Next year, i'll be looking for an used entry level luxury car and I've ALWAYS had Japanese cars since my first one when I turned 18... so I'm willing to try Euros for the first time in my life and the most important factor that I take into consideration is reliability. All my previous Japanese cars were all pretty reliable (honda, toyota, lexus, acura) and I want to keep it that way.
I've heard many sad stories about Euro cars' reliability in general but out of these 3 (BMW, Audi, Benz), which one is relatively more reliable in general? I know it's pretty vague and some models are more reliable than other but I just want to get a general idea. I don't know a lot about Euros so that'll be a good start. Or should I stay with the Japs? lol
All inputs are appreciated.
Hello,
I owned 7 german car. Whatever you think, all depend of what you are ready to pay for. A brand new german car covered with warranty is like any others cars covered with a warranty. Buy or lease? Long term?
If you buy used, like I did for all my cars, here the best case scenario. For a used 3-4 years 3 series AWD, you should provide you at least 3600$ per year for maintenance and repair. There's a lot of unicorn skin screws on those cars. They are reliable and performant if you threath them with love and respect. Oil leak somewhere? Remove everything and repair. Electrical problem? Remove everything and repair.
Forum like bimmerpost will be your best friend.
For your information, I sold my bmw 2 months ago. The car was about 140k on it. That was a long term owning with REALLLYYY nice maintenance. But absolutely not reliable at all. E90 3 series we're different than old E46. I miss my E46. The car was costing me at leat 3-400$ repair a month. On that, I got a garage to do oil change, brake repair, etc...
Finaly, I lease a Subaru WRX 2015 manual with a flat-four covered with full warranty for less money, less insurance, less fuel and more fun. Really. The new engine have been designed with Toyota and Im pretty sure its reliable. ANYWAY, its f-word warranty and leased !
Maybe I will have another bmw in the future. For now, they canceled the manual transmission with the 328xi awd. If you want a awd with a manual you have to go with the 335xi. Audi is a nice car to drive too. You should go and try one. Mercedes is no longer providing manual transmission for North American market. Still available for european market. Look like we are too dumb to drive manual, it's what they probably think. If they think we are dumb, I think they dont deserve my money.
All depend what you want. Price, reliability, fun, lease, buy, used, awd, manual, rwd, fwd, nice dealers to deal with, easy or hard to maintain, good resale value. You got so manyyyy choice !
Good luck !