Thinking about a bimmer right now

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Your right, and I'm having second thoughts on the Porsche, Although I know I'm going to be happy with it if I make the decision to buy it. I would love to have a 92+ 3 Series but just can't afford to buy it at the moment.

Everyone says save your money, ok I can save my money after I have a halfway decent car to drive, I'm not saying hondas aren't decent just the ones I would consider are at least 2500 (92-95 civic hatch or coupe) and the 94+ integras are upwards of 3500 and civics are just slow and somewhat uncomfortable. For me to build a civic like i had it would cost me at least 5 grand. For 5 grand I can have an 85.5-89' Porsche 944 in near perfect condition or possibly a 92' Bimmer.

One of my main points are a porsche and BMW have a much higher resale value and will become collector cars, hondas on the other hand, the econobox of the decade...is not going to be a collector car 20 years from now. I don't see a whole lot of people jumping all over 75' Honda civics, but I see plenty all over a 75' 911. Let's put some american cars in this discussion.

67 GTO....highly sought after car
Before you say its becasue it was only made for XX number of years. We'll move onto the..
60's mustangs...again highly sought after, these cars also aren't the cheapest rebuilders during the century, but if you look around for these 60s mustangs, even in poor condition they have a pretty high resale.

It's simple, If you plan on keeping a performance/luxury car they will end up becoming collecter's items and the money and time you spent enjoying it will eventually pay off.

With a honda (I'm not trying to hate) dropping a $3500 motor into a $2000 car and $1000/yr to maintain
Are you ever going to get your money back..probably no where near what you paid
Will you enjoy it for the time you have it...probably.

With a Porsche (just cause some of them are deemed unreliable by some people) pay $2000 for a car worth restoring and $3000 to restore it and $2000 a year to maintain
Are you ever going to get your money back...In a way..i say this because, look at the original pricetag on an older porsche, look at the price now...pretty close. this most likely are for ones in good condition, sure your going to spend plenty on maintaining but you'll get a bigger percentage back
Are you going to enjoy your performance car...probably (everyone has their own opinions)

I'm not trying to put anyone down here, these are my opinions and just that. I don't mind hearing anyone else's either.

I asked my uncle (had a BMW) how much it costed for his normal tune-ups, he said "if you haved to ask you can't afford it".
So I'm just not going to ask and hope for the best.
 
u guys might wanna keep in mind i have a domestic car right now not a honda. i owned a civic once but its gone now. so i'm thinking the 325 will be about the same to maintain as my grand prix.i could be wrong, but it seems like we are paying alot to fix problems when they happen with the pontiac that i have
 
The guy at the dealership that i talked to said that basically the yearly maintenance consists of a tranny service and radiator, along with rear diff, and probably flushing the engine. I have access to all of these things, and get 50% off all services, because of the oil change shop i work in. the machines we use are 100% fluid replacement, we dont do drain and fills. So basically i will be able to perform most of the preventative maintenance on one of these cars. most of those things need to be performed about every 15,000 mile, so it might not really be yearly, but just about.

I do understand your point that once something does actually go wrong then it will be expensive. But if i really consider a BMW, then i will not go with one that has not been maintained perfectly. i will want service records to show this, if not then i won't buy it. I would rather pay extra for that, and if i can't find one in that condition or cant afford it then i won't even consider getting one, because when you take a chance like that with that expensive of a car, then you are just asking for a problem, and probably one you cant afford.
 
im really serious about getting one. i even spotted one i like. but my grand prix is on a loan so the easiest way for me to get one is to trade the guy. i'd be willing to throw down some cash on the deal, but i emailed him and he hasnt replied so i dont even know if he'd consider a trade.
 
I would rather pay extra for that, and if i can't find one in that condition or cant afford it then i won't even consider getting one, because when you take a chance like that with that expensive of a car, then you are just asking for a problem, and probably one you cant afford.
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This porsche has all maintainence records from 10k miles up to its current state at 100XXX. All seems pretty well, it needs some minor body work (2 dents, paint and the turbo front end conversion needs to be finished [easy])
 
i guess the difference between me and u is the fact i have more money to start off with than u...
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Yup, sounds right..wish i had more money, but I have bills and loans to pay off
 
same here, except my dad is willing to cosign with me. he isnt rich or well off, it just helps to have him cosign with me
 
O finance, i can do that. But with intrest its gonna up the price, i'd rather pay cash and own the car right away.
 
My dad's 328i seems like its a money pit cuz the rear light just never works. The stock reciever even gave out on us. It just wouldnt take any commands and kept playing radio disney till my dad unplugged and and replaced it w/ a Pioneer HU and 6 disc changer. total cost on that alone: 500
 
If you really like the 944 so much, wait until you can afford to buy the exact one you want and maintain it.
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I found one that I want, I was looking for 85.5-89, I found an 87, I love restoring/building cars so I chose this one cause it needs a little work (body work). I can honestly say I would have liked to have a 944s or turbo, but I can't find one in the condition I want it to be in for the price I want to spend on it, plus I really shouldn't have a car that's too fast. I can afford to maintain it, I think I said this right from the beginning, the prices I can't afford is the original price paid...I didn't want to spend more that 3k so I found one in good mechanical condition for under that.
 
I've had an M3 for about 9 years, a 95 I bought new in the middle of July. I've only got 87,xxx on it, and haven't had a whole lot of problem with it. Sure, the Inspection I/II kill ya, but those don't happen as often as one would think. The service indicator for oil changes and Inspections are based on a number of things... distance of trips, amount of time the engine has ran at full temp, RPM ranges that you visit, and even the type of oil used.

I had regular oil in it from the start, then all dealers switched to synthetic sometime in the late 90's. This caused my service interval to shorten greatly, so I went back to regular oil and it went back to normal. I also have an authorized BMW service facility that's not a dealer, but is able to maintenance all Euro cars... which helps in the cost department, so I maybe have different circumstances than most. I wish I could do the work on my own, I'd save even more then but I don't know much about working on cars.
 
I wish I could do the work on my own, I'd save even more then but I don't know much about working on cars.
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That's my plan

. And it's been said several times already, you can't do most of the maintainace on a Porsche by yourself
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This isn't the more complex 911, regular maintainence is simple, any home mechanic can do most things. I am a little more mechanically inclined than some home mechanics and have the ability to do most of the work including the clutch (all except things that require special tools). If I can't figure something out there are forums just like these that will help me through the problem.

If I want a 951 I can still keep the car and use the turbo parts or even just swap the engine/tranny (about the same price as a GSR and is straight forward like honda swaps). To make it a complete 951 I'd have to add the beefier brakes and upgrade the suspension (the front end is already there). To make this a little more simple to understand...

Let's say you wanted a 98 Type R but you bought a 98 LS instead due to costs. You can always swap the engine from a type r into the Ls, then later down the road swap the upgraded suspension and brakes from the Type R even the front end if you thought it made a huge difference.

Of course there are going to be things I wouldnt consider tackling due to the complexity and my lack of knowledge on how to do it (i.e. I wouldn't fuck with the timing belt). I had this same opinion on my civic, I wouldn't dare try to time it by myself.

My sister has an already assigned job at porsche in 2005, costs will be cut down dramaticly after that. If I do not know how to do something, I can get the work done for free (not including parts) becasue my sister goes to school and is majoring in automotive...they will do it for me. I wouldn't let my sister touch it by herself though. But you get the point.
 
Originally posted by 92civicb18b1@Jan 7 2004, 09:07 AM
Let's say you wanted a 98 Type R but you bought a 98 LS instead due to costs. You can always swap the engine from a type r into the Ls, then later down the road swap the upgraded suspension and brakes from the Type R even the front end if you thought it made a huge difference. But you get the point.
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There is a lot more to a type r than just suspension and engine. The body stampings themselves are different in places....
 
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