fers. I have always done my own work..cars, trucks, off road, boats. Did the heads on my GT-40. So I'm pretty confident I can do the majority of the work. Car will not be a daily driver for the most part so I was thinking of getting it, driving it for a couple of years and selling it. I maintain my stuff really well, my 02 Camry has 275,000 miles on it and still runs strong. Thanks for all the help and keep any and all input coming as I have until this evening to make a decision.

^^ you sound like the right kind of owner for the car you've described and the price is right.. pick it up if you love it.

I had a 2008 335I coupe with the same packages, I bought it new from BMW of The Woodlands in Houston....I had NOTHING put problems with it and the dealer...the fuel pump went out, but it had numerous other powertrain and electronic issues, I finally after a year and 6-8 times in the shop said screw it and traded for a Lexus. I would run away from that POS, warranty or no warranty.

Sam,

I'm Beemer fan having owned two 3-series now. Despite all the bitching, I absolutely love my current 2003 330i ZHP.

I'm like you and can do most of my own maintenance. The great thing about 3-series is that there is a TON of DIY help on-line - several forums and lots & lots of Youtube videos on how to. I do know this, whether a BMW or not, you gotta be an idiot to take any car to the dealer to get fixed. No question, you'll pay TOP dollar. If you must hire for maintenance or repairs, there are tons of independent shops that will be 2/3'rds the price or less (that goes for Ford, Chevy, Lexus, you name it).

if you go hang around the BMW forums, you'll find that the HPFP wasn't the only weak link in that car. Its going back a couple years for me, but i recall fuel injectors also being an issue, and being hideously expensive. the problem being there were no aftermarket manufactured fuel injectors at the time. When those twin turbos expire, hang on to your wallet. They were around $2000 each, and you can be certain they are not built to last.
with all that, we went with the less exciting 328 and kept it simple. its a great car so far, but nothing is perfect and it has its glitches. with BMW, the things that are most likely to not be perfect are all things electronic. thats the one thing german engineering sucks at.

I finally after a year and 6-8 times in the shop said screw it and traded for a Lexus.

On this note, I would be willing to bet you could find a IS350 for close to the same price.... I was about 2 seonds from pulling the trigger on a BMW and after digging and looking at costs I went Lexus too.... really happy I did.
*Knock on wood* I'm at 84k miles and haven't had a single issue yet *Knock on wood*

I have a 2008 335i with sport and premium. It's a little rocket and a great daily driver. You can try hard but you wont get less than 20 mpg. I average 22.5 and i drive it pretty hard sometimes.

My warranty expires in 6 weeks and I'm looking to sell it. So, ya' know...

Check that... my 335i sold today for $25,500. It had 32k miles on it.

So there's my vote.

Originally Posted by ixfe

Check that... my 335i sold today for $25,500. It had 32k miles on it.

So there's my vote.

That sounds like a great deal! Pretty sure 335s around here command more.

These guys pretty much nailed it....

The 335 is a great car when everything is going right. BMW won a bunch of awards with that motor pre-introduction. Once fully intro'd it had numerous high pressure fuel pump problems. That wouldn't totally scare me as many of the issues have been resolved, but that's a fairly high mile vehicle already. I'm not sure I'd jump on that one.

The new cars are really cool, but with all those cool systems come potential failures and associated expense. That motor is a twin turbo, direct injected, variable valve timing, variable cam lift motor. Lot's of cool stuff there, but it wont be cheap to maintain when that stuff fails.

BMW has priced a lot of people out of the second hand market. The new vehicle buyers wont generally feel the sting of those failures. It'll be the guy that gets a "good" deal on the car.

Personally... I feel like Audi has the more dialed product right now. Take a look there, too. They've been in the direct injection business a bit longer and have things worked out pretty well.